“I won’t be bullied, either.” Her knees were jellied at the realization she’d had not only the ability but the fury to shove him back with her mind. “This isn’t what you expected. This isn’t one of your possibilities. I was supposed to come in here with you tonight, listen to you, then fold my hands, bow my head like the quiet little mouse I am, and leave it all up to you.”

Her eyes were vividly blue, her face was no longer pale but flushed with anger and, to his annoyance, was outrageously beautiful. “Not precisely,” he said with dignity. “But it is up to me.

“The hell it is. You have to decide what you want, true enough, but don’t expect me to sit meekly while you choose or discard me. Always, always, people have made decisions for me, chosen the way my life should go. What have you done but the same?”

“I’m not your parents,” he shot back. “Or your Alan. These were different circumstances entirely.”

“Whatever the circumstances, you held the controls and guided me along. I won’t tolerate that. I’ve been ordinary.” The words ripped out of her, straight from the belly. “You wouldn’t understand that—you’ve never been ordinary. But I have, all my life. I won’t be ordinary again.”

“Rowan.” He would try calm, he told himself. He would try reason. “All I wanted for you was what you wanted for yourself.”

“And what I wanted most was for you to love me. Just me, Liam, whatever and however I am. I didn’t let myself expect it, but I wanted it. My mistake was in still not thinking enough of myself.”

Tears shone in her eyes now, unmanning him. “Don’t weep. Rowan, I never meant to hurt you.” He took her hand now, and she let it lie limply in his.

“No, I’m sure you didn’t,” she said quietly. The force of her fury had passed. Now she was only tired. “That only makes it sadder. And me more pathetic. I told you I loved you.” Tears still trembled on the edge of her voice. “And you know I do. But you can’t tell me. You can’t decide if it … suits you.”

She swallowed the tears, reached deep for the pride she’d used too rarely. “From here, I decide my own fate.” She drew her hand from him, stood back. “And you yours.”

She turned to the door, bringing him a fresh and baffling wave of panic. “Where are you going?”