“I do care for them. I can even understand why—” Her words were lost on a stifled sob as her composure finally cracked. Tears spilled down her cheeks. She rose from the stone, swiping at her face as she moved to walk away from him. “You may think me selfish, but just once, I want to come first in someone’s heart. I want to be important enough—”

Standing to block her way, Jasper caught her by the arms, forcing her to face him. “You’re first in my heart. In mine, Julia. James Marshland. You’re the only person on this earth who’s truly mine.”

She bowed her head, weeping. “James Marshland is dead.”

Or at least, that’s what it sounded like she said. She was weeping too heavily for him to fully understand her.

His hands tightened on her arms. “Look at me.” He stared down at her, willing her to see him for who he really was. “You told me once that when you looked into my eyes you saw a different man. A better man. That’s who I am. Not Blunt, but me. I’ve been here all along.”

“Please let me go.”

“I won’t ever let you go.” Pulling her hard against him, Jasper covered her mouth with his.

Julia struggled with him for a moment before succumbing to his kiss. It wasn’t a wholehearted capitulation. She still strained to be free of him. Only her lips softened, yielding briefly beneath his in unwilling surrender.

She was damp and salty with tears, her tremulous breath mingling with his on a gasping sob.

He kissed her fiercely, desperately, so afraid of losing her that his own eyes smarted with the sting of it. “I love you,” he rasped against her mouth. “I love you. That’s the truth. The only truth that matters.”

“And I love you,” she admitted.

A tremor went through him. He closed his eyes, clinging to her tear-clogged words as if they were a lifeline on a stormy sea. His grip on her tightened so that he feared he might crush her.

It would be all right now. If she loved him, everything would be all right.

But it wasn’t all right.

Her body remained stiff in his arms.

“I love you,” she said again. “If I didn’t, perhaps all this would be easier to forgive.”

His eyes opened as understanding sank in. An unsettling chill stole the warmth from his blood. “Julia—”

“Let me go,” she said softly. “Please. I can’t think clearly when you’re near me.”

He reluctantly loosened his hold. When she withdrew from his arms, he felt a sickening sense of loss. She was slipping away from him and there was nothing he could do about it.

She stood out of his reach. Her habit was rumpled from his embrace, her ebony hair half falling from its pins. She looked as though she’d been mauled by a tiger.

Jasper regarded her with a brooding frown as she put herself to rights. “What can I do?”