Emily: Sex and Sensibility (The Wilde Sisters 1)

“I keep telling you. I didn’t mean to deceive you. I was caught in a web, don’t you understand? And whenever I tried to tell you the truth, either you stopped me—or I lost courage.”

“You lost courage,” he said, his words flat and cold. “Charming. Did you think so little of me that you believed I would stop caring for you if I knew you were a woman named Emily Wilde and not a woman named Emily Madison?”

Emily gave a short, sharp laugh.

“Take a look at what’s happening now and we’ll see if you still want to ask me that question.”

“That is a distortion of the facts. I only learned the truth because someone found you out.” His face darkened. “That I should have had the blindfold torn from my eyes by strangers…”

“They aren’t strangers. Khan is your friend. Laurel is mine.”

“Exactly. Friends who now see how I was duped.”

Emily swiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand. Anger was changing to fury. Given a choice, it was the better emotion.

“Is that what this is all about? Your ego?”

“It is about your lies.”

“Give me a break. It’s about you. It’s always about you and your high and mighty arrogance.”

“I am not arrogant,” Marco said and even in his cold rage, he winced at the stupidity of what he’d said.

Emily strode toward him, chin up, eyes blazing. “In fact, arrogance is the one real emotion you possess.”

“Arrogance is not an emotion. And do not try to change the subject! The point is, you lied to me.”

“The point is, I didn’t lie to you. I was already lying when I met you…”

She broke off in mid-sentence, as stung by the truth of her admission as by the stoniness of his expression.

There was a second truth here, as well. A terrible truth.

“You fell in love with Emily Madison,” she said softly.

“Such a brilliant revelation!”

“You fell for some—some symbol of perfection.”

“I do not know where you are going with this.”

“But I’m not perfect, Marco.” She flung out her arms. “I am what you see. A woman. Flawed. Imperfect. You can’t label me. I’m not any one thing. I’m many things and not all of them are good. The only certainty is that I love you.”

“You love me.”

“Yes. I love you.”

Silence stretched between them. He looked at her. A pain so sharp it almost brought him to his knees knifed through him. He had bared his soul to this woman. He had given her his heart.

What mistakes to have made! To have forgotten the lessons of his childhood, his manhood, his marriage…

He was not good when it came to seeing through women’s lies.

“Marco,” Emily whispered. “I love you.”

Her voice broke; she was weeping again. He felt a muscle knot in his jaw as she held out her hand.

Take it, a voice inside him implored. Put aside your pride and take her hand.