Page 40 of Loved by a Dangerous Duke

Sweet oblivion beckoned her. The pain would cease if she let the darkness claim her.

Was this what it was like to die?

“Stan…ford,” she whispered again, the effort monumental.

“Don’t die, Ophelia. I forbid it. Do you hear me? Do not die, my love.”

Something warm and wet landed on her cheek.

Squinting, she peered up at his dear face. A hazy fuzziness obstructed her view.

Another droplet hit her cheek, and then another.

Why, he was weeping.

The strongest, toughest man she’d ever known was crying because he was afraid she was going to die.

In truth, she feared as much as well. And she’d never told Stanford that she loved him.

It wasn’t too late. It wasn’t.

Ophelia could still tell him.

Now.

She must tell him.

Blackness whirled around her mind. She allowed her eyelashes to flutter closed.

“I…love…you.”

His animalistic cry was the last thing she comprehended before slipping into insensibility.