"Because..." He paused, the word carrying weight he’d carried for twelve months. "You also know how much I love you."
The confession landed in the silence like a stone dropped into still water.
Victoria went perfectly still, her earlier amusent replaced by sothing that looked like horrified fascination.
Catherine’s expression didn’t change... not imdiately.
But sothing flickered in her eyes that Adrian, in his desperate hope, interpreted as consideration.
’She’s listening. Really listening.’
The thought gave him courage to continue, words tumbling out with desperate sincerity.
"I’ve loved you since the first day I took this position," Adrian said, leaning forward, his voice rough with emotion he’d suppressed for too long.
"Every mont I’ve spent beside you... watching you navigate impossible politics with grace and brilliance... has only made one thing clearer: with every passing day, I fall deeper in love with you... with your mind, your strength, and the woman you beco when no one else is watching."
His hands clenched on the armrests, knuckles white with intensity.
"You’re extraordinary, Catherine... not just beautiful, though you are more than you’ll ever admit, but brilliant and impossibly strong... the kind of woman people spend their entire lives searching for and never even co close to finding."
The words ca faster now, twelve months of suppressed feeling pouring out in a flood he couldn’t control.
He reached toward her hand again... the gesture automatic, desperate for connection... but stopped himself, fingers trembling in empty air.
"I know what you’re dealing with... after what happened with Jas. The pressure you’ve been under ever since. Richard’s moves, the internal families doubting you, the scrutiny that never stops."
His voice strengthened, conviction replacing vulnerability.
"But I can fix that. My family can fix that."
The shift was subtle... love bleeding into ambition, vulnerability hardening into certainty.
"My father can swing the internal families. The Blackwell na can solidify your coalition. We can crush Richard before he gets traction. We can make your succession unchallengeable."
His voice sharpened, conviction rging with dangerous entitlent.
"And I..."
He lifted his chin slightly.
"As the heir of blackwell family and future head...
He let that weight settle.
"I’m offering all of that to you. All of . My influence, my pedigree, my future... everything dedicated to making you not just the Head of House Blackwood, but the most powerful leader the realm has seen in generations."
Adrian leaned forward, heart pounding so loudly he could barely hear himself.
"Marry , Catherine. Not just for alliance... because I love you. Because I see you. Because no one will protect you, support you, or understand your burden the way I do."
His eyes shone with desperate certainty.
"We could be unstoppable. You and . Equal partners. Husband and wife. The future of House Blackwood secured forever."
He searched her face, voice cracking around the final plea.
"Just say yes. Let stand beside you. Let be the man who carries this world with you. Let love you the way you deserve."
He forced himself to stop, to let the words settle, to give her space to respond.
’Please. Please see what I’m offering. Please understand that this isn’t just political convenience... this is everything I am, everything I can give, all of it for you.’
Silence.
Adrian looked up at Catherine, searching her face for the response he desperately needed.
Hoping for her sweet, shy smile. For warmth entering those dark eyes.
For so sign that his confession had moved her, that twelve months of devotion had earned consideration, that love declared so honestly deserved acknowledgnt.
But when his eyes finally focused on her expression, what he saw made his breath catch in his throat.
There was no shy smile.
No warmth.
No consideration.
Catherine’s lips curved into sothing that made Adrian’s stomach drop like a stone.
A smirk.
Not amusent. Not fondness. Not even the neutral professionalism he’d grown accustod to.
Cold, mocking contempt wrapped in a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
"Love?" Catherine said quietly, the single word carrying weight that crushed Adrian’s confession like an insect under a boot.
"You call this love?"
Her eyes locked onto him, dark and surgical.
"Are you even hearing yourself? You co into my office, sit in my presence like an equal, touch without permission, and then dare to tell ... a Blackwood... that I need you to survive?"
She leaned back in her chair, the gesture sohow making the distance between them feel insurmountable.
"Tell , Adrian Blackwell... are you even worthy of that claim?"
The question hit like a physical blow, all the more devastating for its quiet delivery.
Adrian’s mind stuttered, confusion replacing hope.
"I—what?"
"Worthy," Catherine repeated, each syllable precisely articulated. "Do you possess the qualities, the standing, the fundantal value required to claim love for soone like ?"
Her dark eyes fixed on him with an intensity that felt like surgical instrunts dissecting his soul.
"You’ve spent twelve months confusing proximity with intimacy. You stand outside my door, follow my shadow, watch work, and think you’ve earned the right to claim my heart. You mistake my professionalism for affection. You mistake tolerance for interest. You mistake your fantasies for reality."
Her voice sharpened... soft, but cutting through him like a blade.
"You talk about political pressure as if I’m so fragile woman waiting to be rescued. You talk about Richard as though I need a man to shield . You talk about your family’s influence as though offering it makes you my savior."
Her eyes narrowed... cold, assessing, rciless.
"Let tell you what I see. I see a subordinate who let his position near power inflate his ego. A man who mistakes access for entitlent. A man who believes that standing beside greatness sohow makes him worthy of it."
Her stare was brutal.
"Who gave you the delusion," Catherine continued, her voice dropping into that dangerous quiet, "that you could be my husband?"
The word "delusion" landed with devastating precision.
Adrian felt sothing crack in his chest... not his heart, not yet, but the foundation of certainty he’d built over twelve months.
"You are not my equal. You were never my equal. You were a guard who I kept because your father’s support was useful, and even that utility is beginning to crumble under the weight of your delusions."
She leaned in just slightly... enough to make him flinch.
"And now you bring a proposal wrapped in arrogance, political opportunism, and a savior complex... and you dare to call it love."
Victoria remained perfectly still, but sothing in her expression suggested she was witnessing an execution.
"Catherine, I don’t... I offered you everything..."
Her eyes locked onto him, dark and surgical.
"You offered what you think I need," Catherine said, and now there was an edge beneath the cold precision.
"What you’ve decided, in your infinite wisdom as a man who’s known for barely a year, that I cannot achieve without you."
She stood, and Adrian found himself standing as well... instinct screaming that remaining seated while she rose ant surrendering tactical advantage.
"Let be absolutely clear about sothing you seem to have fundantally misunderstood," Catherine continued, moving around her desk with controlled grace.
"I don’t need you. I have never needed you. Your presence on my security detail has been strategic calculation, not personal preference."
Adrian’s hands clenched at his sides, denial and confusion warring in his mind.
"No." The word ca out strangled, desperate. "You’re wrong. I see how you work, how isolated you are, how much pressure you’re under. You need soone who understands—"
"I need," Catherine said, her voice cutting through his protest like a blade, "competent security. Political allies. Strategic support. What I don’t need is a subordinate who confuses his sexual attraction and savior complex for love."
The words hit like hamr blows, each one cracking the certainty Adrian had built his entire confession on.
"That’s not—I’m not—"
Catherine tilted her head slightly, studying him the way a scholar examines a flawed specin under glass.
"No," she said softly. "You’re not what you think you are."
Adrian froze.
"Let tell you exactly what you are."
She stepped closer... not enough to grant him proximity, just enough to force him to feel the weight of her words.
"You are an incompetent, overindulged heir who has spent his entire life mistaking privilege for talent."
Her tone sharpened... elegant, rciless.
"A boy who believes he is a generational prodigy simply because everyone around him was too afraid... or too politically invested... to tell him the truth."
Adrian’s breath stuttered.
"You think you’re entitled to anything you desire," Catherine continued, voice steady and lethal, "because the world has never made you earn a single thing. Not respect. Not competence."
"You don’t want a partner. You want a trophy. You want to stand beside so the world thinks you climbed to my level. You want the power, the status, the prestige of being the man who ’claid’ Catherine Blackwood."
"No!" Adrian’s voice cracked, desperation replacing composure. "I love you! I want to help you! I... "
"You don’t love , Adrian. You love the version of inside your head. The Catherine who is overwheld. Isolated. Desperate for a man like you to swoop in and carry her burden."
A thin, humorless smile curved her lips.
"That woman doesn’t exist."
She straightened, expression freezing into absolute authority.
"I belong to no one. And I will never belong to you."
Her next words were final, absolute, unarguable.
"You are entitled to nothing.
Not my hand.
Not my affection.
Not my attention.
Not even my respect."
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