Ian shrugged. “I don’t think it will matter. She made her position clear.”
“Her position may change. But what is most important is that she makes you happy.”
“She’s just a woman.”
Even as the words left his lips, he knew it was a lie. She wasn’t just any woman; she was his Grace.
His.
An ache centered in his chest. She was leaving him. Was he willing to give her up, go back to the way things had been before?
The answer was a resounding no. With pulse-pounding certainty, he realized the truth.
He loved her. Totally. Completely.
He loved her.
He’d buried his true feelings, distanced himself from her, because he’d been a coward—too frightened to admit the truth to himself. He’d thought putting space between them would protect him, but it had only served to make his need for her grow stronger each day.
His father’s rejection had taught him to never fully trust, to never need. Love was an emotion that could be cruelly wielded and used against you. He had associated any such reliance with weakness, and after surviving on his own for so long, he had sworn never to be weak again.
Grace showing up in his life had turned his beliefs upside down. She’d been brave and true, and he’d fallen helplessly in love with her. Initially, it may have been her beauty that drew him, but her intelligence and spirit had enthralled him. She’d nearly bowled him over with her understanding of business. With little more than a few hours studying his books, she’d made observations he’d missed or been too close to see. She was everything he’d ever need and everything he’d thought he was unworthy of.
And how had he treated her?
He’d deceived her to get her to marry him. His desperation not to lose her and to wed her, had little to do with salvaging his family’s reputation, but everything to do with the fact that he couldn’t bear to part from her.
She was right not to want him, to leave him. He’d lied about selling the Raven Club. He’d wanted her and his casino. What a selfish bastard he’d been.
She had every reason to hate the Raven Club, every reason to want no part of it. Her feelings were valid, and he’d never addressed them. Rather, he’d lied to her.
She was his hope, his salvation, the love of his life.
Nothing else mattered.
And now it may be too late to tell her. He turned to Brooks and eyed him with a deep-seated desperation. “Do you want it?”
“What?”
“The Raven. Do you want the club?” He felt suddenly anxious as if his skin were too tight to contain all his rioting emotions.
Brooks eyed him speculatively. “What are you saying, man? You think to actually sell it to me?”
“I do. I can only hope it isn’t too late and she will accept me.” Without waiting for a response, he pushed past Brooks and ran out of the club. He sprinted to the mews, didn’t bother with his carriage, and saddled a horse. A sense of urgency drove him. He had to reach her before she left the house, their home. He made it faster than he’d ever traveled the distance before and sprinted up the front steps. He opened the door only to find Grace standing in the vestibule.
“Grace. I was coming to find you.” A sense of relief swept through him that she hadn’t yet departed.
“Ian, I—”
“No, love, let me speak. Brooks told me you were leaving.” At the sight of her trunks packed and ready, his unease increased.
“I was, but—”
“I’ve been a selfish fool, and you were right to be angry with me. I deceived you into marrying me, and I lied to you about selling the Raven Club. I beg your forgiveness.” She opened her mouth to speak, but he stepped close and pressed a finger to her lips. “I’m selling the Raven Club to Brooks. I don’t need the place. I need you. I love you. Please don’t leave.”
She looked stunned, then the corners of her sweet lips turned up in an enchanting smile. “Don’t you dare sell your share to Brooks.”
“I thought that’s what you wanted.”
“I was wrong. I see that now. Brooks told me everything.”
“Are you upset to learn the truth?” For the first time, he realized she may not be happy about his parental roots.
“It doesn’t matter to me if the earl wasn’t your father, and it shouldn’t to you. But that has nothing to do with the Raven Club. You will not sell it. We will run it together and continue to use the profits for good and to employ those who need it most.”
“Are you certain?” he asked.
She eyed him. “I am.”
“Then I have only one condition,” he said. “I want to turn away those who are like your father—gamblers who are drawn to their drink and their tables and have no regard for their recklessness.”
Her lips parted. “Oh, Ian. Thank you.”
“We don’t need their money, and I’ve no desire to contribute to their dissolution. I love you. I need you more than I’ve ever needed any club. Please tell me I’m not too late and you will not leave me.”
“I do love you, Ian.”
He pulled her into his arms. “Truly?”
“Oh, yes.”
“How long?”
She melted against him. “Since our first lessons.” She kissed the corners of his lips.
Ian gazed at her in wonder, and he gloried in the shared moment. “I feared you would never come to love a casino owner.”
She smoothed the crease between his brows. “I came to know the man.”
“You are my life, not the Raven.” His voice was hoarse with emotion.
“What of your family? Your sisters?” she asked.
“For the first time, I have hope. With you by my side, we can be a true family. All of us. Brooks. My mother. Adam. I swear to do my best to help your father. And my sisters already love you.”
“I love them, too. But beware. Your sister Ellie wants to visit the Raven.”
“God help me.” He lifted her off her feet and kissed her fully until she was breathless.
“Oh, yes.” Joy bubbled in her laugh and shone in her eyes. “A true family.”
Epilogue
Six months later
“The Raven Club was busy last night.”
Ian smiled as he glanced at his wife across the drawing room. She sat in a chair with a ledger in her lap.
“What charities will you use the profits for, my love?” Ian asked.
He marveled at how much his life had changed over the past months. After he’d taken Grace on a honeymoon to his estate in Kent, they’d moved his sisters into his London home. Ellie and Oliva had been thrilled to have a new sister, and the three had become fast friends. Once his mother, the dowager duchess, had seen her children settled, she’d happily left London to live with her sister in Bath.
As for the Raven Club, even though they’d turned away reckless gamblers, business was thriving. The baron struggled to stay away from drink and the tables, but he was making an effort. Ian had been helping him.
Ian’s gaze returned to his beautiful wife as she approached carrying a glass of wine. Grace looked lovely in a blue silk gown that heightened her dark curls and blue eyes.
“I’ve decided what to do with our latest profits,” she said.