CHAPTER TWENTY NINE – HIS RIGHTFUL PLACE?

Charlotte opened her mouth, a litany of anguished protests rising on her lips. But Alexander stayed her with a raised hand and an empathic look that only twisted the knife deeper. "Please, don't make this any more painful than it needs to be. I'll forever cherish the blazing intensity you awoke within me, the raptures we explored together. You were the woman who showed me the true depths of spiritual intimacy." He stepped forward once more, brushing a strand of hair from her cheek with an achingly tender caress. "Which is why I can't allow myself to be weak a moment longer, to surrender to the temptations of the flesh that still linger between us. It would only lead us down a painful, futile path we've already traveled to its end." With those parting words hanging in the candle-lit hush like a judge's gavel, Alexander turned and strode from the vestibule without looking back, leaving Charlotte stunned and trembling amid the romantic ruins they'd created. In the aftermath of yet an