She looked at him like a drowning person spotting land.
Jax hesitated with a precision that was entirely calculated. "If you were to marry... me instead."
Her eyes went wide.
"Damian would never go against me. I am the only person alive who can calm his anger and reason with him. And if I tell him that I am taking you as my wife because you remind me of Yuline, because losing you would be like losing her a second time, he would never contest it. He would step aside. Not out of weakness. But because our friendship means more to him than any political marriage ever could."
Then Jax pulled back further and looked away as if disgusted with himself. "I am sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I am essentially doing the same thing to you that Damian did. Trading one forced marriage for another just because my selfish heart sees a ghost of someone I lost."
