“Do not lie to me,” he said, tone blade-sharp.
“I’m not lying.”
“I saw—we saw—you at White’s the other day. And, in retrospect, his reaction was not that of an unaffected bystander.”
My instinctive wince did nothing to soften what I now knew as icy rage in his furrowed brow and slate gaze.
“It was tonight, truly. We’d spoken before, but nothing more.”
“And tonight you decided to seduce him.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
I hadn’t considered this part. The part where I would need to play the merry rake. The part where I would have to cheapen a moment that had been sweet. Precious. I called forth the memories of Gabriel’s misspent youth, rocking back on my heels. “I’m leaving town. It seemed like an entertaining way to spend an evening.”
Lord Grayson’s jaw clenched but he said nothing.
“I was tired of footmen and valets. In the mood for a challenge.”
He sighed, dragging one hand through his hair before nodding to the bench behind me. “Sit.”
My body obeyed the command instinctively and plopped back on the bench with no grace.
“If you were not such a terrible liar, I would be calling for my small sword.”
“But—”
“You have induced my brother to disregard his safety and potentially his life. Convinced him to forsake, not only his reputation, but mine, my wife’s, my son’s as well. And then you try to claim blame for what was clearly a very consensual seduction, if a seduction at all. I am going to need you to explain this to me. Because I do not understand it.” The viscount paced through his speech, pausing to stare at me briefly before resuming his efficient, practiced strides.
The moonlight glinted off my hessians as they swished back and forth, cutting divots through the grass.
“Do you love your wife?” I asked.
“What has that to do with anything?”
“Just… do you love her?”
“Of course. My love for her… the risks you have taken with her reputation. It is one of the reasons I am so tempted to run you through. But if I did that, I would certainly have to abandon her in exile. And thus she is also one of the reasons that I have refrained.”
I swallowed the knot.
“And before her? Women in general, you appreciated their form? Enjoyed their flirtations?”
He shrugged a single shoulder, then settled his arms back across his chest.
“I don’t… When a woman flirts with me… I don’tfeelthat.”
“I did not either. Not until Kate. Perhaps Tom just has not met the right lady.”
“It’s not like that. Not for me. I don’t know about To—Mr. Grayson.” A sharp glare had me retreating to formality. “All the pleasant things the poets write about. I feel them when I look at men—some not all.”
“So, when you look at me, you feel…”
This conversation could not possibly be going more poorly. Although it could involve more weapons. “You’re a handsome man. In general, I don’t allow myself to consider such things. But if I did…”
He shifted back a half step.
