Austin grinned. This was far easier than he had imagined. A woman investigating a scandal, alone with him, asking about alter egos? She was practically inviting seduction.
“I might know a detail or two,” he said, closing the distance until only the width of a book table separated them. “But information of that sort comes at a price.”
Her eyes narrowed, but there was laughter in them. “I am not in the habit of paying with coin, or anything else.”
“Pity,” he murmured. “Though conversation might suffice. Tell me, what drives a beautiful woman to chronicle the sins of dukes rather than secure one for herself?”
She gave a soft huff of laughter. “As you well know, I have no interest in securing any man. I have seen what marriage offers women who stray even an inch from perfection.”
He frowned slightly.
As I well know?What the devil did she mean by that?
“You speak as though we are old confidants,” he said carefully.
Her brows lifted. “We are. Or at least, we were acquainted before I left England. You used to visit Greystone often, ride out with Dominic, lose spectacularly at cards, and tease the kitchen maids until the cook chased you with a rolling pin.”
Austin searched her face again. Her freckles, green eyes, and that stubborn set to her mouth. A memory tugged, distant and hazy: a skinny girl with red curls hiding behind her brother’s coattails, glaring at him whenever he greeted her.
“No. Impossible.” He shook his head and chuckled.
She watched the realization begin to dawn on his face and sighed, half-exasperated, half-amused.
“Do you truly not recognize your best friend’s sister?”
The words landed like a bucket of freezing water.
Deena Archdall.
Dominic’s little sister who had been packed off to Paris after a scandal at her debut. The one he had barely noticed before she vanished. Austin exhaled slowly, every careful plan for seduction scattered like cards in the wind.
“Dee?” he said at last, voice rougher than he intended. “God. You’ve changed.”
Her smile turned sharp. “So have you, apparently. I thought you, of all people, would know me at once. And you cannot call me that anymore. I am not a child.”
He ran his hand through his hair, laughing despite himself. “I apologize,Lady Dee, I thought you were some bold adventurer come to expose us all. Not… Dominic’s sister.”
“And now that you know?” she asked, tilting her head. “Does that change the price of your information?”
Austin met her gaze; the spark between them suddenly became far more complicated than simple desire.
“It changes everything,” he said quietly.
Two
She folded her arms, staring at the man who had once been a fixture in her childhood home. He seemed taller; his deep brown hair was still a mess, but this time she found him to be impossibly handsome. Despite growing up around him, Austin now stood before her as if she were a stranger, and it hurt. She felt out of place both in Paris and London.
“I cannot believe that you did not recognize me!” Deena snapped and felt her cheeks heat up with embarrassment.
“It’s been five years,” he replied with a shrug.
Austin’s expression smoothed into devastating charm.
“Dee,” he said. Her nickname rolled off his tongue, and she ignored the flutter in her chest. “Good God. Paris has been unkind to my memory…or far too kind to you.”
She lifted her chin. “Unkind to your memory, I think. I have not changed that much.”
He stepped closer, head tilted as he studied her openly. “Oh, you have. The freckles are the same, and those eyes could still flay a man at twenty paces, but the rest…” His gaze traveled slowly from her hair to her mouth and back again. “The rest is entirely new. Fascinating.”
