“It’s a question.” His eyes were steady, searching. “Answer it.”
She looked away. “I… don’t know. It would depend.”
“On?”
“On the man.” She met his gaze again. “On whether I believed the scandal defined him, or if it was just… noise.”
Austin’s mouth curved. “That’s not an answer.”
Deena bristled. “I answered as honestly as I could.”
“Would you marry me, Deena?”
She blinked; her skin burned as her thoughts unraveled.
“Yes or no?” he prodded.
“No,” she blurted.
Austin remained silent for a moment before saying, “Good.”
Deena felt her frustration build. He failed to understand the price she’d paid after her own scandal. The whispers that followed her like shadows for years, the way every room fellquiet when she entered, and the cold shoulder of former friends. He didn’t understand the suffocating exile to Paris disguised as further education. She had spent five years rebuilding herself from the wreckage of one careless moment, with only one person supporting her.
Penelope…
Deena shook her head, and her thoughts along with it. She looked at Austin with a lifted chin and addressed him coldly. “Why ask me anything if all my answers are just going to upset you?”
“I’m not upset,” he said flatly.
“All right then, let me ask you this: would you overlook a scandal like yours or worse in a woman’s past?”
He did not hesitate. “If I knew the truth behind it, if I knew it wasn’t her fault, or if she was honest with me from the beginning. Then yes. I would.”
His answer surprised her. “Truly?”
“Yes.” He shrugged. “I’ve never been one for purity tests. People are more than their worst moments.”
Deena felt something twist in her chest. She had never believed that anyone could forgive her past mistakes and love her, butAustin’s words gave her hope. “Do you assume I wouldn’t do the same?” she asked him curiously.
“I know that you’re protecting someone else.” His voice dropped low. “And if you had to choose your friend’s safety or my secret, you’d throw me under the carriage without a second thought.”
Deena’s breath hitched. “You don’t know that.” But he was right in so many ways, and she could not deny the truth.
“Don’t I?” He stepped closer. “You have the power to ruin me with these gossip pieces. You are going to feed me to the beast to keep your friend safe. If it came down to it, you’d sacrifice me in a heartbeat.”
“That was before I knew thatyouwere the Velvet Duke.” She stopped, but her throat tightened. “I’m trying to protecteveryone.”
“It’s not your job to protect everyone, Dee.”
“I won’t let what happened to me happen to my friend, too,” she snapped back.
Austin shook his head. “Time is running out, Deena. And when it does, you’ll choose. You’ll choose her. And I will be the collateral.”
Deena’s hands clenched at her sides. Austin’s words reminded her that although he was around during her childhood, he nevertruly knew her. “If it were your title, your family, your entire future on the line, you wouldn’t sacrifice me to save it?”
He looked at her for a long moment. “I’d like to think I wouldn’t. But I’m not sure.”
The words hung between them, heavy and honest. If both did not trust each other no plan of theirs would work. But Deena went through too much to hand her life over to a man she only knew before her exile. He was Dominic’s friend but not hers. He was a man known for using women, and she almost fell for him, too.
