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“How much time?” she asked him, exasperated. “Tomorrow night is the final night of the house party.”

There was a shift in him, one which she felt more than saw, even though she was looking right at him. A hesitation. A brief pause as some thought flickered across his expression.

“Tomorrow is the final night of the house party,” he conceded. “But what if we still had more time? Back in London?”

“I will not be your mistress, nor will I risk my and my grandmother’s business⁠—”

“I am not speaking of you being my mistress,” he interrupted her.

Mei made an exasperated noise. “Then what? Lover amounts to the same thing in London.”

“As my wife.”

As his…

Surely, she could not have heard him correctly.

Except she knew he had.

He’d said those words.

Out loud.

To her face.

And he meant them.

Mei jerked away so fast, he could not hold on to her, and she nearly went tumbling to the floor before he caught her. Not that it mattered. The moment she was no longer falling, she managed to get her feet under her. No longer on his lap, she spun in place, keenly aware of her freshly spanked bottom and the throbbing between her thighs as she stared at him.

His face was full of somber sincerity.

He did.

He meant it.

“I… you…” Mei could not get the words out, suddenly breathless.

“I was going to wait to speak to your grandmother and do this properly, but⁠—”

“What? No!” Mei shook her head. “No, Sebastian. I cannot marry you.”

“I— Why not?” Sebastian frowned as he slowly got to his feet, hurt in his expression.

Seeing that hurt made her chest tighten. But surely he realized. Surely, he was not so blind…

“Sebastian, I am a matchmaker, not a match.”

“But you are the match I have chosen.”

“You cannot choose me,” Mei retorted fiercely. “I am not even ton.”

“I do not care.”

“Everyone else will.”

“Then everyone else can go hang.” He took a deep breath, shaking his head, as if shaking off his rising voice. “And you do your friends a disservice thinking that they would not⁠—”

“No.” Mei made a sharp motion in front of her with her hand, cutting him off. She would never make such a burden of herself to her friends. “No, Sebastian, I cannot marry you. I will not marry you. I…”