He caught her arm before she could make much progress. “Wait, Sybil.”
“LadySybil.”
“Lady Sybil,” he said, a bite of impatience in his voice. “Don’t walk away from me. I won’t kiss you again if you don’t want me to. Although you deserve it for having left me on that riverbank.”
She had just been grateful she had woken before him so she could run without him finding her. She hadn’t thought he would feel strongly about it; she had presumed he had been with countless women, given he knew so much about the art of pleasure.
“Idon’twant to kiss you again,” she lied.
“Very well. But you should listen to what I have to say.”
“Are you going to expose me?” she demanded.
He took a step back. “Expose you?”
“Tell thetonwhat happened between us?”
“No,” he said, and there was real confusion in his voice. “Is that what you think of me?”
“I hardly know what I think of you, Your Grace, when I hardly know you. I thought you were afootmanand that I would never speak to you again.Especiallynot in polite Society.” Her breath came too fast and she pulled her arm from his slackened grasp. “Stay away from me and my family, Your Grace, please.”
“Lady Sybil—”
“It was a mistake,” she said, her nose stinging with entirely inconvenient tears. She couldnotcry in front of this Duke in a darkened garden. That would be worse than kissing him.
There were a lot of things that would be worse than kissing him.
He almost recoiled from her. “A mistake?”
“I should never have come out here. I should never have allowed myself to be alone with a gentleman, I should—” This time, when his hand caught her arm, it was gentle, and she broke off with a sob.
“I would never have harmed you,” he said, his voice gentle. “Look at me, Lady Sybil.”
The sound of her name and her title, more than anything was the thing that made her glance up at him. His face was blurry, and she blinked, sending twin tears tracking down her face. He caught one on the end of his finger.
“I thought I disappointed you,” he said, an odd note in his voice. “I thought I had offended you or been such a poor experience you wished to never remember, but I had never thought I’d upset you.”
“How could you not?” she said, her words catching on a gasp. “When my reputation hangs entirely in the balance, and you are the only thing that may tip the scales. If thetonfinds out about what happened between us, I will never marry. There will be nochancefor me.” Her voice broke, and she glanced away again.
“I misjudged you.” There was still that strange note in his voice, but she couldn’t think about it when there were so many other things demanding her attention. Such as the fact someone might find her and then this entire conversation would be pointless—she would be ruined regardless.
“Let me leave,” she said, trying to tug herself free.
“Allow me to make amends,” he said, catching her chin in his fingers. He wasn’t rough, but he certainly wasn’t gentle. He gazed down into her face. “First, let me assure you I have no intention of telling anyone about our history—I merely wantedyouto acknowledge it.”
“Because of your male pride?” she asked.Stupid. Well done, Sybil. Just antagonize the man you are relying on for your reputation. Excellent work.
His lips twitched. “Because of my male pride. Which…” he bent and lowered his voice to a growl beside her ear, “by the way you kissed me back, had no reason to be wounded.”
It was absurd that his voice and the gravelly tone of it should send more of that heat between her legs, and she clenched her thighs together. “It means nothing.”
He chuckled but leaned back slightly. “It seems to me you find yourself in need of a husband.”
“Isn’t every woman?”
“Must you be so prickly?” he demanded. “I’m trying to help you.”
Sybil hesitated, before relaxing into his touch. “Very well. What is your proposal?”
