Page 35 of To Catch a Viscount

“And what is that?” he croaked.

“You’re trying to scare me with your wickedness.”

That was the conclusion she’d arrived at? That one. And not that he’d been a moment away from taking her in his arms?

Relief filled him. Good, her erroneous assumption was certainly the far safer one. He forced out a laugh that sounded strained to his own ears. “Did it work?”

The lady stuck a finger under his nose and waggled it back and forth like he was a naughty boy whom she now scolded. “It did not. I shan’t be frightened or deterred. You’reAndrewand the last fellow I’d worry about being amorous around me.”

He frowned. The last fellow she’d…?

Well, now. Just what in blazes was that supposed to mean? He rather didn’t think he wanted to know.

Alas, he should have expected she’d not let him off so easily, as with her next breath she answered the question that had popped up.

“I’m not afraid of my reputation around you, because there’s absolutely no desire and absolutely no passion between us. We’re simply friends.”

“Friends,” he repeated dumbly.

She smiled and nodded. “Friends.”

The thing of it was, before this moment—or rather, before these recent exchanges—he would have actually agreed that they were… friends, of sorts. At least as much as a man could be friendly with a woman. But that had been before he’d noted the feel of her curls and before he’d almost lowered his head to take her mouth.

And before she’d asked him to help her sin.

On the heels of that came another grating thought. “And are there certain gentlemen whom you do have to worry about being amorous around you?” His query emerged as a growl.

For God help the blokes, Andrew would take them apart.

Marcia blushed. “Not yet. Though it remains to be seen, with my reputation now what it is, if I’m a subject of different interest.”

He’d need to start appearing at far more respectable affairs. That was all there was for it.

“Marcia,” he said quietly. “You’ve been hurt, and I know something about that.” He’d made the mistake of trusting an innocent heart to a woman who’d been merely using him to get to his brother-in-law Huntly. The road of love wasn’t one he intended to dance down again.

“You do?” she asked softly, surprise rounding her eyes, and he immediately cursed the revelation, because this inquisitive young woman would only ask questions. Only… she didn’t, and that was what allowed him to continue so easily.

“I do, and it’s why I know in this moment that going out and sullying your name and reputation won’t undo what’s come before. It won’t make the pain go away. It won’t bring Thornton back to that day at the altar.”

Her features spasmed, and his heart hurt at the visible pain she was still too innocent to attempt to conceal. God, he could happily bash Thornton within an inch of his life for what he’d done to this young woman. And he would have been content to end him if the blighter hadn’t ultimately done Marcia a favor when he’d jilted her, sparing her a lifetime of tedium and misery.

“I don’t want him back,” she said softly.

Andrew palmed her cheek. “I think you might actually believe that, love,” he murmured, and as she turned into his touch, he reluctantly released her. “But going to scandalous events will not bring you the happiness you seek.”

She might have had her heart broken, but she was still a young woman with dreams of love… and throwing away a chance at the future she truly sought for a grand time of sinning would only deny her happiness.

“Andrew, please,” she entreated.

It was all he could do to keep from agreeing just because he’d never heard Marcia beg for anything, and he hated to hear her do so, and he hated even more that he was the one to deny her. But he had to be.

For the both of them.

But especially for her.

“I can’t do this, Marcia. I can’t do what you want.”

Not the least of all reasons being what his brother-in-law and her father would do to Andrew were they to discover he’d helped her in such a way.

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