Page 5 of A Virgin for the Ton's Wolf

With him so close, looming over her almost like he had several months ago in that sitting room in Fitzroy Park, those unbidden feelings rose to the surface once more.

But she gathered her dwindling courage and lifted her chin. “No.”

“No!?” The word came out of her mama in a horrified screech.

Scarlett immediately shook her head frantically. “I mean yes…”

The Duke smiled coldly at her. He had caught her in her little lie, and he was not going to make it easy for her.

And she deserved it for pinning the blame for her supposed lost innocence on him.

Her mama rounded on the Duke. Probably because he was the only reliable source of truth at the moment.

Well, more reliable than Scarlett herself, at least.

“Did you or did you not kiss my daughter at the treasure hunt in Fitzroy Park, Your Grace?” she demanded.

Demanded.

Scarlett closed her eyes in mortification. If the Wolf killed her mama on the spot, it would be her own fault.

How was she to know that her mother—timid and worn down by decades of marriage—would rally her long-lost courage to storm into Wolverton Estate anddemandthe Duke of Wolverton himself take responsibility for her daughter?

“I didwhatnow?”

If Scarlett had any ounce of self-preservation, she really should start backing away now. Maybe also take her mama with her, if she could.

The threat in his voice was as naked as her falsehood. The intense gray gleam in his eyes stripped her bare.

“Did you want me to kiss you, My Lady?”

Well,of coursethat brief madness had crossed her mind, back then. She was not so sure she would indulge in such insanity at present.

She let out a long-suffering sigh.

Well, there goes my last attempt at freedom.

She would be lucky if her mother or Alexander ever let her out of their sight again, even to use the chamberpot. She had well and truly established herself as not only unreliable but also more than capable of spinning the most absurd yarns ever known to mankind.

“I told you we should not have come, Mama,” she muttered. “This is embarrassing.”

“No more than being accused of stealing a young woman’s innocence, I assure you,” the Wolf snickered coldly.

Her mama shot him a withering glare. “The other option would have had my son challenging you to a duel, Your Grace, and I do not believe you would want that,” she warned him scathingly.

The Wolf simply shrugged those massive shoulders of his and drawled in reply, “You meanyouwould not want that, My Lady.”

Of course not. He would win, and he would have absolutely no scruples at all of disposing of Alexander. If he did that and succeeded—as Scarlett had no doubt he would, given his notoriety—then the title would fall to some distant cousin. She and her mama would be kicked out of the only home they had ever known and forced to subsist on a paltry allowance.

If they were to even be providedthat.

“Mama, might I have a word with His Grace in private?” she asked.

Her mama shot her a disapproving glare. “If you think I will let you alone withthisbeastly?—”

“Mama,please.”

It was the only time Scarlett had ever pleaded with her mother. She rarely even considered asking her for any sort of permission.

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