“Yes.” It wasn’t exactly the truth, but Lottie would say close to anything if it drew him back to her. He turned all the way around and stepped closer. Though his face was as hard as before, his gaze seemed to penetrate straight to the hot, pulsing desire building within her. A weaker woman would have crumpled under what could easily pass as a glare. But not Lottie. She knew what that glare was hiding, and she would not leave Venice without uncovering it.

“You have nothing to fear now,” he said gruffly. “I promise.”

She looked down, gathering her courage. “Don’t leave.” She hadn’t the nerve to add me. And yet, how many times had she asked that of him when they were children? Too many to count. But he had broken that promise in the end.

When she dared to glance up again, Alec still hadn’t moved, but his mask had fallen away. Everything he worked so hard to keep hidden was laid bare before her: the wariness, the pain, and, most important, the desire.

Her eyes were drawn to the sensuous curves of his lips, almost indecently full for a man. How badly she wanted him to kiss her again, but not for show this time. Not for anything other than the sheer pleasure of it. The want. The need of it.

He stared at her for a long moment. His piercing gaze stirred something so raw within her she almost fell to her knees. “It’s the shock of earlier,” he finally said. “You don’t know what you’re—”

“Stay with me. Please.”

Alec closed his eyes and muttered a curse.

It was the please that finally broke through Alec’s last remaining barricade, though it had been steadily crumbling for the past hour. The overwhelming desire to protect Lottie from every possible danger was nearly as consuming as his desire to have her—but only nearly.

When Alec had left all those years ago, he had been certain that doing so would ensure her future. Sir Alfred made it clear that with him gone, Lottie would marry a respectable man of good standing and become a pillar of the community, as was her destiny. But if he stayed, Sir Alfred promised to do everything in his power to ruin Alec. With his scandalous heritage and lack of fortune, who was he to tear her away from the only world she had ever known merely in exchange for his pitiful little heart?

She may be happy at first, Sir Alfred had allowed, but in time she will come to resent you. Will you sentence her to that fate?

If he had loved her any less, perhaps he would have.