She must have seen something in his own, however, for whatever she’d been about to say remained frozen on her slightly parted lips. Her smile dipped, and it was like a star had been snuffed. “Anthony?” she said. “It is me. Lettie Brookfield.”

Lettie Brookfield.

Damn me.

Lettie touched a hesitant hand to her breast, and when she spoke next, her words came out haltingly. She dampened her mouth. “Surely you remember me?”

Yes, he remembered her. But his memories included hefting her onto his shoulders and dashing around her family’s halls, or racing her across her family’s lake and letting her win.

Not this. He scraped his stare over her form, curved in all the places a woman should be curved.

“I remember you,” he said grudgingly.

“Why are you behaving like this?” she asked softly. The young girl she’d been around him had never hesitated to speak her mind or hedge her words. “You are…different.”

Something flickered in her eyes, a flash of understanding.

Then she stilled. “Oh dear,” she whispered.

His shoulders tensed. Don’t ask. Let her go. Actually, ask her to leave. Being caught outside with any young, respectable lady would be folly. With this particular woman, it would be pure danger. For Rhys might have cut him from his life for being with the actress whom he’d loved, but being discovered with the man’s sister would see Anthony on the other side of a dueling field. Even so, even with that, he found himself asking, “What is it?”

She took a hasty step back and frantically looked around. She lowered her voice. “Well, this is quite awkward,” she muttered. “You’re meeting someone.”

His brow furrowed, and then he flared his eyebrows. “You think I am meeting a woman.”

She paused in her search. “You’re…not?” she asked, once more with a hesitancy in her voice.

Tell her yes so she leaves. Only, almost twenty years ago, after he’d attempted to prove his best friend Rhys was being deceived by a glamorous actress Rhys had intended to marry, Anthony had vowed to never lie again. He’d been manipulated by “I am not.”

She peered up at him, intently studying his face.

He frowned. “What now?” he asked curtly.

Lettie bit at the corner of her left index finger. “I am trying to determine if you are lying.”

He recoiled.

“Because I am Rhys’ younger sister, and you’re likely no doubt worried about offending my sensibilities.” She waggled her eyebrows. “Well, I’ll have you know, if you are out here meeting a woman, I’ll despise her,” she prattled happily, looping her arm through his. “Because I’ve only just found you again.”

As she spoke, his gaze slid to her fingertips upon his sleeve. His muscles jumped under her innocent touch, and he felt another wave of hunger go through him.