“And I want you all to myself,” he heard her saying through the thick fog in his ears. “So that we might reunite and talk and catch up on all these years.” At last, she released her hold upon him and sighed. “Alas, I suspect you are just being polite about your assignation, as that is what men do.”

“I am not meeting anyone out here,” he gritted out. “I am here stealing time of my own, away from the guests and away from people.” He gave her a pointed look, trying to will her to go.

She beamed and gave a happy clap of her hands. “Splendid!” With that, she pulled herself onto the terrace ledge. Or she tried to.

Muttering under her breath, she struggled to heft herself up, cursing quietly. Despite himself and the danger posed in them being along together, he let a smile tug at his lips.

“Do you require assistance?” he drawled, and it really should have been the very last thing he offered.

“No. No. I quite have it,” she assured. “You surely recall I am quite the climber.” Suddenly, she hiked her skirts, revealing slender but muscular calves, and his mouth went dry as she hauled herself up.

He forced his eyes up to her face.

“That is, I’m quite adept when not saddled with these.” She caught the sides of her satin dress and gave another pull, crushing the fabric in a noisy, hedonistic rustle, and Anthony’s breath caught as he frantically lifted his gaze up to the star-studded sky.

I should leave. I must leave. I have to leave.

One, she was Rhys’ sister.

And two, well, he’d never seen her…like this.

All grown up, her form voluptuous, her hips rounded, and wearing a lavender creation that clung to her every curve.

I should leave. I must leave. I have to leave.

It was a mantra that played over and over inside his head.

“Why?” she asked into the quiet.

Anthony stared blankly at her.

“You said you must leave, that you have to leave?” she clarified, confirming in the tumult of his riotous emotions that he’d spoken his thoughts aloud.

“Because, Lettie,” he said gruffly, “you know.” Even as a young girl, she’d been clever.

She stared perplexedly back.

And then it hit him.

She did not know. But then, the details of the favor her mother had put to him and how he’d been discovered by her brother was hardly a tale for a lady’s ears and certainly nothing that would have been shared.

And he was too much of a coward to share even a hint of his past transgressions against Rhys.

“It is hardly appropriate for you, an unwed lady, to be alone out here with me…” Except, as soon as that curt pronouncement left him, he stilled as a thought slipped in, an unwelcome one. “Are you married?”

“No.”