“You did.”
“Then why are you here?” she demanded. “Surely there are other women who you can harass?”
“Is that what I am doing? Harassing you?”
“What else might you call it?”
She acted brave but he saw the fear in her eyes. The way her body trembled. How she tried to hold his eyes but glanced awayconstantly. And when he took a gentle step forward, her body turned rigid.
“I will be blunt with you, Miss Celestine, because at this stage, there is no point in being anything but. You found my list last evening, so you know that I am searching for a woman of particular…” He considered his phrasing. “Interests.”
“Of which I am not one of them.”
“But you are,” he said. “More than you can know. Tell me, what do you know about me? And be honest, please. Not that this is something that you are not used to.”
Her eyes flashed distaste. “I know that you are a rake. That you spend your spare time courting and bedding any woman who will have you. I know that you own a gaming hell, one you use to blackmail your peers with so that you can own them. I know…” Her upper lip curled. “That any woman with half a brain would be smart to want nothing to do with you.”
Her words hurt more than Edward liked to admit.
Again, he was responsible for these rumors, and he would not deny the fact. But they were less than half true…
“So, you do not know nearly as much as you claim,” he said flatly. “People do talk, and what they say is exactly as you have described. But most of it is highly exaggerated and more so. I am not what people say.”
“Ha!”
“Alas, a reputation is a hard thing to absolve oneself of. And while I do not care about my reputation, what I do care about is that of my niece.” He made sure to look right at her as he spoke, so that she would know that he wasn’t lying. “She turns eighteen next month, at which point she will debut into society. She is excited for it, thrilled at what awaits her, but what she does not know is that all that she wants and desires will be denied her because of who she is associated with. Me.”
Miss Celestine hesitated. “I… I do not care about your niece.”
“Yes, you do,” he said. “I saw how you look out for your sisters. You are protective like that. You are even willing to jeopardize your own reputation so that they might be saved. You are argumentative. You are stubborn. You are…” He chuckled. “… mad, or so they say. But you are also the exact type who would not want to see someone as innocent as my niece suffer for the sins of others.”
Again, she hesitated. “So what if I am? What does this have to do with me?”
He took another step toward her and again she turned rigid.
“There is nothing I will not do for my niece,” he said as he approached her. “And it starts with improving my reputation so that when she debuts, she will not be weighed down by the things that I have done. I have one month to do this for her. One month to prove to the ton that I am not what people say.”
He saw the realization begin to dawn on her. Those hazel eyes opened wide. Her mouth dropped slightly. And a frown worked across her brow…
“That list you found last evening,” he continued as he came to within three feet of her. “It was a collection of all the eligible women of the ton who I might ask to marry me. Women with good reputations. Women who might be obedient to my needs and not cause problems. However…” He chuckled and shook his head. “It was only after I spoke to you that I realized the error of my approach.”
“I…” She swallowed. “I do not…”
“I do not need obedience,” he said. “What I need is someone who wants the same thing as I do. Someone with a reputation to match my own. Someone who I know will play along, while never risking the obvious.” He raised an eyebrow at her.
She shook her head. “I am not… whatever it is you are about to ask…”
“Do not play coy,” he said, dropping his voice to a purr. “You know what I am here to ask.” He paused and let that sit. “I am here to ask you to marry me.”
She must have seen it coming but she gasped nonetheless. “You are mad!”
“I thought you were?”
“I cannot marry you.” She leaned back and let her disgust show. “You are… you are…”
“The worst man alive,” he finished for her. “But that is only a rumor. I am not asking you to fall in love with me, Miss Celestine. In fact, I am not even asking you to marry me.”
“But you just said –”
