Page 48 of The Rake’s Convenient Bride

“Yes, a relief,” she echoed. “Likely we will not need to continue seeing one another as it will lay the foundation for people to see our affection for one another beginning to dissolve.”

A muscle worked in Jasper’s jaw, and he gave a single nod. “Of course.”

Really, she made such the suggestion not entirely for the benefit of layering the story in light of their impending broken engagement, but for herself. She could not pretend a moment longer. She could not see him every day knowing that he was relieved to be done with her presence.

If she was not to be with him, she did not wish to see him at all.

Better that he move on to a woman he wanted to marry, a woman he’d genuinely asked from the onset. And better that she free up her heart to possibly find a real engagement for herself. One based on love.

After all, that’s what she’d wanted since she was a young girl, despite the wallflower pact. If she was ever to marry, she wanted to find someone who would love her for her, exactly how she was.

“As to that, my lady, I suspect it would be best to take my leave.” He stood and put his gloves on, somehow severing the intimacy between them with that simple action. “We cannot have people assuming we are besotted with one another.” He gave her a smile that didn’t reach his eyes and made her immediately miss the warmth of his affection.

How quickly he could turn off the charm, as effortlessly as he had turned it on.

Elizabeth thought she would feel better having finally done what she’d intended since the moment they’d been found in that empty study together. Except she felt worse. Far, far worse than she’d ever imagined, and she spent the better part of the day curled up in bed with the excuse of a headache.

But while she thought she might feel better the next day, she in fact did not, going from awful to worse than awful when the usual morning delivery of hothouse flowers from Jasper did not arrive.

The absence of that bouquet was the beginning of the end, and already Elizabeth mourned the loss of the man she was never supposed to love.

The man, she strongly suspected, she absolutely did love.

Jasper prowled around Darington Place the next morning, lost in a tangle of thoughts from which there was no reprieve.

He dissected the conversation again and again, breaking it down piece by analytical piece. At no point had he shown his hand to his opponent. Surely, she could not have known he was going to propose marriage.

For years he had kept his heart sheltered by a wall, and now, he had finally begun to let that wall chip away, revealing the parts of him that were still wounded. Still raw. Still so bloody vulnerable. He had begun to let her in.

Thank God he had not yielded himself completely, lest he look the fool.

He was only glad she had ended things when she did, sparing his pride from yet another blow in life where one more might be mortally wounding.

When he finally allowed himself to show at luncheon, Bess was waiting for him with a small pile of papers. “I believe I’ve found the perfect baker to provide the pastries for your wedding.”

Jasper’s already sour mood curdled further. “There won’t be a wedding.”

Silence followed his announcement.

Bess lifted her brows. “There was a well-attended engagement party two nights ago that would suggest otherwise.”

Jasper shook his head, not wanting to discuss it. Least of all with Bess.

“You’ve changed your mind about her,” Bess said softly. “I worried she might be too tame for you.”

“It is not me who has changed my mind,” he replied. “Or rather, it is, but not in the way you mean.”

“You aren’t making a lick of sense.” She sniffed. “I imagine there is a wild tale beneath all of this intrigue.”

He scowled.

“Precisely.” She poured a fresh cup of tea for herself and one for him, then settled back in her chair. “I suggest you start from the beginning.”

He sighed and did exactly that, explaining how he’d gone into the study to escape all the Mamas and the debutantes they wanted to thrust in his direction.

“Well, that certainly explains why you haven’t found a wife,” Bess muttered, interrupting him.

“You certainly tried to hand sell me like a meat pie,” Jasper fired back, still prickly.