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He didn’t add that watching her speak about her convictions had been electrifying. Even when she was tearing him to shreds.
“They didn’t seem to stop her from associating with a useless aristocrat such as yourself in the first place,” Henry teased.
“We had a connection,” he murmured. “Or so I thought.”
You make it sound like a choice.
His brother’s words rang in his ears. They had sounded like sentimental drivel only hours ago. But now…now Rafe couldn’t strike them from his mind.
“Thought or did?”
“I don’t know,” he said petulantly. “It was hard to distinguish the truth from the lies.”
“Bit hypocritical to get upset over her lying to you. She certainly had no idea you were a spy, did she?”
“Well, obviously I couldn’t tell her aboutthat. At least not at first.” Henry shot him a skeptical look. “I did intend to,” Rafe protested, but he knew how he sounded. Like a self-righteous ass. Like a man looking for any available excuse to dismiss her.
“If you were actually considering a future with her, you absolutely could have. Rather owed it to her, in my opinion.”
“It wouldn’t have changed anything anyway,” he groused. The waiter returned with his drink, and he took a long, considering sip. Despite his words, image after image of Sylvia flashed in his mind: her smiling, her laughing, her patiently listening to stories from his miserable school days. Could he really dismissallof that, even when he had held the evidence in his very arms? Felt her writhe beneath him, felt her slick with desire for him, and swallowed her cries of pleasure with his own lips.
“You are far more than your work, you know.”
Every muscle in Rafe’s body tensed at Henry’s gentle tone.
He uttered a dark laugh and stared into his glass. “And what is that? The disgraced second son of a scandalous earl? Yes, how irresistible.”
“Is that truly how you see yourself?” Rafe refused to look at Henry. Refused to see the pity he knew he would find there. When he didn’t answer, Henry sighed. “What will you do instead?”
Rafe tried to picture his future. The years seemed to stretch endlessly before him, devoid of color. Alone.
“I’m due to visit my mother in Monaco. Perhaps I’ll spend some time at the tables in Monte Carlo and live up to this damned reputation I’ve created.”
“You’ll be bored in a week.”
“I know,” he muttered.
Henry then looked past Rafe again and narrowed his eyes. “Seeing as how according to you there is no hope of any future whatsoever with MissWilcox, I suppose you wouldn’t have any interest in meeting the man who just might be her brother.”
“What?”
Henry gestured behind him with his chin. “See that fellow over there? That’s Lionel Wilcox. I met him during my ill-fated London Season. Bit of an ass, as I recall.”
Rafe turned and immediately spotted the man in question, who shared Sylvia’s coloring and a likeness about the eyes. He had to be her brother. Rafe’s shoulders tensed as he watched Wilcox share a laugh with another man. He seemed entirely at ease with himself, wearing a suit cut in the newest style.
He turned back to Henry, who was studying him like a hawk. “She said he turned her out of their childhood home because he needed the money.”
“Well, I’d say that appears to be no longer a problem.”
The club fees here were eye-watering.
Rafe was on his feet in an instant and headed directly toward the swine. He stopped just before the two men. “Are you Lionel Wilcox?”
The man raised an eyebrow at the blunt question. “Yes.”
“Brother of Sylvia?”
Wilcox’s expression darkened for a moment before he smiled at his companion. “Please, do excuse me.” Then he rose and led Rafe a few steps away. “What is this about?” He lowered his voice and glanced around the room. “I gather she’s your mistress. Have you got her with child? I’m not interested in raising any bastards, so you’ll have to take care of it yourself.” Rafe was rendered speechless by the man’s assumptions about hissister. Even if that were the truth, how could he be so callous? Was this the treatment Sylvia had learned to expect from her own family? “Or is it money you’re after? Well?” Lionel prompted at his continued silence. “Listen. I’m a reasonable man, but you’ll need to explain.”
