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But she didn’t melt into his arms; instead she pulled back and looked at him steadily "It’s true that I do not betray Draven by spending time with you… but I think that in some way, I betray myself"

Rafe opened his en looked at the di on her bed and bit back a sht The line about betraying oneself had silenced hi that you truly wish to stop our s?" He sounded stunned

She nodded "As I said, I’rateful It was--" she hesitated--"remarkably pleasurable But I do not care to think of es This has been a valuable lesson"

"We don’t have tohis voice

"I do not wish to continue having a surreptitious affair"

Silence Then: "You appear to find it reo the pleasures we have shared"

"I enjoyed them," she said "But if I were ever to embark on another affair, Gabriel, I shall not be the one to chase h clenched teeth

But she was senuine, and I arateful for it" It was a dis desperately that he ought to rip off the mustache And yet… he was terrified He was a paltry hted, foolish husband, if it came to that Draven Maitland hadn’t been a drinker, after all She deserved better

"Good-bye," she said

"Io and then paused, back to her "What will you do now? Do you plan to marry?"

"Not in the i as if he had been struck about the head Apparently his plan to prove hi to be Gabe so that Ien would have no recourse but to accept his hand was a failure

He didn’t feel heartbroken What he felt was a tre wish to take a drink To retreat into the soft golden hue of forgetfulness that ca, he didn’t care that he wasn’t a fit consort for a wo down the stairs Moonlight filtered direat stairs trod by so many dukes who actually--

But he stopped, hand on the door to his study Like any drunk, he had whiskey hidden there, liquor frohtcap, or two or three

But were all those dukes so worthy of the great stairs? His father, with his second faitih Rafe loved him dearly, was so hidebound that he didn’t even bother to share the news that Rafe had a half brother? What he rerandfather was a cold, thin randfather who had arranged his father’s e, when his son was a mere lad Perhaps his father would have been a different man had he been allowed to marry as he wished