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His gaze slid past them and stopped A wo beside his sister Sibylla seemed to have involved her in an animated discussion, and he shuddered to think what it was they were debating His sister did tend to delve deeply into subjects that others avoided But perhaps this was nothing too serious, because the other woreen eyes and flushed cheeks, before his gaze slid down to where her curves were on perfect display in a creaown It wasn’t one he had seen her wear before, and Doowns

Sibylla leaned down to hed with a surprisingly earthy note in her normally proper voice

Dominic felt an ache in his chest, as if soiven his heart a squeeze

Margaret Willoughby was the one person in Mockingbird Square he was yet to gift a happy ending to Not that she would want hi in her life She had told hiht of his addiction toEven so, he had looked about him at the possibilities in the square—there were a sentlemen—but after some deliberation he’d decided that none of the with every o

ne of them, and that had puzzled him for a time He’d been in denial, he supposed Nohen it was too late, he could admit why it was those other men hadn’t come up to the mark

Dominic didn’t want anybody else to have her because he wanted her for himself

Margaret was a wo the epitoh and a sohter of a vicar, and she was never going to ruin herself and bring disgrace upon her family

Because that was exactly what a liaison with Do

He had beco back at hi on her lips, the a from her eyes as they narroith mistrust But she didn’t look away He wondered what she was thinking That she would be glad to see the back of hi London to return to her home in Northuain

He supposed he should be glad They had never been friends, not on her part anyway, but instead he felt a deep regret Margaret may not have looked favourably upon him, but she had become his secret obsession

Still she atching him

More than anything he wanted to walk over to her He iined the moment He would tilt her chin and bend his head and do what he had wanted to do since the first time he saw her Kiss her Slowly at first, just a taste, and then deeper, until she was lih to persuade her into his bed, where he could ruin her so completely that she could notupon?

He groaned softly to hiant man she believed him to be then he would do just that Unfortunately, he still had a whisper of conscience

Margaret finally turned away Her shoulders were tense and she put a nervous hand to her hair, tucking back some stray curls

Idiot, he scolded himself What if someone had noticed? And then he realised that someone had noticed

His sister was giving him one of her curious stares

“Monkstead!” A voice at his side clai to be all ears The man was new to the square and Dominic still wasn’t sure he would fit in as seamlessly as he’d hoped He was very careful who he let into his little fiefdom, as Sibylla had called it

The gentlehtly inebriated As he looked past the earl’s shoulder, his expression changed, a slack s over his lips “Lady Sibylla!”

Dominic turned His sister was indeed behind hiaret with her They were ar his eyes, and he suspected she had been escorted here under protest

“Did you know that Miss Willoughby is leaving us, Nic?” his sister asked, the sorrow in her dark eyes underlaid withoff to Northumberland, of all places!”

“I did know,” he responded, s not to show his annoyance at Sibylla’s interference He refused to think of the irony in that “When are you leaving, Miss Willoughby?”