Page 52

“I have never lain with a woman before.” His gaze latched firmly onto hers as the confession spilled from his lips.

The desire to laugh bubbled up inside her. It was preposterous. Even if the scandal sheets exaggerated everything about him, he was too handsome and too eligible to have never lain with a woman. Not to mention he had already shown her pleasure she didn’t know her body was capable of.

“No.”

He lifted his shoulders. “It’s the truth, Lil.”

“You’re jesting with me.” She glanced about the room, half-expecting someone to leap out from behind the curtains and declare she had been the victim of some elaborate scheme to humiliate the least easily embarrassed of the Musgraves.

“No.”

Narrowing her gaze at him, she kept the sheet tight about herself. She didn’t consider herself easily fooled. Why would she be when she had experienced the worst that people could offer in the taunting of herself and her sisters for being ousted from society? If anything, she was more likely to take her time to trust.

And August offered no signs of a lie.

“But the stories...” She waved a hand and regretted it the moment the sheet gave way a little. Clutching it tight once more, she shook her head. “I know gossip can be conflated but rumors do not come from nothing. Goodness, even the tales of my family are half-true. We did steal a dog even if it was accidentally.”

“My tour around Europe was not without its adventures, that much is true. However, I never seduced a single woman and I never bedded one either.”

“And upon your return to England?”

“Any connections between myself and a woman are false speculation.” He sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. “But I was keen to encourage that speculation.”

“You enjoyed your rakish reputation?”

“I did,” he admitted. “It protected me.”

“Protected you?”

“It ensured no good woman would come near me.” He smirked. “At least until you.”

“There are those who would say I am not such a good woman.”

“They’re fools and you are the best of women. Were you not, I would not be so tempted to break my vow.”

“You made a vow to remain...” She dropped her voice, feeling almost idiotic whispering the word in front of such a renowned, scandalous and attractive man “...a virgin?”

“Until you,” he told her.

It was still unbelievable. She—the skinny, brash-tongued, and frankly most unsophisticated Musgrave—had tempted a man who had stayed chaste despite temptation and opportunity. She shook her head. “No. It cannot be true.” She frowned and eyed him for several heartbeats. “It really cannot be true.”

∞∞∞

How could August blame her for not believing him? He’d spent so many years pretending to be the bachelor rake who didn’t care for the consequences of his actions and whether it harmed him or others. In truth, hehadn’tcared what the consequences for himself were. So what if he died climbing a mountain? Who cared if a bull chased him down in Spain?

And did it matter if women thought him capable of bedding them and leaving them in the family way?

So long as he ensured he never became the man his father wanted him to be, none of it mattered.

Until now.

Now, for the first time in his life, he wanted the truth known. All of it. He couldn’t bear to utter a single lie to this woman ever again.

“But, August...if that is true, how did you, um...” Her cheeks pinkened and he rather enjoyed that he could make this bold woman blush. “How did you know what to do when you...” She motioned downward.

Christ but the woman couldn’t make his cock any harder. All he had to do was think of the taste and scent and the sounds she made, and he struggled to keep himself from tearing that sheet away from her and showing her precisely what he had learned over the years.

“I’m not a monk.”