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She paused, that butterfly caress stopping altogether. “And do you… regret last night?” she asked haltingly.

“I only have one regret about being on that bed with you, Marcia.”

She froze, their eyes locking.

Marcia darted her tongue out, dampening her mouth, and he followed that innocent but seductive-as-hell gesture. “What is that?”

“That we didn’t finish what we began.”

And now they would. Because she’d be his wife, and everything that had been forbidden to this point…

Her breath caught.

Andrew took her mouth again under his, crushing her lips in a fierce kiss that he should gentle, but she met him with a like passion, and he was capable only of deepening their embrace, of gliding his tongue along the seam of her lips, following the trail she’d traced with her own moments earlier.

My God, man, you aren’t a green boy. This isn’t your first time with a woman, but why does it feel that way?Why did it feel as new and as exciting?

He wrenched away, his breath coming hard and fast and ragged to his own ears.

Marcia smiled dreamily, and fears crept back in. The reservations that had been slow to present themselves presented themselves now, reminding him that all the reasons Marcia had given for a match making sense between them were also the reasons that wedding her would be folly.

She was a friend.

And he was destined to hurt her.

Because he wasn’t capable of being more than what he was when more was precisely what she deserved.

“What is it?” she asked.

Even her ability to effortlessly read his moods unnerved the hell out of him.

He forced his lips up. “I am thinking I should get on with meeting your father.”

“Would you have me join you?”

He laughed. “Are you offering to keep me safe from your father?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

Andrew laughed all the harder, touching his brow to hers. “Thank you for that generous offer, my lady. However, I should see to this myself.” As reluctant to release her as he was to face her father, Andrew forced himself to step away and make the trek to the doorway.

“Oh, Andrew?”

He hesitated.

“I should mention my father has company.”

Unease formed a pit in his belly. “Dare I ask?” Except he needn’t because he already knew. He felt the damned fellow’s presence.

“Your brother-in-law Lord Rutland.”

He cursed. Of course he’d beaten Andrew here. He’d insert himself in even this? Perhaps it was that the other man feared he needed to be present to ensure Andrew fulfilled the agreement they’d struck.

An agreement that suddenly left him with an odd taste in his mouth and a pit in his belly.

“Now, would you like me to join you?” Marcia offered once more, misunderstanding the reason for his hesitancy.

He forced a smile. “I assure you I quite have it, love.”