His hopes for a brawl faded as he neared Mayfair without any sign of a footpad or even an obliging cutthroat. Good God, what had London come to when a single gentleman remained unmolested on the streets at night?

He didn’t want to see inside Lily’s heart; he didn’t want to know her beauty was the least remarkable thing about her.

You’re drunk.”“Just drunk enough,” he agreed in a low, amused voice.Don’t ask. Don’t ask. Don’t ask.“Just drunk enough for what?” Drat.

If a wicked rake doesn’t kiss a young lady when they’re alone in a moonlit rose garden, might it mean he doesn’t intend to? There were rules about such things. Weren’t they written down somewhere? If not, then they should be. A Treatise on Rakes, written for Susceptible Young Ladies, by a Lady of Distinction.

His kiss was like being on the back of a runaway horse, soaring over hills and galloping through streams and flying over logs in one spectacular jump after another, heart pounding and hair flying, breathless, exhilarated, and terrified.

Oh, how glorious it must be, to care nothing for society’s censure, but how terrible it must be, to care for nothing at all.

She was determined to sever the connection between her brain and her mouth before any unpleasant truths could escape. After all, she didn’t need a brain to flirt, did she?

Something in his chest leapt toward her then. His heart, he thought it was, but it didn’t matter, really. Whatever it was, it was a part of him, and he’d never get it back from her. Didn’t want it back.

Every night afterward, for months, years, he’d think about this moment and wonder what had made him turn. Had he sensed her before he saw her? Or did he catch her scent? Every night afterward, for months, for years, he’d remind himself it didn’t matter why he’d turned. It mattered only he had, and he’d seen her. Nothing was ever the same again, after that.

Robyn made it a policy to never feel guilty for any of his sins, as it was a short step from guilt to confession. The kiss had been nothing. Or nearly nothing. Very close to nothing. Admit nothing.