Page 85 of The Good Girl's Guide to Rakes
She’d disappeared from the ball after her dance with the priggish Lord Montford, which had worried Kieran, but she likely had returned home to don her Salome disguise and make ready for tonight.
He forced himself to take a long, steadying breath. Maybe he was wrong, and he hoped like hell he wasn’t, but she seemed to care for him. Surely, he could make a convincing case that they would be well matched.
But that didn’t solve the conundrum of the earl, or her father’s determination for her to marry Montford. There had to be some way to break Celeste’s future engagement without causing her or her family irreparable damage, and avoiding Ned Kilburn’s rage. The hell of it was that he didn’t know what that way might be.
The clock struck a quarter hour past midnight, and anxiety clambered up his neck. Was it possible... she wasn’t coming? She’d appeared so eager for another escapade.
He exhaled in relief when two cloaked female figures appeared a block away and headed straight toward him. As they neared, he frowned. The gown Celeste wore beneath her cloak was the same one she’d worn to the ball, and when lamplight fell on her face, it revealed that she hadn’t worn her Salome paint.
He’d meant to say something wry or glib, something that didn’t reveal quite how breathlessly eager he was for their excursion. Yet as she stopped in front of him, her eyes brimming with pain, all words dried up and flaked away. Fear clawed along his limbs.
At once, he took her hand and led her into the shadows. When they were in the mews of a house, with Dolly keeping watch from the street, he tugged Celeste close. She stepped into his arms without hesitation, and he held her snug to him, the tremors in her body working their way into his.
“What is it, love?” he murmured against the crown of her head. Protectiveness beat like a drum beneath his skin. She meant everything to him and he’d do whatever it took to shield her from harm. “Let me help.”
“You can’t. No one can.” Her shudders stopped, and she stepped away from him.
Alarm turned him cold, but when he tried to hold her again, she evaded his touch. “If there’s something I’ve done,” he began, “some harm I’ve caused—”
“It isn’t you,” she said, her voice unsteady. “But... our arrangement has to end. All of our nocturnal excursions have to stop immediately. The same with me accompanying you at respectable events... though you’ve no need for me anymore.”
“The other night at the Imperial,” he said, self-loathing bubbling up acidly, “I went too far.”
“We both wanted it to happen, and I don’t regret it.”
A thread of relief unwound in him, yet she wouldn’t look him in the eye. “Whatever it is, just tell me. We’ll find some way to face it.”
She was silent for a moment, and she was somewhere distant, somewhere he couldn’t touch. “Lord Montford knows. About Salome. He knows I’m her, and he’ll expose me if I don’t stop.”
Anger the likes of which he’d never experienced erupted within him. The urge to hurt, to destroy, pounded in his blood.
“I’ll fucking murder Montford,” he snarled.
“If you hurt him,” she said, her voice weighted with exhaustion, “the scandal would make you untouchable. No one will consent to have their daughter wed you. And if you don’t marry, it doesn’t just affect you, but Dom and Finn, too.”
Goddamn his family and hers for forcing them into this unwinnable situation. Yet the solution was there, a solution that would break them free—and bring a lifetime of paradise.
“Marry me,” he said, taking her cold hands in his. When she stared up at him, he spoke urgently, doggedly. “It solves all of our problems. I need a respectable bride, and if you’re married, you’ll be safe from the blackmailing bastard. And... I care for you, Celeste.” His throat was raw as words he’d wanted to say finally came pouring forth. “You’ve become the world to me, and I want to be yours for the rest of our days. I will do everything to bring you the happiness you deserve.”
He drew in a ragged breath, and his body shook. “Celeste, I love—”
“Don’t.” With a cry, she tore her hands from his. “Please don’t say that.”
“You don’t feel the same,” he said hoarsely. Something shriveled inside him.
“It doesn’t matterwhatI feel,” she answered, her voice so low he had to strain to hear it. “It can’t happen. If I marry you to escape Lord Montford, he’s going to go to the papers and let everyone know what I’ve done. Married or not, I won’t be respectable anymore, and the conditions of your family’s ultimatum won’t be met. You’ll be cut off without a cent.”
“I don’t give a fuck about the money,” he ground out.
“What about Dom?” she fired back. “And Finn? Can we in good conscience consign them to poverty merely so we can get whatwewant?” She shook her head. “I can’t.”
The misery on her face, the bitter resignation nearly sent him to his knees.
She was being forced back into the box she hated. The independence that meant so much to her would be ripped away by a hand that wasn’t hers. All the things that she prized, all gone in the course of a night.
He fumbled in his pockets before pressing a handful of coins into her palms. “It’s not much, but I can find more. Take it. Book passage on a ship that leaves tonight. Just run, love. Run as far away as you can.” It meant losing her, but she’d gain the freedom she needed, and that would have to be enough.
“It’s not so easy.” She pulled away so he was left holding the money. “What befalls me stains my family, and if I flee, Dom and my father will suffer the consequences of the scandal.”
