"If you aren’t going to tell me what I want to know, I’m going to
find out for myself. I won’t rest until I ruin you. I promise you right now, that’s what will happen if you marry her.”

“And you think you can stop me? You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”

To my surprise, she laughs. “You’re such a fucking cliché. You’re not the first asshole I’ve dealt with, and you won’t be the last. But you want to know the truth about men like you? They’re weak. Every. Single. One. So, what’ll it take to get you to not go through with this. My silence? My body? What if I were to pay my father’s debt myself? How much is it?”

I push to my feet, throat dry but there’s no more wine. I’ve
drunk it all. “Neither your silence nor your body are worth anything to me, Catriona. Don’t flatter yourself. And as for the debt? You couldn’t afford it.” She doesn’t back down when I draw steadily closer. “There’s nothing you can do to stop this. It’s not a crusade. There’s not going to be any justice. Don’t get in my way, or I’ll make you regret it.”

Brave girl, with her emotion choked eyes and knotted hands. She’s trying so hard to be strong. Doesn’t she know it’s useless? She’s going to give in. She has to see there’s no way out of this. I let the relief fill me until my muscles turn liquid. I spin to the doorway before her voice stops me.

“Do you want me to beg, like I did that night? Because I’ll beg
if that’s what you want. I’ll give you whatever you want. What you had that night. More. Everything. Anything… if you’ll do this for me. Please.”

The smart thing to do would be to brush her off, will the
memories of her away and leave her. I have too much going on to be distracted by her mouth and her pretty pleading. Too much at stake. Too much to lose. Entertaining her would be a mistake.

And yet.

And yet…

“What would you do for me, Catriona? Would you get on your knees while you beg? You’d have to. To make me believe it. I remember you were so pretty that way.”

She sucks in a breath, and the indecision of it wars across her face before her expression hardens. “You’d love that, wouldn’t you? If—if that’s what it will take for you to leave us alone, the—then I’ll do whatever you want.”

“Is that really something you want to say to a man like me? I
realize you don’t know me very well—well, most of me—but it would be in your best interest to be very careful what you’re willing to do for me.”

She lifts a brow, regal and perhaps so pissed off at me now that
she’s forgetting to be afraid.

“You’re mistaken, O’Connor. It isn’t what I’m willing to do for
you. It’s what I’m willing to do to stop you from marrying her.”

“And that would be?”

Catriona takes a deep breath before tipping her face up and warms me from the inside out like the burn of a good whiskey.

“Anything. I’d do anything you want to stop this,” she says. “Including getting on my knees…or marrying you instead.”