The Temptation of a Gentleman by Jenna Petersen

doesn’t even know I correspond with my aunts. I enlisted our cook’s help in getting the letters in and out. I’m fortunate to be able to communicate with them at all.”
    “ But how will this provide for your future if I…” he paused as a quick picture of Marion across his bed flashed into his head. “If I do as you ask?”
    “ My aunts have told me many times that if I could escape my father they would provide for me, but I’ve never been able to do so.” She took a sidelong glance at Noah. “But if I were ruined he would have nothing to gain by keeping me with him. I could escape to my aunts and be free of his schemes.”
    “ Are you sure he’d release you?” From the sound of her description, Marion’s father might keep her just out of spite.
    “ He would be so angry if I was ruined.” Her voice grew soft and her eyes lit up with just a twinge of fear. “I would ruin all his plans, but I think he’d be more than pleased to send me away. The idea of me rotting away on the streets would probably appeal to him.”
    Noah gritted his teeth. He was going to have to work very hard at making Walter Hawthorne’s life hell after Marion was safely away from him.
    “ Why hasn’t he tried to make a match for you earlier?” he asked. “After all, you’re very beautiful. I’m sure other men have been interested in your hand.”
    Marion blushed. This man who had probably been with a hundred far more lovely women called her beautiful. Suddenly she wished he would touch her hand again, or that she was brave enough to take his.
    She gave a shake of her head to clear her foggy mind. “I’m not certain why he hasn’t made a match with me before. He’s never encouraged me to court. In fact, he’s always discouraged it. I believe he liked having a free servant and hostess. But I know why he’s selling me now.”
    “ Why?” Noah leaned forward as if this piece of information was very important to him.
    “ When I overheard him making his… arrangement with Mr. Lucas, they said it would settle a debt.”
    Noah nodded. “I thought as much. Cads.”
    He said the damnation with such heat that Marion jumped. The man with the flashing blue eyes and dangerous look wasn’t the same one who’d teased her as they walked through the rolling hills of Woodbury. He seemed much darker now.
    “ Will you help me?” she asked.
    He shook his head as if he’d forgotten her existence for a brief moment. “I’m not certain.” He looked her up and down as if sizing her up. “What would I gain from this arrangement?”
    Noah could name several benefits from pretending to ruin Marion. At least he’d get a few kisses from the deal, and that should have been enough. But there was something more. The chance to free her was just as powerful a draw as any physical one.
    She blinked at him, stunned. “I don’t understand.”
    “ I mean, if I’m to help you, I would expect repayment in some way.” He smiled. “You said it yourself, I’m a rake. I’m not a respectable man.”
    Her surprise turned to humor as she realized he was teasing her. “Isn’t helping a lady enough repayment?”
    Noah paused. Looking at Marion with her dark eyes focused on him, her slender hands resting so close to his own and smelling her intoxicating fragrance, he could almost believe helping a lady would be more than enough. But his promise to Lord Golding gave him pause. If he thwarted Josiah Lucas’s plans, Noah would certainly lose any chance he had of proving whether or not Georgina Ross had been murdered.
    Then he thought of the vow he’d made to Charlotte Ives, and his pause became greater. He’d sworn he wouldn’t behave in a way that would embarrass her once she was his Marchioness. And publicly ruining an innocent… a very beautiful innocent… even if it weren’t real, would certainly embarrass Charlotte. He was torn.
    But perhaps there was a way.
    “ I’ll have to consider it,” he said.
    Her face fell. “But I