“Are you sure?” Kate asked, casting a suspicious glance at Mason.
“It is fine,” Caroline reassured her. “We shan’t be long.”
Kate nodded and dragged Clair out of the room, Hunt trailing behind.
“What would you like to discuss?” Caroline asked hesitantly.
“A matter of great importance.”
Her brows snapped together. “What matter?”
“The matter of you and me.”
“I do not understand.”
“I will not press charges for the theft.” Mason sent her a toothy grin. “That doesn’t mean there will be no consequences.”
Her eyes sparked with fire as they narrowed on him. “What consequences?”
“A condition, really.” At her shocked expression, his grin widened. If he were being sensible, he’d walk away. Impossible. Every sensible bone in his body crumbled in her presence. And upon glimpsing the sisters huddling together in protection of each other, those crumbled and turned to dust. He didn’t want to part with her. So he wouldn’t.
“I have one condition.”
She bit her lip. “What condition?”
“Marry me.”
Chapter 4
Caroline stood in a state of shock as Lonsdale stared at her steadily.
Marriage? To him?
Absolutely not!
On what merit? Besides the fact that she was the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman—a nobleman that wasn’t quite noble—she came with a barrage of baggage and he was a viscount. Handsome. Rich. The entire world at his fingertips.
Had he lost his marbles?
There was no possible reason in Caroline’s mind that he should propose such a ridiculous notion. Perhaps she had she heard him wrong? But then, one look into his honey-colored eyes and the weight of his proposal hit her straight in the belly.
For a moment, she forgot to breathe.
He most definitely lost his marbles.
Her mind flashed with a thousand reasons why she ought to escape this man and his powerful hold over her senses, as well as a thousand different reasons why she wished to embrace his proposal.
“I can see the wheels of you mind spinning, Caroline,” he said in a low voice. “What are you thinking about?”
“That insanity has finally claimed you.”
He chuckled. “I am in possession of all my senses. Marry Me.”
“Absolutely not.” If the words sounded a thousand times right on her tongue, the feeling brewing in her chest felt a thousand times wrong.
He arched a brow. “Did you not want to escape the influence of your father? I imagined you would leap at the chance to catch a viscount,” he lowered his voice, “for surely you have caught me, Caroline.”
Donotfall for his seductive words.“You imagined wrong.”
