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not affect his ability to garner invitations to ton parties. It had the opposite effect to society matrons who wanted to show the ladies who to avoid. They pointed at him and whispered when they thought that he did not see. They gave him a wide berth mostly and no lady of quality ever asked him to dance or dared speak to him if they could help themselves.

He pretended their barbs did not affect him, even going so far as to prove aloof to his own father when the man asked him if the rumors were indeed true. If he had not only went to Vanessa's bed but, others as well. For other ladies had used his reputation to their advantage claming his seduction of them, therefore claiming their own happily ever after.

Basically, he could not defend himself. Once he had been in Vanessa's bed, he could not gainsay anything anyone else said, or else he would risk her friendship. If he told the truth, he would ruin her and her marriage.

His biggest regret had been when he realized the error of his ways. When the blush of youth had passed and his indiscretion came back to haunt him in a major bone crushing way..
By then, the conclusion had come too late. Too late to realize that love would strike him quickly and leave him empty. That love would slip through his fingers and bring him enormous pain.

Chapter One: Part one: page 1

Olivia traveled through Mayfair carrying her packages in one arm and biting her nails with the empty one. She worried because she would see Nathan again after a few long months. The man that was her nearest and dearest friend had been known to all as the seducer of innocents but, she saw a much different side to him. He had been the one who had stood by her through her childhood years. When the female members of society had snubbed her wild, dark blond braids, he had comforted her when her sobs had become too much to bear.

Now that they were all grown, he being an unmarried male and she a very unmarried Viscount's daughter they went their own way most of the time. The only way they saw each other was by way of balls or by pure secrecy. That is the reason she now stood on the corner of Bond Street waiting rather impatiently for him to come. They had agreed to meet for she had something rather serious to impart to him.

The secrecy had been all Nathan's idea for the man had idiotic ideas that he would ruin her somehow. What he failed to comprehend was that she had always stood on the fringes of society anyhow. That argument had not swayed him in the least and he

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