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She did not look up frohnessy," she said slowly, "that sounds suspiciously like a hidden depth"

He let out a gasp "You’re right It is!" She wasn’t looking at hi a hand over his breast "I do have a secret trauma--my many prior love affairs There can be no sharper pain then to make love to a vast number of women--but I have masterfully accepted it as my due I soldier on under the burden"

She shook her head "Are you ever serious?"

"I suppose soht have been wounded by that But I’oes, not "

"No wrinkles? Not over even one of thee If one wishes to be a grand, outrageous nas Absinthe is too dangerous; ga is too expensive Opium is a dreadful habit--one has only to look at those in an opiue, I wanted the safest, least expensive vice I could find So wo me that you seduce women as a calculation?"

"It’s been mutual And I don’t seduce women--at least not the way you mean it The Countess of Hoanted an affair withand didn’t intend to be a pattern card of propriety I’e, and the woeous, well…" He shrugged "And besides, I like wohtened But instead of upbraiding hiestured to the telescope "Co to not be able to see her--not after what he’d confessed The dark spot had begun to traverse the sun’s disc

"Aren’t there dangers in using women that way?"

"There are There are also ways to ers Technically, they’re also forbidden to er pause "Do you confess those ways to Father Wineheart as well?"

"I confess all my sins"

He could hear her behind him, but with his eye on the disc of the sun, he could not see her He had no idea if she was outraged or interested, if he’d disgusted her forever or set her ine that You tell all these salacious details to Father Wineheart, and in turn, he lets you put a telescope in the spire"

"I only ed "Ito confess since thatal but lust, which he rather expects fro her back to the telescope "You’d better take it back, Rose The clouds are co"

She held his eyes for a long , didn’t knohat she was thinking She bent back down

She had to adjust the telescope yet again to track the sun in its descent She didn’t say anything for a while, but he could see her hands nervously tapping against the optical tube Her breath was uneven

"Tell hnessy Is that what you had hoped for fro, and then continued "To seduce me and then not fall in love?"

"No," he told her "I’ to remind myself that the women who are after me wish only an experience or a reputation and not a lifeti to flatten all but the barest hint of affection"