Free One Night with Prince Charming by Anna DePalo

he’d wanted. Still, what he said next was the truth. “None of this explanation was intended as an excuse.”
    â€œWhy go out of your way to arrange for me to be Lucy’s wedding planner?” Pia asked. “To make amends?”
    Hawk couldn’t help but smile at her astute query. Pia might still be rather sweet and naive, despite her posturing to the contrary, but she was intelligent. He’d been drawn to her wit on the night they’d first met.
    â€œIf I said yes, would you let me?” he parried.
    â€œI’ve found from past experience that letting you do anything is dangerous.”
    He gave a low laugh. “Even if it’s a favor?”
    â€œWith no strings attached?”
    He could sense her weakening toward him, so he gave her his most innocent look. “Would you let me wipe some of the dirt off my conscience?”
    â€œSo this is an act of mercy on my part?”
    â€œOf sorts.”
    â€œSo you’re acting not only to make up for your friend Easterbridge’s actions at Belinda’s wedding but for yours in the past as well?”
    â€œI don’t believe I was ever motivated by Easterbridge’s actions.”
    Then, not giving her a chance to backtrack, he withdrew a pen from his inner jacket pocket and using the nearby wall as support, he inked her contract with his signature.
    â€œThere, it’s signed,” he said, handing out the contract to her.
    She looked at him with some wariness, but nevertheless took the contract from him and glanced at it.
    â€œHawkshire,” she read, and then looked up, a sudden glimmer in her eyes. “How grand. Sh-should I receive it as a benediction of sorts?”
    He shrugged, willing for her to be amused at his expense. “Am I being permitted to try to make restitution, however inadequately? Then please view this contract as a grant of clemency from you to me.”
    Deliberately, he held the pen out to her.
    Pia seemed to understand his gesture for the meaning-laden act it was, and hesitated.
    Hawk glanced down at Mr. Darcy for a moment, and then arched a brow. “Our one witness wants you to sign.”
    And indeed, Mr. Darcy was looking up at them, unmoving and unblinking. Hawk was starting to realize that it was a customary pose for the cat, and he got the uncomfortable feeling that Mr. Darcy understood too much for a feline.
    â€œI’m not in the business of reforming rakes,” Pia said as she reached for the pen.
    Their fingers brushed, causing a sizzle of awareness to shoot through him.
    Hawk schooled his expression. “Of course you are,” he contradicted her. “I assume you adopted Mr. Darcy from a shelter?”
    â€œThat was saving a soul, not reforming a rake.”
    â€œIs there much difference?” he asked. “And anyway, who knows what dastardly deeds and reprobate behavior Mr. Darcy engaged in before you met him?”
    â€œBetter the devil you don’t know,” she responded, turning a well-known saying on its head.
    He placed his hand over his heart. “And yet one could say we encountered each other under blind circumstances not so different from your first meeting with Mr. Darcy. Surely, if you can find it in your heart to take him…?”
    â€œI am not taking you in like…a-a stray,” she responded reprovingly.
    â€œMuch to my regret,” he murmured.
    Giving him a lingering cautionary look, she turned her back and, using the wall for support in imitation of his earlier action, signed the contract.
    She turned back to him and handed him a copy of the contract.
    â€œSplendid,” he said with a grin. “I’d kiss you to seal the deal, but I’ll venture to guess you wouldn’t find it appropriate under the circumstances.”
    â€œCertainly not!”
    â€œA handshake then?”
    Pia eyed him, and he returned her regard with a bland look of his own.
    Slowly, she extended her hand, and he grasped