"I'm definitely scandalized!" he asserts. The problem is that's not all he is. He sort of stumbles back a step when Azwel comes forward, but it's less about escape and more just a physical show of how off-balance he is. There's a table right there, behind him and he sets his hands on the edge of it, steadying himself by leaning back on it just slightly and he's not at all aware how inviting that turns his posture, but he can't honestly say he would stop it if he did.

That's the problem here, as Azwel comes forward with that grin. He knows he should stop this, needs to reassert some kind of sanity here, but he really doesn't want to. He can't even say yet that it's Azwel's brains he's attracted to, for all he knows, the man could just have an impressive alchemical collection. There's not even that to fall back on as an excuse.

He's dimly aware that this is the kind of thing noble houses do all the time, that his sister has practically gift-wrapped him, that she's hardly going to mind, but it's not the kind of thing he'd ever thought he'd get mixed up in.

(Then again, torrid affair is probably less scandalous than "killed a professor at school because he was hurting students" really, so there's not even fully a leg to stand on there.)