He ceased humming abruptly, though he did not yet relinquish her from his arms. He was not certain that he could stop waltzing with her.
“Do you hate this?” she asked, her voice hesitant. “Dancing?”
He adored it. Had always loved moving his body, and especially enjoyed the sensation of her ungloved hand in his. The feel of her soft curves beneath his fingers.
“Waltzing is… tolerable,” he admitted begrudgingly. “With you.”
The smile that blossomed on her face filled his entire body with sunshine. One needn’t visit a park for fresh air when one held Miss Dodd in one’s arms. She was the song of every bird, the smell of every flower, the caress of every breeze.
Worse, when she looked at him like this, he found himself more and more actively trying his hardest not to return her contagious smiles.
He, who had not smiled in well over a decade! Trying not to. And very nearly failing in the endeavor.
“Thank you,” she said softly.
He pulled her a little closer as they waltzed. The library was too small to do the dance justice, but Titus didn’t care about anything outside of the woman in his arms. The enclosed circle of their embrace had become his entire world. Her warmth, a comfort. Her softness, incredible. Her lips, irresistible.
He forced his gaze away from her mouth and up to her eyes. She was staring at him as though he’d transformed into a handsome prince.
Titus knew better, of course. His face was the stuff of nightmares, and his manners not much better. He was not the hero of the fairy tale, but the beast to be slain so that the beautiful princess could live happily ever after.
But he could not let her go. Or look away. Her face was nothing short of that of an angel. She didn’t need ball gowns and French fashions to hold his heart in her hands. She just had to look up at him like she was at this moment. Eyelashes heavy. Lips parted. As though longing for his kiss.
He willed himself to keep his heart hardened and his walls strong. He would not, could not, allow himself to feel more for her than any other duty he was responsible for as an earl. Keeping every semblance of emotion locked away was the only way to ensure he would not care when she inevitably vanished from his life and he found himself once again all alone.
“You know,” she said with a sweet smile, “you could first-name me if you wished to.”
“I don’t wish to.”
“But if you did, you could call me Matilda.”
“I thought I said waltzes were to be performed in silence.”
“You said one needn’t feel obliged to converse. I don’t feel obligated to talk to you. I enjoy it.”
He glared down at her. What the devil was he supposed to say to that?
“‘Thank you, Mattie’,” she parroted in a deep voice. “‘I am fond of talking to you, too. You are my favorite ward.’”
“Stop,” he commanded before the smile lurking behind his sneer managed to break free. “I’m not fond of anything, least of all the inconvenience of a ward.”
“‘Which is why I took you to the dressmaker, Tilly’,” she continued in her faux-deep voice. “‘And enjoyed a private stroll with you in the park. And then banished your maid in order to pull you scandalously close for a waltz.’”
It did not quite sound as coldhearted and cruel as Titus prided himself on portraying.
“I am merely imitating the sort of interaction a young lady might find herself in at a ball,” he informed her. “You would do well to curb your impertinent tongue. An unscrupulous rake will do whatever he must to shut you up.”
Her eyebrows shot skyward in challenge. “Would he? I find myself positively quaking in my dancing slippers to discover what dastardly behavior a rake might employ. Show me.”
His jaw hardened. “If anyone flirts inappropriately or even pretends he might steal a kiss, you are to slap him and scream for help.”
She wiggled her fingers against his upper arm. “Slapping hand ready. Show me what I am to avoid at all costs.”
This was a terrible idea.
“Stop me before I make contact,” he warned her. “This is all pretend.”
“‘Stop me, my darling Tilda’,” she corrected him in her mocking earl voice. “‘Stop me, my fair Mattie-Mat-Mat.’ ‘Stop me, my sweet, mellifluous—’”
