“Are you enjoying the evening thus far?” she asked, looking up at him with her plump lips slightly parted. Perhaps she was expecting him to kiss her.
She would be disappointed.
His Theo, just feet from him, smiled up into Montague’s face. The sight made him almost lose his composure.
“Tolerably,” he said, glancing down at his partner. “I anticipate enjoying it more shortly.”
A smug smile widened on her mouth. “I have no doubt you will, my lord.”
He would not be enjoying it with her, but she did not need to know that, and as the dance progressed, he flirted with her all while keeping an eye on Theo. Montague pressed a glass into her hand when the music ended, but she shook her head, said something Nathanial couldn’t catch.
“Will you not come into the gardens with me?” his partner asked. “I’ve heard they’re quite something this time of year.”
“March?” He couldn’t suppress a smile at her attempt to interest him. “I’m afraid I’m not what you’re looking for.”
“And what areyoulooking for?”
Nathanial nodded at Theo. “Her.”
His partner’s eyes widened, then narrowed. Head held high, she stalked off, and Nathanial watched her go with no great sense of loss. She had served his purpose, and he had more important things to focus on.
He watched as Theo sat, fanning herself with her hand as Montague said something to her that made her smile. From the way her head lolled against the wall, she wasn’t entirely sober.
Black rage threatened to swell at the thought, but he wasn’t a man who gave into such emotions, so he merely paced through the throng towards them and pushed his anger into a white-hot ball in his chest.
“If you could fetch me some water, I would be most grateful,” Theo said. “It’s so very warm in here.”
“It’s a lot cooler outside,” Montague said, and Nathanial could have called him out there and then. “We could have a walk through the gardens.”
“And miss another dance?” she teased, glancing up at him. Nathanial couldn’t see her face under her mask, but he knewthere would be a dimple in one cheek. That damned lopsided dimple that captivated him every time it made an appearance.
“What the lady desires, she shall receive,” Montague said, his gaze lingering on her before he strode away.
Now was Nathanial’s moment. He sidled up beside her. “A lucky lady indeed,” he said, looking down at her and meeting her shocked gaze, “if she can receive everything she desires.”
Chapter Thirteen
If Theo could have contrived to drop through the floor into whatever lay below, she would have done. As it was, she could do nothing but stare into the face of the man standing before her. His mask concealed all but his grey eyes and mouth, but she had spent enough time thinking about both to know them immediately.
Nathanial.
He gave a bow, his eyes glittering half with anger, half with razor interest.
He had never looked at her like that.
She was aware of a sinking feeling. It appeared, either due to the wine’s potent effects or the surprise of Nathanial’s arrival, that she wanted him to kiss her a lot more than she wanted Sir Montague to kiss her.
This was perhaps her moment for it. He clearly did not recognise her, or he would have scolded her and taken her home, so she might act as she pleased. She could flirt with him, perhaps kiss him again, and he would never know it was her.
Anticipation, low and heated, unfurled in her stomach.
She glanced up at him, her eyelids low. “And what do you know about a lady’s desires?” she asked, her voice low and husky. She had never sounded like that before, and it was liberating to think she could do so here without judgement.
Maybe shehadhad a little too much to drink.
Nathanial hesitated for a moment, as though he had expected a different response, before leaning forward and tucking a stray curl behind her ear. His face was too close to hers as he murmured, “Perhaps you might be good enough to show me.”
Her face heated under the mask, and she was relieved to think he couldn’t see her. An experienced lady, no doubt, did not do anything as foolish asblush. “Surely first you should invite me to dance with you,” she said, holding out her hand. “I love to dance.”
