It was all the excuse I needed to do precisely as I wished, which was to sit and bask in this man’s presence.
“So you know Lady Juliet well enough for her to entrust you with errands. And you speak with familiarity about Lady Grayson and her brother.”
“This again? Come now, Xander. It’s a masquerade. Do not spoil the fun.”
I’d heard that my entire life. Dav was always complaining that I ruined everything. But after Gabriel was killed and father passed, one of us had to be responsible. And it certainly wouldn’t be mother or Dav.
Tonight, though, for one night, with this stranger… Itwasa masquerade. I could be someone else, someone carefree, someone I had only ever dreamed of becoming.
“All right. Tonight, I’m Xander. Just Xander. Only until the unmasking.”
“Agreed, just Xander. Until midnight,” he said in that same tone that sent chills up my spine. And then he leaned forward and held out his hand between us.
By the time I finally realized what he intended, he’d started to pull back. In a rush, I caught his bare hand in my gloved one and tightened my fingers around his. A gentlemen’s agreement.
Six
WAYLAND’S, LONDON - JUNE 5, 1816
TOM
I’d never hateda scrap of fabric more. Well, it wasn’t a scrap. It was certainly a piece of ridiculously expensive silk. Most likely spun entirely by a single worm in Japan that was watered only with the tears of an angel. Then stitched by a dauphine with thread made of actual gold taken from the place settings at Versailles. Such facts didn’t make me loathe the black glove any less.
It had taken a moment to decide whether I was more amused, relieved, or devastated that he didn’t remember our first meeting. That he hadn’t recalled any of our other interactions wasn’t a surprise. Those had involved me staring at him desperately from behind a convenient pillar. But the first, our only conversation—humiliating though it might have been—had meant everything to me.
Still, his poor memory did afford me an opportunity now, one I was eager to seize.
Xander didn’t remember me at eight and ten.
But I could ensure that tonight was unforgettable.
I had him flustered, that much was clear. He was making those vexed, flailing hand movements with every sentence. The ones he so often made when his sister was being particularly troublesome. I shouldn’t find them so charming, but I did. I had a lot of shouldn’ts where Xander was concerned, and not a one of them had prevented me from years of lustful pining.
None of those shouldn’ts waivered even slightly when one gloved hand reached behind his head to tug at the ribbon and pull his own domino free. There was something intimate about the gesture, private. And I was greedy for more.
A glance at the clock above the mantel confirmed what I already knew. We didn’t have enough time. Twenty-seven minutes until midnight. And that was only if the clock was right.
“Well, if my time withXanderis limited, I suppose I should take advantage.”
“Take advantage, how?” he asked with an irritated divot in his forehead. His brow was heavy, some might say overgrown, but I liked the way it contrasted with his pale complexion and the way it drew my gaze to his dark eyes. They were brown, but so dark I was almost certain they were actually brown and not some other color that only looked brown to me.
“I want to know you.”
“Again, I ask you, how?” His hands danced in front of him while he spoke. I adored the way he did that, as if every single word from his lips deserved the emphasis of a gesture. Nothing he said was unimportant.
“If I ask you something, will you be honest?”
“Absolutely not.”
His affronted tone had a laugh ripping from my chest.
“If I promise to answer the same?” I asked between chuckles.
“Irrelevant. I have much more to lose here,” he insisted, annoyed.
“That is true,” I agreed, dragging the final word along for a beat. “Very well, you’ve left me no other choice. I’ll have to ask my questions and wonder if you’re being honest.”
“Very well,” he said and tipped back his drink.
