“No,” she whispered. “You’ve made that clear. So you don’t get a say.”
She could see how frustrated that response made him, though she still didn’t know why. He clearly despised her, she had earned his ire. What more was there to say? Except he kept coming to her. He kept inserting himself in her life like he had some desire to be there.
And it was unfair. And wonderful. And too hard to express.
The music ended, but Lucien didn’t release her. They stood in the middle of the dancefloor, staring at each other. And slowly, Elise became aware of something else. Almost everyone in their vicinity was staring at them. Mistresses, straying ladies, gentlemen of industry and titled ones…they were all watching them.
“Lucien,” she whispered.
He nodded slowly. “I see them.”
He backed away from her and issued a smart bow. Then he caught her arm and guided her from the floor. The others began to go back to their business, and she expected him to simply deposit her outside the ring of the dancefloor and leave, abandoning her to the consequences of his touch and his anger yet again.
But he didn’t. Instead, he marched her through the ballroom, out the door and down a long hall. He threw open the first door he came to and all but dragged her inside. She stared around her. It was a billiard room, with almost nothing inside but a few chairs and a large table for the game.
He leaned back and locked the chamber door before he moved on her. “I thought you weren’t coming back here.”
She folded her arms. “I never promised that. What happened between us changes nothing.”
“No, your ambitions never had any relationship to me,” he snapped, his eyes flashing.
She caught her breath at his cruel accusation. To him it was true. To her…
“Or do you want to clarify anything about the past?” he asked.
She flinched. For the first time, he was directly offering her a chance to explain herself. But what good would it do? The truth would only hurt him as much as the lie had. More, probably. And it wouldn’t change what they’d lost. What she’d done.
“If you hate me so much, if you blame me so much for our past, why the hell do you keep seeking me out?” she asked. “And publicly? Do you know what might come of that little scene in the ballroom? People will talk.”
He shook his head. “Vivien is strict in her policies. No one talks about what they do here.”
She pursed her lips. “I can’t imagine you are truly that naïve. Perhaps they won’t saywherethey saw us, perhaps they’ll never admit to the most humiliating parts. But someonewillwhisper to someone else that they believe you and I are circling each other again. It’s too good a piece of gossip not to repeat.”
She could see that statement hit home, for he scowled deeper. And oh, how she wished she could cross the room and kiss that frown away the way she’d been free to do so long ago. She wished she could make him touch her because he loved her, not as some surrender to physical need despite his negative feelings toward her.
How she wished so many things.
“Honestly, Stenfax,” she whispered. “I don’t understand you at all.”
“Don’t you?” he said, and he moved on her suddenly, taking three long steps that closed all the distance he had initially placed between them. “It’s a funny thing to hear you say that, consideringyou’rethe one who did the unthinkable.”
He was so close, she felt the heat of his body, she smelled the scent of him. He was so close that all she had to do was lift her hand a fraction and suddenly she was touching him. Her fingers curled against his chest and he caught a hard, harsh breath as he stared down at her.
“Thisis the unthinkable,” she whispered. “Being with you again was something I never thought would happen again. And it’s impossible to be near you and not want…want…”
He cut her off by bending his head and pressing his lips to hers. Once again, there was little gentleness in that action. It was like he had been fighting need and lost, washed away by desire that overcame hate.
It stung, but it didn’t change the fact that his lips on hers were the most wonderful thing she’d ever felt. She wrapped her arms around his neck, tilting her head to grant him more access. And he took it, spinning her around to lift her onto the billiard table, pushing her legs open so he could step inside and tug her even closer.
She unbuttoned his jacket and slid her hands inside, reveling in his warmth and the flex of his muscles beneath his shirt. He grunted against her mouth, pushing his hips against hers so that she felt the growing evidence of his desire. The length of him nudged at her and she shivered in anticipation of what was next to come.
Because she had no doubt what that was. She wanted him. He wanted her. And this was an avalanche that couldn’t be stopped.
“Undress me,” she whispered, drawing her mouth away from his and staring up at him.
He held that gaze for a long moment then slowly nodded. He pulled her to her feet and she turned her back to him. He unhooked her dress slowly, his fingers brushing her skin as he parted the gown bit by bit. He leaned in, his breath hot against her neck, and kissed the flesh he’d revealed. She sucked in a gasp of pleasure at the erotic pleasure of his mouth.
When she was unbuttoned to the waist, he whispered, “You’re not wearing a chemise.”
