He reached out and she stared as she placed her smaller hand in his. She was wearing gloves, though he was not, but she felt the warmth of his touch regardless. She felt the strength of his hand as he guided her onto the dancefloor. To her surprise, everyone else fell away, leaving them a space as the music began and he spun her into the steps.
“Why are they backing up?” she whispered.
“It is our first dance as an engaged couple,” he murmured in return, his gaze never leaving her. “I suppose they are sizing up the match.”
She shivered slightly. “Then should we give them a show?”
His smile fell and there was something intense and serious in his gaze. “There are many things that are a show, Emma. But not this moment. Don’t worry about them, just look at me and enjoy this.”
“It’s hard to enjoy it when I know the cost,” she insisted.
He shook his head. “I have not made myself clear. There is no cost. Tonight, in this moment, I am right where I want to be.”
She felt her lips part as joy and hope filled her. She had spent so very long telling herself that a man like this wouldn’t want her, couldn’t truly like her, but now she felt the warmth of him. And it was just for her.
“So am I,” she said, eliciting another grin from him as he held her hand tighter and whirled her around again and again, until all she could focus on was that she was his. Somehow, against all odds, she would be his.
James stood in the shadow of a door in the quiet hallway, staring at Emma’s chamber across the way. She was inside, and despite the late hour, she was not alone. He could occasionally hear an eruption of giggles from the room, both Emma’s and Meg’s.
He smiled at the sound. He was not only bringing a bride into his home, but a sister for Meg. After a lifetime surrounded by him and his friends, he could well imagine she was looking forward to female company in the house for as long as she would remain there before her own wedding to Graham.
The chamber door opened and Meg stepped out. “Goodnight, Emma,” she whispered.
“Goodnight,” he heard in the distance, and his heart throbbed with the sound.
Meg was smiling as she closed Emma’s door behind herself and strolled off down the hall, away from the guest quarters, back toward the family rooms. When he heard her door open and shut, he drew in a long breath and walked to Emma’s door.
There was a moment when he stood there, staring at the barrier that stood between him and what he wanted. He could turn away from it, from her and go back to his room. Self-pleasure was good. He could relieve his desire that way, certainly.
But he didn’t want to. What he wanted was behind this door.
He lifted his hand and knocked gently. There was a moment when he heard rustling and then footsteps across the floor.
“Meg, did you forget—” she began as she yanked the door open. When she saw him standing there, she gasped. “—something?”
He looked at her. She was already clad in a night rail and a robe. Her dark hair was down around her shoulders, a mass of shining brown curls with little streaks of blond hidden within them.
And there would be no turning away tonight.
“I am not Meg,” he whispered as he reached for her. “But I did forget something. This.”
He leaned in and kissed her. For a moment she seemed surprised, but then she lifted up, her arms coming around his neck as she made a soft sound of needy pleasure in the back of her throat. He pushed her into the chamber and shut the door behind them, reaching back to turn the key before he fully focused on tasting her.
“How can you be so sweet?” he murmured, drawing back just a fraction and feeling the heat of her breath on his lips. “I never even liked sweets until you.”
She shivered and he tightened his embrace around her. She looked up at him, eyes wide. “Why did you come here, James?”
“To your room?” he asked. She nodded slowly, and he smiled. “Why do you think?”
She swallowed hard, the action making her throat work. Making him want to trace the path of that action with his tongue until she lifted and moaned against him.
“Did you come here to…to…I don’t know what to call it,” she said with a dark blush that started in her cheeks and cascaded down her flesh until it disappeared beneath the neckline of her robe, creating yet another trail for his tongue.
“I came here,” he said, reaching down to begin to loosen the knot of her dressing gown. “Because until now I had to be prudent. I had to resist what I wanted. But now we’re engaged. In a very short time, you will be mine in the eyes of God. The eyes of the law. The eyes of everyone we know and love. Because of that I have nothing else stopping me from making love to you, Emma.”
Her eyes went wide, and he could see her struggling with that idea.
“Nothing stopping me unless you don’t want me to do this,” he clarified.
