The song ended, and Katherine laughed as she curtsied and James bowed playfully. Robert stepped forward as they left the floor and met them at the edge of the ballroom, where they would part.
“I have watched this poor lady be manhandled by shockingly poor dancers long enough,” he declared with a wink for Katherine. “Please, Lady Gainsworth, do allow me to offer you a far superior partner.”
Her eyes lit up as she smiled at James. “Abernathe, do you think His Grace will introduce me to this superior partner soon? Is he here, Roseford? Have you been hiding him all along?”
James snorted out a laugh. “Never let this one go, Roseford. She is far too evenly matched with you.”
Roseford glared at him playfully and then caught her arm. “Come along, minx.”
She did not resist but returned to the dancefloor just as the orchestra began a waltz. Her smile softened and she stepped into his arms just as willingly as she did when they were alone and lost in each other.
“You know, you once tried to avoid this,” he said, staring down into those dark eyes and feeling all the connection they shared pulsing back at him. Drawing him in.
She tilted her head. “Avoid what?”
“Dancing with me. Touching me at all.”
He expected her to smile, to laugh, to be coy and playful. Instead her expression fell a little. “Yes, I did. I had my reasons.”
He wrinkled his brow at the look. “Do you want to share those reasons, my lady?”
She swallowed hard and her gaze darted around the dancefloor at all the other couples. When her eyes returned to his he saw her hesitation. Her reluctance. It stoked a worry in him that he had never felt so powerfully before.
“Yes,” she whispered. “But not now. Not here.”
“Then what about our parlor?”
Now her smile returned. “Are you certain you don’t just want to be alone with me?”
He leaned in a little closer. Too close. Too obvious to the eyes watching them. In that moment, he didn’t give a damn what anyone thought.
“Do you prefer me wanting you right here, right now, in the middle of this ballroom and in front of all these people?” he teased.
Her eyes lit up and he groaned. Damn, but this woman. She truly was what everyone said she was. His match. She was his match, and that was wonderful and alarming all at once.
“I don’t think I’mquiteready for that level of scandal, Your Grace,” she said, slightly breathless. “So the parlor it is. I want to talk to my aunt for a moment first. Will you meet me there?”
As the music ended, he nodded. “Yes.”
He so wanted to kiss her in that moment as she stared up at him, eyes filled with worry but also wonder. He wanted to kiss her for comfort, and to remind her that he…belonged to her. Because he did. He knew he did, he knew it like he knew his own face in the mirror.
Perhaps he would find the strength, the courage to tell her that tonight once she had made whatever confession that weighed so heavily on her mind. Perhaps he would be able to find words that weren’t just that he cared for her, but that he felt something more.
She released his hand and smiled over her shoulder at him before she slipped through the crowd, disappearing from view. He grinned to himself as he went the other way. Past the other guests, his friends, down the long winding halls of James and Emma’s estate and into the parlor where he had first kissed Katherine. First made her cry out with pleasure. He loved this room. He wanted to prepare it so it would be a comfortable, safe place for her.
He moved about the chamber, adding logs to the fire, fluffing pillows on the settee, pouring them each a drink in case she needed it to buoy her strength. In case he did.
“Preparing for a lady?”
He jerked his head up from what he was doing and found the Marquess of Berronburg leaning against the doorjamb with a drink in his hand. Robert straightened. He had not seen his…well, he supposed he ought to call the man a friend…since London. His cheeks flushed as he recalled their last conversation had been about Katherine. And the lurid wager Robert had declared he would win.
Now that memory turned his stomach.
“Berronburg,” he said, holding out a hand in greeting. “I did not realize you were here.”
“It’s a crush,” Berronburg said as he entered the room and looked around with a wicked smile. “And I’m fairly certain I was not officially invited. I may own an estate on the outskirts of Abernathe’s land, but we are not especially friendly neighbors. His duchess thinks I’m uncouth.”
Robert swallowed. “I thought you wore that label as a badge of honor.”
