She stepped away from him, heat burning her cheeks.
“Thank you for the dance, Mr. Huntington,” she choked out softly. She didn’t wait for him to reply, but turned and scurried away. She needed air, that was all. To regain her composure on the terrace away from this man who inspired feelings in her she had long ago put away. If that was possible.
She burst onto the terrace, gasping for air as she crossed to the low wall and gripped her fingers around the edge. The stone dug into her flesh, and she welcomed the pain because it forced her to be present, not relive every moment of her dance with Derrick.
“Please, won’t you finally tell me what is going on with you?”
She startled and pivoted to find Vale slipping from a darkened corner of the terrace. She was wearing a plain ball gown, but she was so lovely that it could have been a sackcloth and she would have belonged in the ballroom behind them.
“I didn’t know you were out here,” Selina gasped, lifting a hand to her chest. “What are you doing?”
Vale arched a brow. “I’m your companion in this farce we’re playing out, not your servant. It makes sense that I might join you for the ball to be of assistance and as your chaperone.”
“I suppose,” Selina said, fanning herself with her hand.
“I was watching you,” Vale said, stepping up beside her to look out over the garden with her. “Through the window with Huntington.”
Selina worried her lip. “There wasn’t much to see,” she said, lying and hoping to keep things light. “We danced. It was…boring.”
“Bollocks,” Vale whispered with a glance around to make certain the terrace was as empty as they both believed. “How long has it been since you had a lover?”
Selina tilted her head. “Getting a bit personal, are we?”
Vale smiled slightly. “We both know you aren’t a shrinking violet. It’s one of the things I admire most about you.”
Selina shrugged. “I don’t know, a month or two?”
“Then perhaps you’re just lonely. Being lonely can lead a person to make mistakes, so I have to ask you, Selina—are you getting confused when it comes to Huntington?”
“No!” Selina responded immediately, but Vale pierced her with a withering stare. She folded her arms. “Fine. Maybe. He is just…so…honorable.” She let out her breath in a huff. “Truly honorable. How can I—”
Vale snorted. “No one is truly honorable, Selina. And no one will take care of you but you, no matter how tightly he holds you on a dancefloor or how handsome he is.” Her voice gentled. “Youknowthat.”
Selina let out a sigh. Her whole life she had known that. Depending on others had never ended well—she’d long ago stopped doing it. Selina held Vale closer than anyone else in the world. But even so, if Selina needed rescue, she still assumed she’d be rescuing herself. Old habits died very hard.
But now, watching her brother with his friends, watching Derrick and seeing how seriously he took his duty…
“I see kind people all around me,” she said softly. “Loving people, Vale. Caring people who help others without a thought of what they could get in return.”
Vale shook her head. “Don’t get soft on me, Selina. That’s the shortest route to an early death in our world.”
Selina clenched her teeth, but before she could respond, the door to the ballroom opened and Derrick himself stepped out. Selina’s breath caught, just as it always did when he stepped into her presence.
Vale arched a brow at the reaction and leaned in. “I’ll go see what I can find out about Lady Winford’s servants. Just be careful. Please.”
Vale nodded to Derrick as she slipped off into the dark again, off to do the wicked things Selina had rarely thought twice about. Until the man who stepped up to stand before her made her think twice about…everything.
“Who was that?” he asked.
“My companion, Vale Williams.”
“Ah.” He said nothing more, but held her stare evenly, keeping her in place as much as if he’d nailed her to the terrace floor.
She fought to find her feisty self again. The one that challenged him. But her mind was spinning and her heart was racing and she was reacting the way she shouldn’t, couldn’t. Had always told herself she wouldn’t.
Why did he do this? How?
He cleared his throat. “We were playing in there, I know, but I want to make clear that you can’t be involving yourself in my work.”
