Nodding, Hariett hugged her again. “Truly, I have missed you dearly, cousin.”
“Me too,” Ellie replied. “I’ll be keeping an eye on you tonight, but I have to return to my husband.”
Before she let her go, Harriet asked, “Are you happy with him? Is he good to you?”
Ellie could not help but flash a sincere smile. “Against all expectations, yes, I am, and he is. He may not show it outwardly, but he feels things intensely, and he is very… I’d say…overly protectiveof those he feels he is responsible for.”
“That’s good,” Harriet whispered. “I know how Mama and Papa treated you growing up. It is about time you found a person who loved you truly.”
Loved me…
“I’ll see you soon,” she squeezed Harriet’s hand.
Elated, she drifted through the crowds to find Dorian, but he was no longer at the place she had left him. As if summoned by Dorian’s very presence, she glanced up at a balcony to see him leaning on the balustrade overlooking the ballroom like a darkKing. He was nursing a whisky, and the small curve on his lips as he gazed down at her made her shiver.
She drifted up the sweeping staircase to join his side.
“You did not seem too surprised that Harriet was present tonight,” Ellie asked, giving him a knowing eye. “Was that your idea of a surprise?”
“I have eyes everywhere, pet,” he replied, lifting the glass to his lips. “A caution of the trade.”
“Your present one or your previous?”
He shrugged his left shoulder. “Both.”
Leaning in, she dropped her hand on his free arm. “Thank you for thinking of me.”
He chuckled, a low, rich hum. “I understand you are still confused about many things surrounding us—” he waved, “—the steps that led up to all this. I promise you, as soon as a few more things fall into place, I’ll explain it all.”
Her gaze swept up at him. “Have you found Ash yet?”
“No,” he muttered, his eyes roaming over the gathering beneath them. “I have a top investigator running on it. There is nothingnewsworthy as of yet, but when there is, you’ll be the first to know.”
Laughter and chatter wafted up to them from the ballroom while music floated all around them. Ladies swirled about the floor in a flurry of rainbow colors, the lords, their counterparts and foils, dressed in somber dark suits.
“Do you think we will find him?” she asked.
Straightening, he gave her a deadpan look. “I must say, as your husband, you’re jabbing me in the heart with such fervent desire to find this man.”
At a loss for how to react, Ellie awkwardly patted his shoulder. “There, there, dear husband.”
Throwing back his head, Dorian belted out a laugh, and she felt a giggle bubble up her throat. “Did you dare comfort me as you would a child?”
“Er… yes?” Her voice was a squeak.
He shook his head. “I do not know if I should be chuffed or insulted.”
“The first one,” she murmured meekly.
Dorian turned, pressed his back to the balustrade, and heaved her into him with a sharp yank. Her hands slapped on his chest in shock. His kiss was unexpected but not unwelcome.
Ellie wound her arms around his neck, opening herself to his lips, to him. She felt their new intimacy in his kiss, in his scintillating hunger, his animal need with such raw and honest passion. His desire made her feel wanton; she craved his body.
Dorian stroked through her mouth with his tongue, the heady taste of whisky filling her senses. Curling her fingers in the thick silk of his hair, she tugged him closer.
People were nearby—mostly men who were lingering near the doorways to the billiards room and the smoking parlor. If they were not careful, they could very easily be caught.
Pulling back, she whispered, “We are going to be the headline in the scandal pages by dawn.”
