She had noticed him earlier because he was such a fine figure of a man and he danced very well. She’d also noticed that he chose a variety of partners, some of whom she suspected were shy young girls who blossomed under his attention. He might be a nice man under his menacing masquerade costume, but that didn’t matter. What interested her was that he could dance.
“Gladly, Sir Corsair,” she purred as she took his hand and skipped lightly to the dance floor, her bangles chiming on her wrists. Since she intended to stay anonymous, she didn’t lower the veil wrapped over her forehead and lower face.
Now that she was on the dance floor, she realized he was even taller and broader than she’d thought, which had the happy effect of making her feel delicately female. She rather enjoyed the feeling after so many years of taking care of herself under sometimes-challenging circumstances.
He clasped her hands and drew her into waltz position. Then they spun across the ballroom. Diana always felt sensual awareness when she danced with a man, and never more so than tonight. She guessed that was because dancing with Rory had already heated her blood and made her feel a little reckless. The champagne earlier hadn’t hurt, either. She asked, “Did you enjoy our little performance?”
“You and your partner were superb,” he said seriously. “I’m glad you chose to honor us with your skill. It was like traveling to another land.”
She smiled, glad they’d invoked such feelings. “The dancing was our pleasure, though not something we’ll make a habit of. Lady Aurora thought it would make her ball memorable.”
“It is a night I shall remember,” he said softly.
She realized that sensual awareness was moving into intense attraction and the feelings were mutual. And wasn’t that an outrageous thought? He was a stranger and his easy confidence suggested that he was a married man. Even if he wasn’t, she was not about to give up her independent life, and she was not a woman to take casual lovers.
Though there was nothing casual about how she felt tonight. As they waltzed, their bodies drew closer than was respectable. He was all male heat and strength, a wordless invitation to sin.
She felt reckless and a little wild, and she made no protest when he swept them into one of the ballroom’s shadowed alcoves. “You are enchanting, my exotic lady,” he breathed. “Will you join me for the supper dance?”
He wanted more than that, and so did she. “Perhaps I will. But first . . .” She tugged her veil from her lower face in a not very subtle invitation for a kiss.
An invitation he accepted. Their lips met in a warm, sweet thank-you for the pleasure of their dancing. Then his arms closed around her, and lightness dissolved into a desire that scorched her to her marrow. She leaned into him, their bodies molding together as the kiss deepened. He kissed like a god, she thought hazily. She’d never before experienced such a fierce response—
No, shehadfelt this scorching sensuality before! She jerked away until her back was pressed against the wall. “Anthony?” she gasped as she reached up to yank off his mask, revealing the face and deep blue eyes that were burned on her heart by the flames of first love.
Anthony Raines was perhaps taller and certainly broader than when they’d known each other. He’d been barely nineteen then, a beautiful, charming, and lonely boy. Now he was a beautiful man in his prime, commanding, confident, and profoundly male.
His expression stunned, he unwound the dopatta from her head, revealing her face and hair. “Merciful heaven,” he said in a choked voice. “Diana!”
She couldn’t speak as they stared at each other. She shouldn’t have been surprised. Now that she was back in London, it was only a matter of time until their paths crossed, but she wasn’tready!She certainly hadn’t expected this flood of the heedless desire that nearly destroyed them before.
He recovered first, stepping back from her with his handsome face settling into an expression of cool courtesy, though she had the impression that his control masked intense and possibly dangerous emotions. “I hadn’t heard that you’d returned to London, Lady Diana. Are you one of Lady Aurora’s sisters? I must admit I’m not familiar with all the Lovely Lawrences.”
The beau monde had bestowed the nickname on the blond and good-looking women of her family, but tonight it failed to amuse her. “I’m only been back for a week or two,” she said, pleased that her voice was steady. “I’ve been staying here with Rory and Gabriel. I’m only five years older than she is, but her aunt, one of those late accidental children.”
“A very lucky accident.” He offered his arm. “From all the noise behind me, the unmasking is going on and guests are moving into the supper room. Will you join me? I’d like to learn about your travels.” There was a distinct edge to his polite invitation.
Warily she took his arm because fleeing would be undignified and he certainly would not create a hellacious scene in a public place like this. Perhaps a mundane chat about the intervening years would dissipate the fierce energies surging between them. Their past relationship was just that:past. “I should like that, Lord Stoneleigh. Dancing always gives me an appetite.”
His arm tensed under hers as they moved into the ballroom and crossed to the supper room, which was rapidly filling up with chattering people. “Not Stoneleigh. I’m the Duke of Castleton now.”
She hesitated, remembering how beastly his father had been. “I’m not sure what to say. Condolences may not be in order.”
His mouth twisted. “Very true, though most people didn’t have the honesty to say so. It’s three years since he died of apoplexy in a fit of rage.” He’d been screaming at Anthony when it happened, a fact he preferred not to think about.
“How do you like being the duke?”
His brow furrowed. “No one has asked me that. It’s assumed that becoming a duke is always welcome. I will say that it’s better than being the old duke’s heir.”
“Is it not welcome to you?”
“It increased the number of ambitious would-be duchesses by two- or threefold,” he said dryly.
She winced. The Anthony she’d known was a deeply private young man and she didn’t think that had changed. “Being stalked by ambitious harpies must be very unpleasant.”
“You have no idea.”
They entered the supper room and saw that most of the small tables were occupied, but to the left an arm waved at them. Diana said, “My oldest brother and his wife are beckoning, I believe. Shall we join them?”
