Just to be safe, I hide behind Chelsea.
“What are you doing?”
“Hiding.”
“Why? Oh, because you don’t want Mr. Hot and Sexy asking you to dance.”
“Nope. That’s not why. I just…want to hide.”
“Miss Blair, may I have this dance?”
I glance up and do a double take. Devlin, who had been on the other side of the room only seconds ago, now stands in front of me, smirking with that stupidly handsome face of his.
Chelsea moves out of the way, completely revealing my location. Traitor.
“May I?” he repeats.
I’m about to say no, to sayhell no, I don’t dance with skeevy jerks, but just as I’m about to do that, the doors blast open like they’ve been hit with a tornadic wind.
Everyone in the room turns, because how often do doors blow open at a witch ball?
And there stands a man who must be six-two with silvery-white hair, cheekbones chainsawed from stone, dark eyes and a physique that could rival Devlin’s.
Yes, Devlin’s built, okay? I just don’t like to think about it very much.
“Storm Grayson,” the doorman announces.
The entire room goes silent. Everyone, and I mean everyone, is staring at him, wondering what he’ll do. Does he walk like a normal person? Laugh like one?
Storm’s gaze slashes across the room, searching, looking for something. Then that gaze lands on me, and a fiery inferno of heat works its way from my core and flares out across my entire body.
This man has come here for me, to meetme, and what better way to make an entrance, to get his attention, than to dance with another man?
Oh, I am evil, aren’t I?
I nod to Devlin, who rips his gaze from Storm and settles it back on me. The inventor is Devlin’s biggest rival, and it must be bothering him something fierce that the billionaire is here.
“Yes, it would be a pleasure to dance with you,” I force out in a sugary-sweet voice.
Devlin frowns because he knows that I’m never this nice. He shoots an annoyed glance to Storm.
“On the contrary,” he rumbles in his deep, masculine voice, “the pleasure’s all mine.”
He leads me to the center of the ballroom, and as soon as our hands touch, electricity snakes up my arm, sending a shiver licking down my backbone. I bite down the feeling and pull away slightly so that I’m only touching him where it’s necessary. Even the fingers of my left hand are barely brushing his shoulder.
The string quartet begins, playing something fun, lighthearted, quick-paced.
Basically a song that’ll have me sweating and smelling like an ogre in no time.
Devlin holds me gently, as if I’m made of porcelain. I get a whiff of his cologne, and I’m suddenly taken to the center ofa forest, where the scents of pine and earth mingle in perfect harmony.
“You’re dancing with me because of Storm.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Devlin smiles. It would be an absolute lie to say that he doesn’t have the most dazzling smile that I’ve ever been blessed to see. He really does. It sucks you in and makes you feel like you’re falling off a cliff—one with spikes below that you impale yourself on.
That was just a reminder of how I feel in case you were unclear or forgot or suffered from amnesia because Devlin’s so attractive.
