His fingertips brushed her spine ever so slightly, and her breath caught in her throat. She shook herself mentally, swallowed her breath, and forced a small shrug.
“I’m considering. You’ll recall the last time I tried to dance with you, you abandoned me to the mercy of my mother’s court. And Gerard.”
He bowed his head solemnly. “I never did apologise for that. I’m sorry.” When he looked up though, there was a glint in his eye. “Although asyouno doubt recall, the last time I tried to dance with youI could hardly hold your eye without – how had Al put it? Blushing like a maiden?”
Adeline pursed her lips hard, refusing to smile or look away. “I wonder where he got that idea.”
“Dance with me, Adeline.”
There was something urgent about the way he looked at her, the way he was holding her. The hand at her elbow had travelled down to fold her fingers into his palm. Eda shuffled past them, tutting loudly.
“Oh by Mother Adhlas’s sagging bosom, stop your cuddling and go anddance. You’re blocking the fire and my joints are aching.”
Kai grinned, and Adeline was too busy fighting a sudden swell of laughter to resist as he pulled her toward the musicians playing at the heart of the clearing. The band was as an unlikely crew of palace Gards and Merrow youths, on instruments both familiar and strange; a fiddle, a calfskin drum, what looked like a pronged flute carved from a tree branch, and even a pair of large silver spoons drummed between hand and thigh. An Eisalaan boy led them all with a voice like a chorus of silver bells. It was, for all the world, as though one of them had sat down and started to play, and the others had wandered over to join him, coming and going at their own pleasure, not playing any particular song but a weaving river of unending melodies.
Kai came to a stop and drew Adeline in front of him - and just as he had that night, so many months ago, he hesitated. The music was slow and lulling. The dancing couples around them were chest to chest, revolving where they stood.
Adeline took one of his hands and held it aloft.
“Take my waist,” she reminded him. He reached for her. His palm was warm above her hip, even through her thickly lined cloak. “Now I’m going to put my other hand on your shoulder, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t run away.”
She rose up and braced her arm against his chest, hand on his shoulder. A smile tugged his lips.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
He tightened the half-circle of his arm around her and they swayed there in the snow, melting into each other bit by bit until they were almost cheek to cheek. Kai’s fingers grazed the small of her back, drawing a hot shiver down her spine.
“I regretted it right away,” he said, his low, soft voice in her ear doing little to ease the shivering. “Not dancing with you that night. I wanted to, Adhlas knows, but... I wasn’t ready to make a fool of myself on my first night in a foreign court. People just didn’t dance like this before the Frost. And you were wearing that damned dress - ”
“Goddess above,” she said, trying for a stern look, though the effect was quite ruined by the heat rising to her face. “That damned dress. Is that any way to speak in front of a Princess, Your Majesty? Most improper of you.”
He bit back a smile. “Are you going to taunt me forever? Is there something so wrong with chivalry?”
She thought of the training room, of his lips a breath away from hers, of his hands splayed on her thighs, that unresolved moment of painful tension.
“There’s a time and place for chivalry.”
He looked at her now in a way that said he quite agreed, the green flecks in his eyes charged and vibrant. She was pinned by that look, every time.
She cleared her throat quietly.
“Tell me then; how did people dance before the Frost?”
Kai dropped her gaze, freeing her, and then releasing his hold on her hand and waist too. She very nearly pouted, grown woman though she was.
But then he bowed low, tucking one arm against his chest, and making a slight gesture with his other hand. Adeline realised that he wanted her to curtsey, and she quickly bent her knees.
“Good. And then, without touching – just hand to hand.”
He lifted his palm, and she mirrored him, their hands just close enough that she felt the whisper of warmth from his skin. He bent his free arm behind him and moved slowly, drawing a wide circle in the snow, and Adeline followed, her eyes on his. He turned and offered his other hand, and they moved the opposite way, painfully slow, never looking away from one another.
“At most,” he said quietly. “With all these people watching, I might have dared to hold your hand.”
He took it now, and drew her just a step closer, dropping their clasped hands between them. Her heart leapt, but Kai kept moving, guiding her in that same lazy arc. It was, somehow, far more intimate than standing chest to chest with their faces turned away. His eyes were bright; so very bright she burned beneath them. Despite their unhurried steps, her heart came a half beat faster against her ribs.
“I think I prefer the other way,” she said, not caring that her voice was a tremor.
A lazy smile matched his leisurely movements, but at the end of that slow circle he paused and guided her arm to his shoulder. There was less space between them than before; if she took a breath, her chest might brush his.
