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A lovely idea indeed, but Lenora wasn’t foolhardy enough to try to slip from the ballroom when she had no doubt Landry’s focus was firmly riveted on her and Jason. Instead, she smiled and took her place on the dance floor.

“As tempting as your offer is, Jason, I think it best not to rouse my brother’s wrath deliberately.”

The orchestra began playing, and he skillfully swept her around the room. Lenora kept her gaze trained on the dimple in his chin. At least she tried to. Every now and again, her attention gravitated toward his mouth as she recalled their kiss in Hyde Park.

If she closed her eyes, she could still feel Jason’s mouth and taste the mint and tea on his tongue. A frisson sluiced through her at the poignant memory. In truth, she wouldn’t mind hieing off to a private niche and further practicing the art of kissing.

But as she’d said to Jason, Landry was sure to follow. While she appreciated his concern, this obsession with keeping Jason at bay had grown tiresome. Lenora was a grown woman, for pity’s sake. Soon to be one and twenty, she well knew her own mind.

And Lenora wanted Jason.

She’d admitted that truth to herself after their kiss.

Whether he could be the kind of man she needed was something she couldn’t be positive of. Yet. A worry niggled incessantly in the back of her mind. Without his saying so, she knew he could no more permanently leave America than she could leave England. Their families meant too much to both of them.

That dour fact put a damper on her mood but only for one stanza of the waltz. This was now, and she would enjoy the moment. No one knew what tomorrow would bring.

“Lenora?” Jason’s voice held a husky note she hadn’t heard before.

Desire?

Tilting her head, she met his gaze, and her breath caught. Aye, smoldering desire. For her.

“You shouldn’t look at me like that.” Her voice was also a throaty rasp. Regardless, she couldn’t pull her gaze away to see if anyone else noted his intense regard.

Edging her nearer, he murmured into her ear, “Like what, sweetheart?”

Her heart somersaulted at the endearment. Or mayhap it was the warmth of Jason’s breath caressing her ear that sent her pulse into double-time.

“Like you want to devour me.”

“Perhaps I do.”

She bit her lower lip against the words hovering on the edge of her tongue.

Perhaps I want you to.

But there were no promises between them. Nothing more than a growing attraction to a man from another country who would never stay in England. What was more, Lenora’s mother’s disgrace was a mantle she could not easily shed. Not because Society held it against her, though a few of the ton did.

No, it was more that she couldn’t make a colossal mistake as her mother had. She knew from personal experience what happened to illegitimate offspring. Few understood the stigma that always shadowed a person of that station.

As if sensing her confusion, Jason murmured, “Stop thinking so much. Let the music take you away.”

And so she did for a few minutes.

Lenora pretended that there might be something lasting and permanent between her and Jason. She let herself believe he felt the same for her and that this foreign feeling that grew daily was love.

Didn’t love conquer all?

All too soon, the music faded away, and a note from a violin lingered after the other instruments. Lenora and Jason stopped but didn’t immediately step away from each other.

It was sure to garner attention, and still, Lenora was incapable of moving an inch. She was locked in the grasp of something undefinable. Something far more significant than her or Jason and far more commanding than mere willpower.

“Lenora, darling, I…” Looking past her, Jason abruptly stopped. “Damn.”

Finally, Lenora summoned the ability to step away from his embrace and glanced over her shoulder.

Landry.