“Lady Sybil.”
Did she remember the way she had said his name? Did she remember all the ways she had made his body come alive? A year on, and he hadn’t been able to banish her from his mind, even if he hadn’t remembered her name. He remembered the precise shade of her eyes, and the way the hazel lightened into green when she had been aroused. The way her full mouth had parted.
A flush suffused her cheeks and he could imagine what expression was on her face. And, no doubt, what the world was seeing as it watched them dance.
He placed one hand on her side and clasped her other, wishing there were no gloves between. “How do you find the ball?” he asked.
“It is as many balls are.”
“What a non-answer. Were you trained in politics?”
At that, her gaze flashed to his, and the music began. They moved, her body melding to his as though it was meant to be there. There could be no denying the sparks of attraction that flashed between them; her fingers gripped his tighter, and her pupils dilated.
“Tell me, Your Grace, do you speak to all the ladies you dance with thus?”
“You may not have noticed, but I am not particularly in the habit of dancing.”
Her lips thinned and he longed to run his thumb over them, to see if they would part with the same delicious sound as they had that day. “And yet you made an exception for me,” she said.
“I am always intrigued by hitherto unknown young ladies.”
“I am hardly unknown, Your Grace.”
He leaned closer, reveling in the way her breath hitched. “No indeed,” he murmured. “Yet you have been in Society little before now.”
“I was in the country.”
“A shame. Society would have been improved by your presence.”
“Would it?” she flashed, the same defiance that he saw earlier sparking in her eyes. “Perhaps for you—you are not the one mocked for your heritage.”
He paused, looking down at her. There was more bitterness in her than he had expected, but then he remembered the way she had fled Averley’s house and the way she had been weeping before he’d found her.
Maybe she had reason to be bitter. If her mother was Lady Jameson, as was, no doubt she found herself the brunt of cruel jokes.
“Forgive me, My Grace,” she said a moment later, defiance gone. She looked at their feet. “I forgot myself.”
When would she stop pretending? Did she want to pretend everything they had shared had never taken place? Or could it be she was ashamed? There was little to be ashamed of; she had given him an experience that even he, with more lightskirts to his name than many, had not forgotten. Few could claim that. Many, no doubt, wished they could.
“There is nothing to apologize for,” he said. “No doubt I needed putting in my place.”
A glimmer of shock appeared in her eyes, and obeying the silent commands of his hand, she moved even closer. There was so little distance separating their bodies, now. He wanted her more than ever. More, even, than when he’d seen Alverstone try to take advantage of her. Then, he’d been angry, of course, but the anger had come with a degree of possessiveness that had shocked him.
There was no reason to presume she was his, or even that she hadn’t had another man after him. Except, as her hand tightened around his, he doubted it. Although the cut of her dress was less rigidly modest than it had been, she seemed uncomfortable with how much was on display, even if all it showed was the merest hint of a small but delectable cleavage.
“How long will you be in London, Your Grace?” she asked, apparently feeling the silence had to be replaced with something.
“For the Season,” he said, “and you?”
“Until I marry,” she said and flushed. “That is—for the Season as well, of course.”
“On the marriage mart?” He chuckled; the news wasn’t precisely a shock. There was no other reason young unmarried ladies came to London, and considering the way his application for courtship had been received, her family was keen to see her settled. “I do not envy you.”
“Nor I, Your Grace.” She seemed to realize what she said, and the flush rose higher up her cheeks. “That is to say… I—”
“Do not fear insulting me.”You did not the last time we met.
But he could not mention that here.
