Page 46 of Cursed

“I’m not a prince, nor am I a local. I think she’s got her hands full.”

“But you aren’t committed to another woman? No? Then it’s bad form for you not to participate. Remember, we are working here to counteract an old family curse. If any of these old nabobs can find reason to declare we didn’t follow the customs exactly, they could use that as a justification for Edeena not doing her job in helping to heal the family. You don’t want that, do you?”

It was all Vince could do not to throw his hands up in disgust. “You’re seriously not joking here,” he said, staring at the queen. “I don’t even know that goofy dance step they’re doing, and though this probably won’t come as a surprise to you, I’m not exactly the type who dances.”

“I think you’ll do just fine,” the queen said. “And I’m afraid it is a royal command, dear. So the sooner you acquiesce, the sooner we can stop this infernal noise.”

She gave him a push toward the center of the room, and the men in the circle opened up obligingly, grinning at him as the music picked up tempo yet again. There was a great deal of laughter now, and Vince stared hard at the steps the men were making. He realized that the most complicated part of the dance was staying far enough away from Edeena’s twirling skirts that you didn’t slow her down. He could do that, he supposed.

As Edeena passed him on the arm of another guy she looked up, her eyes widening in surprise—and, maybe something else? She seemed happy enough that he was there, anyway, and maybe that was the real purpose of the queen pushing him into the circle. Exactly as the dressmaker had said, he helped Edeena relax, to smile, and today above all days, she needed to convey her absolute delight with the insanity that her family was putting her through. He supposed he could go along with that. It was only a country dance, no matter how strange the steps to it were. It meant nothing at all.

Finally, Edeena swirled nearer, and he realized he was the last man in line, although none of the men actually left the circle. If anything, as each finished their turn their shouting and stamping grew more robust.

Then suddenly, Edeena was in front of him, reaching out her hands, and it was the most natural thing in the world to step into the circle of insanity and start twisting her forward and back, keeping time with her turns as he managed to stay out of reach of her skirts.

“Queen Catherine put you up to this, didn’t she!” Edeena laughed and he found himself laughing back.

“I asked if I could join in.”

Her eyes lit up. “You did not!” she proclaimed, her outburst loud enough to draw a raucous cheer from the men. Vince noticed a few craning heads, but everyone was smiling, and that was the game.

“I should have,” he said. “And you should laugh like this more often, Edeena, you’ll make every man in the room fall for you.”

“Ha!” Her face blanked for a moment though, and she blinked rapidly, sure signs of a woman about to cry. What the hell had he said?

“You ruin that makeup job, and Hatchet Face is going to eat you for lunch,” he warned, and just that quickly the moment passed for Edeena. She whirled away from him then back, her hand tight in his as if she would never let him go.

“I didn’t know you could dance!” she gasped as they neared the end of the circuit.

Vince snorted. “This isn’t dancing, This is like running alongside a kid riding his bike for the first time.”

That merited him another unsophisticatedly hearty laugh from Edeena, and then they were suddenly at the end of their circuit. Vince realized he didn’t know exactly how they parted ways. When Edeena came close, their hands together, and toward him as if for a kiss, he felt as if the whole world was watching.

And he couldn’t bring himself to give a damn.

He met her kiss with a pressure that had been building up inside him since the last time he’d held her in his arms, six thousand miles and a million layers of sense back in Charleston. For a bare moment, time stopped, and he allowed himself to savor every detail of the beautiful woman in his arms. Her soft mouth, her racing heart, the clutch of her hands in his, the taste of salt and champagne on her lips, the smell of honeysuckle in her hair . . .

Then the moment broke, the music crashed on, and Edeena was stepping back from him. She was radiant, perfect and true . . .

And she was destined for somebody else.

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