Page 44 of His Wedding Day Revenge

‘What’s the worst that can happen?’ Jamie said.

Jane lowered her eyes and thought, It already has.

She’d been hiding behind the illusion that she was in charge, she set the rules and boundaries, which meant she was safe, but, for all the smoke and mirrors, it was self-delusion. She wasn’t.

She was in love with Draco and the heartbreak coming her way was inevitable, but in the meantime, she told herself fiercely, she was going to enjoy every precious moment of it.

‘Wow!’ The dizzying circle of alternating despair and determination in her head was broken as she allowed herself to be manoeuvred around another couple to avoid a head-on collision.

The floor was now quite crowded. Several couples of varying abilities had joined them, and the quartet had reacted by switching seamlessly to a slow, dreamy waltz number.

‘Wow, you are so good at this,’ Jane said truthfully.

‘When I didn’t make the soccer team, Draco advised me to find something I was good at. Turned out that women like dancers more than they like jocks, or it might just be me,’ he said smugly.

Jane laughed. ‘Oh, you sound so like Draco.’

‘I’m not sure I’d take that as a compliment, Jamie. Do you mind if I cut in?’

Grinning, Jamie released Jane and as Draco bent to say something in his ear he nodded, flashed a grin at Jane and mouthed thank you before threading his way through the dancers.

‘May I have this dance,cara?’

She nodded, feeling suddenly incredibly shy. ‘I should warn you, I’m not a very good dancer.’

‘I think that is for me to say.’

He did not pull her into his arms immediately. Instead he took her elbows and held her a little away from him, his head dipping as his glittered dark stare swept down her body.

Jane felt the quiver start deep inside until her entire body was engulfed by a hot tide of sexual awareness... It seemed crazy to her at that moment that she had ever convinced herself she could enjoy him and then walk away.

‘You look very beautiful.’

It was not the words, it was his voice, his eyes, it was everything about him that stalled her brain. She knew they were surrounded by people and she ought to be acting normally—she had forgotten what normal was!

‘I’m not a very good dancer,’ she said as his hand came to the small of her back. She could feel the warmth of his splayed fingers through the silky fabric.

‘You said that.’

‘Did I?’ she said vaguely. He took her hands, which lay loosely at her sides, her fists clenched white, and placed them on his shoulders and put his one hand on her back between her shoulder blades, the other to her waist.

‘Follow me.’

A bubble of laughter emerged as a strangled choking sound through her clenched teeth as she realised she would probably follow him over a cliff.

No, you wouldn’t, said the stern voice in her head. Because a) he wouldn’t ask, b) you are a mother, so your first responsibility is to Mattie, and c) you wouldn’t be standing on the edge of a cliff because you are scared of heights.

This sense-inducing line of logic at least gave back the ability to breathe, but only shallowly, as he began to move, no, they began to move as one unit. Draco didn’t have Jamie’s fancy steps, or if he did he wasn’t using them, it was just silky smooth harmony and hypnotic sway, the closeness intense but, in a contradictory way, seductively soothing.

Jane’s nostrils flared as she breathed in the warm male scent of him, revelling in the coiled strength of his hard body. Enclosed by his arms, she felt cut off from everything but him—he was everything.

His breath was on her hair and then her neck. ‘I saw what you did.’

‘I felt like dancing and your brother is a very good dancer.’

‘Better than me...?’

‘Much better.’

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