Page 20 of His Enemy Duchess

Sophia gasped but restrained herself quickly and put on that fake, infuriating smile again.

“You have no idea what you are talking about,” she said with saccharine sweetness.

“Youhave no idea what you are talking about,wife,” he said, knowing it would annoy her, possibly into performing their next dance like an expert.

“Don’t call me that ever again,” she snapped, her face beet red.

“Or else what?”

“Or else—” Sophia’s expression turned into a distinct scowl as she raised her leg, evidently intending to step on his foot with all of her weight.

As vengeful as her brothers, her father, her uncle.

However, fate seemed to have chosen a side that night, and it was not hers.

CHAPTER 7

If Sophia had possessed an ounce of the balance and grace of her peers or had raised her leg a few moments earlier at a simpler part of the dance, then she would have successfully stomped on Thomas’s right foot and caused the kind of riotous spectacle that would have been talked about for weeks, perhaps months.

He might have howled, might have embarrassed himself, might have taken himself down a peg or two, shattering the false image of the gallant and admired Duke, leaving her to bask in his humiliation.

Instead,shewas the one who screamed as her foot slipped across a spillage on the floor, flying up while her other foot was raised in preparation for the ultimate attack. Her entire upper body lurched backward, her arms flailing wildly with nothing to grab onto. She was going down, and the entirety of the ballroom was there to witness herhumiliation.

“Help…” was all she managed to squeeze out as she fell, praying the impact would be hard enough to knock her out. She did not want to hear the laughter that would undoubtedly follow.

A strong arm wound itself around her waist and halted her fall. Powerful muscles held her entire weight with ease, the grip so tight she could not breathe as she hung there, strangely suspended. The sudden movement made her dizzy, but eventually, her eyesight centered back, and she realized what had happened.

It was Thomas. He had caught her. Without an ounce of hesitation.

“If I did not know any better, I would say you did that on purpose,” he purred as he lifted her back up in a breathtaking rush that crushed her briefly to his broad chest. “Are you so desperate for my touch that you would risk your pretty neck?”

She met his wolfish gaze. “I would rather drink poison than beg for your touch.”

Grappling with the fading desire to keep up appearances, she gave his chest a light shove, but he did not budge.Shewas the one pushed backward as she struck that slab of granite, his athletic physique not merely for show.

“Temper, temper,” he tutted. “No gratitude, as ever.”

“Gratitude?” she wheezed, struggling to hold herself together. “Is that how you prefer your women? Grateful?”

He moved closer, his hand raised. She did her best not to flinch, knowing that he would not strike her, but she hadnotexpected him to brush back the locks that had fallen from her bun. His fingertips skimmed her cheek, tucking the locks behind her ear.

“Do not embarrass yourself further,” he warned in a whisper. “People are watching.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw what he meant. A terrifying sight—around three dozen people had turned and were looking at her and Thomas, not including the other dancers who had stopped to see if she was all right.

“Keep pretending that you cannot get enough of me,” he told her, his eyes like two crystalline pools that could drown her if she stared into them for too long. “Pretend that my touch doesn’t repulse you. Pretend you crave it.”

She blinked slowly, in a daze. “I would crave rotten sardines on weeks-old toast first.”

“How vivid your tongue is,” he replied with a thin smile as he took her hand and kissed it. He held it there, close to his lips, long after he should have let go. “I imagine our marriage will be filled with colorful language.”

She sniffed. “Oh, you have no idea.”

“You forget how well acquainted I am with your family, Lady Sophia. I haveeveryidea of what I have resigned myself to.” He discreetly glanced over her shoulder, no doubt assessing the situation.

As he did, freeing her from the pull of his wolf-like eyes, she realized a few things in sequence about the whole ordeal.

One. She wasthisclose to humiliating him in front of everyone. That would have been disastrous and would have quite possibly plunged the wedding into failure, but it would have been briefly gratifying.

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