Page 18 of The Grand Mistletoe Assembly
She had stolen a kiss from Nicholas Byrne. Never mind that. A first kiss was a first kiss. She had never meant to make much fanfare of it. She hadn’t just stolen a kiss—she’d raised to the tips of her toes, grabbed the man by his lapels, for saint’s sake, and pressed her lips against his.Andhe had kissed her back.
Where had the solemn and serious earl disappeared to? Oh dear, and what about Nancy? What would her friend say when she learned Pippa had kissed her brother! While she wished to seize every memorable moment of her life, kissing Chatteris bordered on dangerous.
Pippa’s attention caught on two striking figures as she reentered the ballroom. Her sight landed on the tall man with prominent, foreign features before shifting to the beautiful woman beside him. They were bickering, but they still looked like they belonged together. A perfect match.
A pinch of envy squeezed her heart.
“Oh! There you are,” Nancy exclaimed from a few feet away, Lord Dare at her side. “We’ve been looking for you.”
Oh, right.She’d forgotten she’d promised Lord Dare a dance! He was her actual target for tonight, and she’d sought him out in the garden for that purpose. But now that she’d kissed Chatteris, she had no desire to steal a kiss from Lord Dare as well. She did, however, need a distraction.
“My lady.” He offered her his arm and his most famous rakish smile. “Shall we?”
Pippa extended her hand to place in Dare’s outstretched palm when a bigger hand intruded upon her field of vision. Her gaze flew up to … Chatteris?
“The lady is dancing with me.”
Dare arched a brow. “Chatteris, good evening. You must be mistaken. Lady Pippa has promised this dance to me.”
“No mistake.”
“My name is clearly written on the dance card.”
Chatteris gave a curt nod. “How remarkable that you would believe that.”
“You’ve clearly lost your bloody head,” Dare said.
Chatteris snorted. “That remains to be seen.” With that, he all but swept Pippa to the dance floor.
“What are you doing?” she hissed before they were forced to part and circle around the other dancers.
“What areyoudoing?” Chatteris replied when they were once again drawn together. “Drinking. Kissing men. Dancing with rakes?”
“You just pawned your sister off to that rake,” Pippa shot back.
The muscles beneath her palm stiffened, and she let out a small laugh when Chatteris snapped his head to Nancy and Dare, the tension only leaving his body when he spotted Jeremy.
“You did that on purpose,” he ground out.
“You stole my dance.”
“Can a dance be compared to a kiss?”
Probably not. It occurred to Pippa that in all her years of knowing the earl, they’d never once danced. Until tonight.
Was it because of the kiss?
For some reason, the idea unnerved her.
“Seeing as we’ve never danced before, it might not be that far off from a kiss.”
“You meant to kiss Dare tonight.” Before she could answer, he went on. “Don’t bother to deny it. And before you tell me it’s none of my concern, let me remind you that you are a guest under my roof. Everything you do is my business.”
Pippa inhaled deeply, unable to escape the soft scent of pine. Even when she curtsied to another gentleman, allowing her a short reprieve from Chatteris’s gloomy visage, escape proved impossible.
Pippa couldn’t very well tell him about her mother’s diary. They did not have the kind of relationship where they shared such intimate details. However, it seemed that she had awakened the beast within him with her actions tonight.
Seizing a moment with Nicholas Byrne had not been a wise thing. In fact, it might very well prove to be calamitous. It was the sort of moment, if left unguarded, one might regret in the future, and if there was anything in the world Pippa hated more, it was regret.
