Page 37 of Cherish and the Duke
“And yours, Cherish?”
She groaned. “My heart is completely misbehaving, and I am in agony over it.”
He twirled her off to the side near the glass doors leading onto the terrace. With one more spin they were on the terrace, and he stopped dancing upon reaching a torch-lit corner. He drew her behind one of the pillars but continued to hold her close, slowing their dance so that they were hardly moving in time to the music. “Why are you in agony?”
“To toss your words back at you, it is none of your business.”
“Has someone hurt you? One of those new suitors?”
Pain shot into her eyes. “No.”
“Blast it, Cherish. You are a terrible liar.”
“I know.”
“Has someone insulted you? Tell me who and I shall have a word with him.” He continued to hold her, their shadows barely visible in the dim light. The night sky was clouded over so that one could not make out the stars or moon.
Cherish looked quite pretty by the light of the lone torch.
“I am not so inept as to require your assistance,” she insisted. “No one has said or done anything unkind to me, other than your paramour.”
“Don’t call her that.”
“Then what is she to you?”
He released Cherish, no longer maintaining the pretense of dancing with her, and walked over to the balustrade. “I don’t know what she is. I don’t know who she really is or whether I ever want to see her again. There, are you satisfied?”
“No, but I am truly sorry you are so turned upside down by her.”
“I’m not turned upside down.”
She shook her head and regarded him with irritating patience. “Now who is lying?”
Perhaps Cherish was right and he was merely deluding himself. As much as he did not trust Katie, he suspected they could easily fall back into an intimate relationship. Since she was a widowed countess with means of her own, she would suffer little if the gossips found out about their renewed acquaintance. He could bed her without the need to marry her.
Was this not what Katie was offering? An open invitation into her bed with no strings attached?
Even Cherish, as untried and innocent as she was, could see where it was certain to lead.
On the one hand, renewing a casual acquaintance with Katie would allow him to remain free to do as he wished with his life. He could continue to be the Silver Duke everyone desired but no woman could ever catch.
Pursuing Cherish, on the other hand, meant surrendering completely. She would require a vow of commitment. Marriage. Faithfulness. Till death do us part.
Even kissing Cherish was dangerous.
He knew how to kiss a woman, and expected he could steal Cherish’s heart with just one kiss because she believed so wholly and completely in the enchantment of romance. She also believed in abiding love. Unbreakable, enduring love.
He could sweep her away with such feelings.
And yet she might do the same to him, because her innocence and this sincere belief in love’s existence was incredibly appealing to him. She spoke from her heart, and therein lay pure truth.
More than that, she had magic in her heart. Perhaps this was what he had always been waiting to find, that one person who could make him feel the magic.
And here she was before him.
Cherish.
The orchestra now played the last strains of their waltz. Gawain knew she would now be claimed for the next dance. He was about to offer his arm to escort her back inside when Reggie spotted them. “Ah, there you are,” he said to Cherish, sounding annoyingly gleeful. “Our turn to dance.”
