Page 65 of The Duke of Desire
Chapter Fourteen
When West came to a stop in front of her, the cacophony in Ivy’s ears reached a deafening crescendo. She saw his lips move, but didn’t hear a word of it. Nor did she ask him to repeat himself. She simply stood there and drank him in as if she possessed an insatiable thirst.
Vaguely, she registered the jab of someone’s elbow. Lucy’s, probably. Ivy didn’t turn to look.
“Miss Breckenridge?”
She heard him this time, the deep timbre of his voice stoking the heat that had kindled inside her as soon as she’d caught sight of him.
“Yes?”
“A waltz is starting. Would you do me the honor of dancing with me?” He bowed gallantly, and the whizzing noise started up again in her ears.
Good heavens, was she going to faint?No.She refused.
Ivy shook the sounds from her head and took a deep breath to slow the frantic rhythm of her heart. “I’m afraid I cannot.”
“Go,” Lucy whispered urgently from her right.
Ivy longed to turn a glare on her friend, but didn’t. She couldn’t seem to look away from West’s captivating stare.
“Why not?” he asked softly, his lips curving with just a hint of delight as if he thought they were enjoying a game that only the two of them knew about.
Ivy resisted the urge to smile back. It would be so easy to fall back under his spell…which meant she thought he’d somehow enchanted her at Greensward. But that was ridiculous. Ivy had walked into whatever-it-had-been of her own volition. She moved toward him just the slightest bit, aware that most of the ballroom was watching them. Heat crept up her neck. She hated to be noticed, and this was sheer torture. “I don’t know how,” she ground out between her clenched teeth.
He took her hand, clearly uncaring about her reticence or her refusal. “Trust me.”
No, no, no.That was the one thing she would never do. She tried to pull her hand away, but he held her fast. “I cannot.”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “It’s too late now.”
And then he swept her toward the dance floor, tucking her arm over his.
“You didn’t even allow me to introduce my friends.” It was a feeble complaint, but the only one she could come up with just now. She was far too aware of—and thrilled by—the warmth of him beneath her hand.
“After we waltz. It’s already started.” He turned her in his arms and placed his hand at her waist. Then he clasped her other hand with his. “Take my shoulder and follow my lead.”
He began to move, stepping them forward and then to the side. She’d watched people waltz, of course, but doing it was quite different.
After she stepped on his foot, he asked, “Have youneverwaltzed?”
She shook her head.
“That is a crime.” He applied pressure to her waist as he guided her through the steps. “Count with me. One two three, one two three.” He continued with this instruction for the next minute until she finally grasped the rhythm of it.
“Have you ever danced at all?” he asked.
“Yes, but not for a very long time.”
He arched a brow at her as his mouth curved up on one side. “A revelation from the lady at last.”
She stared up at him, finally accepting that he was here in Bath, that he wasn’t just the fantasy that had been living in her mind the past few weeks. “Why are you here?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“Clearly it isn’t, or I wouldn’t have asked.”
“To see you, of course.”
