Page 27 of Bitter Desire
“Then I want to dance, please.”
We headed to the dance floor and Honey practically skipped the entire way. I smiled watching her twirl ahead of me. She was giggling and happy, her skirts floating out around her as she moved. She looked like an angel. Okay, maybe tonight wasn’t going to be a total shit show after all, but even as we walked towards the dancing I kept a careful eye on the room around us.
Chapter Eleven
HONEY
I glanced at Law and had to bite back a frown. Something was bothering him, but I didn’t know what. Tonight had been lovely so far, even if it was a surprise. That had to be it. Law didn’t like surprises, or things going off schedule. The show turning into a ball which had then become a masquerade was one too many switches for my man to handle without some level of unease. It came from his background...the background I had little understanding of, other than it had been violent.
Who Law had been before me, before he’d turned into a businessman, was front and center, rearing its head and making me wonder who he’d been before.Whathe’d been before.
“Try and relax, you grumpy Gus,” I ordered, giving his arm a little pinch. We were dancing now, the dress I wore swirling out around me as we moved with the couples. When Law had said he knew how to dance he hadn’t told me he knew how to waltz, or that he was a beautiful dancer at that. I knew the dances the classical orchestra was playing because of the fact that I had spent my free time as a child glued to my mother’s side, which meant being at auditions and lessons well past my bedtime, or the bedtime of any nine year old on a school night, really. Somewhere along the way I’d picked up the steps my mother worked over and over to perfection.
She’d tried to put me into dance lessons, but I was useless when it came time for recitals. I had panic attacks on the night of any and all showcases. My mother decided a daughter who“couldn’t even perform a simple two step on a gym floor in a shitty Texas town,”didn’t need to waste her money on dance lessons, and so those ended.
It didn’t mean I didn't keep watching or learning. What else was I supposed to do when my homework was done and the snack machine down the hall raided? The answer was dance, of course. I was happy for it now even if I hadn’t been able to perform for an audience, because for all that grief my mother had given me, I was able to dance when I most wanted. And that was here and now with Law.
“I’m a grumpy Gus because none of this makes sense,” Law replied, eyes scanning the room. He turned me, leading me through the steps, feeling more like a bodyguard than my boyfriend. I had to bite my lip because I found that I didn’t much mind thinking of Law as my bodyguard. The man wanted to keep me safe, and with the image Law cut in his suit, with the stern no nonsense look on his face?
The man was sex on legs. An easy thing for me to think, since protective Law was my catnip.
I just wished I could get him to relax or smile. I loved it when he smiled. But as it was, the way his jaw was clenched and the press of his lips told me he was not happy, even if I couldn’t see the whole of his face. The masks we wore hid the top half of our face, only the bottom half, our lips and chin, were visible.
But that did mean I could do one thing that I knew would make him smile. I leaned up on my tiptoes, pressing my lips to his. It was hard to follow Law in the dance steps while we kissed, mostly because the urge to rip his suit off grew with every second, so I did the only thing that wouldn’t get security called on us and pulled back from him. Law was smiling when I did, proving that I knew exactly what to do to make my man smile.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I wanted you to relax,” I replied when he spun me. “Maybe see a smile on your handsome face.”
“You can’t see my face. How do you know it’s handsome?”
I rolled my eyes at him. “It’s not like I don’t know what you look like under it. You’ve had it on for an hour, tops. I know you’re hot under that mask.”
“Mmm, same as the men in this room when it comes to you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t worry about it, princess.”
“Law, what-”
He leaned down and kissed me, cutting me off. “Princess, you know you’re the most beautiful woman in this place.”
I flushed but shrugged at his words. “I wouldn’t say that…”
Law chuckled and lowered his hands to my waist. “You don’t have to. Me and every man in this place will say it.”
I looked away from Law and out towards the room we were moving through. The ball, or really masquerade now, was in full swing, with the orchestra playing merrily away and people filling the dance floor. I could see more people still coming in through the doors, spilling out into the open air of the garden that was off to the side. I craned my neck, looking through the open doors and made a note to get Law to go out there and explore with me later. No doubt he had Taylor posted up somewhere in the garden watching our backs.
I frowned. Why was he so worried about tonight?
“What is it?” he asked, squeezing my side.
“Where’s Taylor?” I asked.
“Running security,” Law replied immediately, confirming my suspicions.
“But why?”
