Page 35 of Vows of Revenge

I’ve changed.

For a moment it hung there...that simple statement that somehow wasn’t simple at all. That was somehow significant...important.

But he did not yet know how he had changed—how it was important...

His eyes went to Kassia, still talking to the Cardmans about ballroom dancing and what they might expect later on, Her beautiful eyes were alight, her face animated. Something swept through him, powerful and strange. Something that he did not recognise, did not know. He knew only that it seemed to be possessing him...taking him over...

Charles Cardman turned towards him, breaking the moment. ‘What about you, old chap? How’s your foxtrot?’ he asked genially.

‘Non-existent,’ he admitted, mentally refocussing with an effort. ‘I can probably manage a waltz, but that’s about all.’

‘Ah, but what tempo?’ Valerie challenged. ‘Fast or slow?’

‘Does it make a difference?’ Damos asked, taken aback.

‘Oh, yes!’

She launched into technicalities, and Damos held up his hand.

‘I’m lost already! I’ll just have to lumber around and do my best.’ He threw an apologetic look at Kassia. ‘I’ll try not to step on your toes as well!’

‘You’ll both be fine,’ Valerie said reassuringly. ‘Charles and I will dance with each of you first and give you a quick lesson. Charles isn’t at all bad for an amateur,’ she said fondly, patting her husband’s arm approvingly.

Damos smiled, thanking her, but he knew it was not Valerie Cardman he wanted to take into his arms to dance with—it was Kassia.

To feel her in my arms...to hold her...embrace her. She, and she alone, is the only woman I want in my arms. And in my bed. The only woman...

And again that strange, powerful, unknown feeling swept through him.

Possessing him...

CHAPTER SEVEN

KASSIASMILEDDREAMILYas Damos ushered her into the lift.

‘What a wonderful, wonderful evening!’ she exclaimed.

She meant it—totally. Little fragments of evocative classic songs and melodies from the nineteen-thirties were playing in her head. She hummed aloud now, still smiling. Beside her, Damos gave a low laugh.

She glanced up at him, her eyes and her face aglow. ‘Thank you so much for bringing me. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world!’

‘My pleasure,’ he said promptly, and he smiled at her in return.

In her high heels she was very nearly at eye level with him, and it felt strange. At least, she thought wryly, she’d got used to walking in the heels. And dancing too.

Her smile grew dreamier. She’d told Valerie she couldn’t dance and it was true. Certainly she hadn’t been able to compete against the older woman’s professional skill and flair, which had been such that, once the band had struck up after dinner, and the wide doors had been opened to the terrace beyond, the other dancers had given her and her husband all the space they needed to show off their moves.

But the Cardmans had insisted she and Damos take to the floor as well, each of them, as Valerie had promised, taking a dance with them. So Kassia had tentatively danced with Charles, even though she was a good head taller than him, and accepted his instructions.

She had been aware that her attention was on his wife, in Damos’s arms, similarly instructing him. Aware, too, that she did not like to see Damos with another woman...

When the number had ended and another had been struck up it had been a waltz, slow and beguiling. Charles had released her, and Valerie had released Damos. As Damos had turned to Kassia she’d felt a sudden tremor go through her. She’d all but frozen, rooted to the spot as one of his hands clasped hers and the other curved around her waist.

‘Put your free hand on my shoulder,’ he’d said encouragingly, and gingerly...oh, so gingerly... Kassia had done so, gazing helplessly at him.

Her eyes had gone completely wide, and she’d felt every fibre of her body tensing. To be in Damos’s arms like that...

Then the music had swept into its full melody—and Damos had swept her away.

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