Page 16 of A Bride for the Forbidden Duke
“All right, all right.” Zachary laughed nervously. “I shall stop.”
“Good.”
“Then what is your business venture this time? A new gentleman’s club? A gambling den? Mercantile? Travel, perhaps? A new line of luxury carriages.” Zachary was adept attalking to himself, muttering about new ideas. “Of course, there is always the business of racehorses.”
“It is profitable,” Henry answered. “That is all you need to know. Unless you are Lord Samson?”
It was a challenge, and Zachary winced, backing down. “No, no. I am merely interested. Say, your business could be in tailoring, perhaps?”
Henry groaned in frustration. Zachary Forbes was as pitifully inquisitive as his mother, and Henry had no time for it.
He surveyed the ballroom, seeking the dark-haired man he was told to look out for, but instead, he saw Lady Veronica again, across the room, standing with a blonde woman who looked around the room, overwhelmed yet delighted.
Deep in his gut, desire stirred as it had back in his study when she came to visit him.
He had backed her against the wall. And although he had insulted her, his attention had been ensnared.
His eyes locked onto hers, and hers on him. She sipped at her small glass of wine, and a bead of it wet her lips. Her gloved hands were delicate as she held the glass. Henry had the sudden thought of licking away that wine droplet. Of brushing his tongue along her lower lip slowly, tasting her and the wine, orswiping his thumb to collect the droplet and pressing it to her tongue himself.
And those silk gloves…
His mind tumbled deeper into his desire, imagining pulling those gloves off her, finger by finger, his hands brushing up her arm, hearing the soft gasps she might elicit as he touched her. And how would those gloves feel on his body? Her delicate hands going further, and further…
“Ah! There is your Lord Samson fellow,” Zachary announced, snapping Henry out of his thoughts.
And rightly so, as Lady Veronica was peering back at him, an unreadable expression on her face.
Frowning, Henry glanced away and instead followed Zachary’s pointing to the raven-haired man he sought.
“Excellent,” he said. “Thank you, Lindbury.”
The two of them approached, and Henry swiftly dismissed his cousin’s husband and turned to Lord Samson.
“Lord Samson, it is good to meet you here,” Henry said, shaking the man’s hand. “I thought we could discuss our business venture some more.”
“Of course, Your Grace,” the older lord agreed. “I have many thoughts.” He turned to the men he had been chatting with. “If you will excuse me, gentlemen.”
Henry took the brief moment of Lord Samson’s parting with his group to look back at Lady Veronica.
But the space she had occupied moments before was empty.
Chapter Six
Across the room, Veronica still stood beside Evelina as the two watched the ball come alive with each new arrival on the floor.
The music swept into another song, and Evelina leaned in to talk to Veronica, only to be stopped by the approach of a gentleman.
“Miss Stapleton, I have noticed you have not yet danced tonight,” he said, bowing deeply. “May I take your hand for your first dance?”
His eyes cut to Veronica, as if asking if it was okay. Evelina’s also did, her fingers nervously pinching at her gloves.
“I am sure Miss Stapleton would be honored,” Veronica said as her permission for her friend to have fun.
Just because Veronica did not want, nor think, anyone would ask to dance with her did not mean Evelina should miss out ather own mother’s ball. Evelina giggled as she was taken away and onto the floor, beginning a dance.
But as soon as her friend was gone, Veronica found herself looking around.
I do not wish to dance, she thought to herself.Not if the whispers are anything to go by. And if the men are anything like that horrid Duke of Westley, or Lord Barwicke, then I do not wish to entertain them.
