Page 30 of A Chance to Dance with the Duke
He shifted to face her fully. “Meg, there is something I need to tell you.”
Her brows hitched and he could feel the maid’s sidelong glance.
“I…” He drew in a deep breath. “I cannot dance.”
Meg’s eyes widened, and then her gaze met his and?—
And then she burst out laughing.
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Meg clapped a hand over her mouth when his brows shot up in surprise. “I’m sorry.” The words were too muffled and she dropped her hand, but she was grateful to see that he was smiling, even if he looked a little befuddled.
I cannot dance.
The way he’d said it made it sound like he was admitting to the very worst fault.
He arched one brow. “It’s amusing to you that I’d make a fool of myself the moment I attempt to move in time to music, is it?”
But his tone was full of wry amusement, and it took everything in her not to burst out with a giggle.
“No, not at all, it’s just…” She swallowed another wave of laughter and watched his eyes twinkle with a laugh of his own. “It’s just the way you said it. You might have been admitting to something truly horrible.”
She lowered her voice until it was practically a growl. “I am a murderer. I am a thief…” She paused for dramatic effect. “And I cannot dance.”
He burst out with a loud laugh, his head falling back.
The maid who’d been pretending not to eavesdrop cast a startled look in their direction before glancing away.
Some of the dreadful tension that had been hovering over them ever since he’d arrived on her doorstep dissipated with his laugh. And though she tried to stop it, she found herself giggling all over again when he lifted his head and met her gaze.
“So, you see…” His voice was strained with an effort to sound serious. “It was not that I did not wish to dance withyouthat night.”
She didn’t need him to clarify which night wasthatnight.
That night would forever haunt her memories.
She furrowed her brows as she studied him, replaying that fateful moment with this new information. “You came over and asked me to dance.”
“I did.”
“Because…” She drew in a sharp inhale, torn between laughter and horror. “Because everyone knows I never say yes.”
He dropped his head with a sigh, and she said a prayer of thanks that he’d looked away before he could see her disappointment.
It was absurd to still be disappointed now after everything. And truly, this was a better explanation than everyone else’s assumption that he’d asked her as a joke.
And yet…
She swallowed hard, focusing her gaze on her fingers. “I see.”
“No, Meg, I…” He shocked her when he gently touched her chin and lifted her face.
His touch was gentle, but she couldn’t have looked away if she’d tried. There was something so intimate about the way he was holding her face.
To a passerby, it must have looked as though he was about to utter something thoroughly romantic.
“I did not think.” He dropped his hand and her heart dropped as well. “It was a rash decision, and I did not think through the consequences.”
