Page 32 of A Chance to Dance with the Duke
Her smile felt like it had taken on a life of its own. She couldn’t seem to stop her lips from curving up when he looked at her like that. She also couldn’t seem to stop herself from prattling on. “Do you want to know what made that moment absolutely ridiculous?”
“I would love to hear it.”
She stopped to face him. “I only said yes because of a dare.”
He stopped as well. “A dare?”
By the time she finished telling him about how she and her friends had taken a cue from him and his friends, and their game of dares, they were both laughing. “Well, now it all makes sense,” he said. “Our game of dares have gotten us all into trouble at one point or another.”
“Really?”
“Mmm. For example, there was the time my cousin dared me to sneak out in the middle of the night…”
For the remainder of their walk, Carver had her laughing at his exploits to the point that she feared she might cause a scene with all her laughter.
But every time she stopped to bend over and catch her breath, she’d straighten to find him watching her with a smile on his lips and warmth in his eyes.
By the time he handed her back up into the carriage, it was impossible to say whether this breathless sensation and the rapid beat of her heart was because of the exercise…
Or the Duke.
11
The next week flew by for Carver, and every second of it was filled withher.
With Meg.
HisMeg, as he’d come to think of her—rightfully or not.
He’d had the pleasure of seeing Meg once more in that time, and in the days between, he’d thought of nothing else.
Namely, he plotted how he might make her smile even more. How he could tease out that laugh that made his heart soar.
Their second rendezvous had been a quiet visit over tea, with her mother hovering nearby, interjecting occasionally, and fawning over Carver far too much for his liking.
There’d also been a noticeable dampening of Meg’s good spirits. She’d still been pleasant, of course, and had seemed genuinely pleased to see him.
But her smiles had been strained and her laughter subdued, and that, he discovered…was intolerable.
So these past few days, in addition to pestering his aunt to ensure that Meg would definitely be in attendance this evening, he also thought of all the ways he might make this evening a success for her.
Indeed, it was the hope of hearing that laugh and seeing that smile that had made him hurry out the door for tonight’s soiree—hosted by his own Aunt Evie, and with the assurance that Meg had not only been invited, but that she’d accepted.
A smile tugged at his lips before he even set foot in the home he knew so well.
Kal was the first to greet him. As the host of this evening’s festivities, he did his duty well, greeting each new arrival by name.
No one could fault Kal for his manners. Even if he did endure the evening with his usual cynicism and wry humor.
“Is she here yet?” Carver asked Kal before he’d even said hello.
“Not yet.” Kal arched a brow. “And do try to recall that you’re supposed to bepretendingto play the part of the besotted fool.”
Carver ignored that. “What about the others?”
Kal nodded toward the parlor. “Albright’s here. Rodrick too. Seems Franny is visiting a relative this evening, so the poor chap is forced to spend time with his friends for once.”
Carver chuckled. They’d been roasting Rodrick for being so blindly in love with his financée for ages now. But tonight, Carver didn’t feel so much humor at the other man’s plight as he did…sympathy.
