Page 61 of A Rake's Redemption
Even Alex was looking a little worse for the wear when Caroline finally stopped playing a half an hour later. There were scuff marks on his boots and his cravat was askew, probably from a flailing arm or two.
“Does everyone need a rest before we go on?” Caroline asked.
Inis thought she heard a collective groan from the men, but it might have been her imagination. At any rate, she didn’t want to try Jameson’s temper any longer. “I think I have the steps learned,” she said.
“I think you do, too.” Alex nodded toward the men. “You may return to your tasks.”
Inis wasn’t sure if Alex thought she had, but he might have been wanting to save his toes from more torture. In any case, Jameson, Evans, and Higgins lost no time in heading for the door. If it weren’t so undignified, Inis was sure they would have broken into a run. The maids lingered until Mrs. Bradley reminded them they still had chores as well.
“Well, I had better change,” Inis said after they’d all left. “I have work to do in the stable.” She was sure that work would involve a lot of mucking outallof the stalls, given Jameson’s dour expression earlier.
“Oh, we are not quite finished,” Alex said.
Inis looked at him questioningly. So he hadn’t thought she’d mastered the steps? “If you thought I needed more practice, why did you dismiss everyone?”
He grinned. “We do not need additional people to practice the waltz.”
Thewaltz? The scandalous dance from France had not yet arrived in Dublin, although Inis had heard it had been introduced in London. She shouldn’t be surprised that Alex knew the steps; he did say rakes were good dancers. “I have never done a waltz.” At least, this time she was being totally truthful.
“It is rather easy,” Alex said. “Just three steps, then another three to form a box.”
Caroline smiled. “I have a perfect piece by Mozart that I have been practicing…the ‘Sussex Waltz.’ I will play a few bars so you can hear the cadence.”
Inis tilted her head to listen. “I can definitely hear a ‘one, two, three’ in the music.”
“Quite so,” Alex said and moved closer. “Now, the position is like this.” He placed Inis’s left hand on his shoulder and circled her waist with his right arm while he took her other hand in his.
It was as though she were wrapped in a warm cocoon filled with Alex’s scent. The shoulder her fingers rested on felt like a marble sculpture beneath the superfine cloth of his coat and the arm at her waist was equally firm. Sensation flooded her. Although there was space between them, she was aware that her nipples had hardened and strained against her fitted bodice. She suppressed a strange urge to press against Alex’s broad, hard chest and relieve the sudden achiness of them. Alex’s fingers splayed along her lower back as he drew her marginally nearer to begin the dance, and the same dull throbbing from her breasts travelled to a suddenly damp place between her thighs.
Sweet Mary, what was happening to her?
Miraculously, her feet were moving—dancing—without any conscious effort, due to Alex’s expert maneuvering of the steps. It was a good thing rakes were good dancers, since she didn’t think she was capable of coherent thought at the moment. She was too aware of Alex’s strong arms around her and every nerve ending tingling in her body as they turned and swayed to the slow, sensual notes of the waltz.
Inis blinked when she finally realized they were no longer moving. The music had stopped, although Alex still held her. His green eyes had turned dark as a night forest and were focused on her mouth. She had the oddest compulsion to kiss him. Her lips were unusually dry, and she instinctively licked them. Alex made a sound low in his throat that sounded like a growl before he quickly released her and stepped back. At his abrupt movement, the blanket-like warmth left her as though someone had opened a door to let winter in.
Caroline was watching them curiously. “Do you want me to play another waltz?”
“I think we have had enough dancing for one day,” Alex said. “Miss O’Brien obviously has natural talent.”
It wasn’t talent; it washim. Inis had floated in his arms, her movements totally aligned to his. Her body had felt boneless and weightless, her mind empty of thought save for the close oneness with Alex. She bit her lip as her cheeks grew warm. How silly could a girl get? Alex had practically jumped away from her just now. Had he seen desire written on her face? Her fanciful imagination had taken flight like a faerie flitting among primroses. To Alex, this had been a practice waltz. Nothing more. A means to an end. He wasn’t interested in kissing a groom.
“Thank ye, my lord.”
One of his eyebrows rose, but he didn’t comment on her manner of address. Instead, he simply nodded. “You are excused.”
Inis didn’t trust her voice to respond so she nodded, too, and turned toward the door. As she left, she told herself she would be wise to remember what her role was. To allow herself to fall for Alex’s rakish charms—and he wasproudof being a rake—would be disastrous. Really disastrous.
Leaving for the States once this debacle was over seemed like a better and better solution.
…
“Do not say a word,” Alex said to Caroline after Inis left the ballroom.
Caroline gathered her sheet music. “What did you think I would say?”
“You were about to remark on the dance lesson, no doubt.”
An amused expression crossed her face. “Which part? The part where Inis was floating on air?”
