Page 41 of Project Duchess
Down, boy. She merely wants to dabble in the scandalous. So let her. God knows you want her to.
He led her into the musicians’ alcove. “To begin, we stand opposite each other at about arms’ length.”
With a nod, she took that position. Then she muttered a curse that sounded distinctly unladylike. “I just realized—I have no idea what tune to hum.”
“Do you know ‘Lucy May’?”
Her face lit up. “I do!”
“That will work. But hum it at a slower pace than usual, so I can instruct and you can follow without too much trouble.”
“All right.” She began to hum in a deep, throaty voice so thrilling that fire rose in him anew.
He fought to tamp it down. “First, we bow. Then we take one step toward each other . . . and one step away. Right, like that.” He held out his hands. “Next we clasp hands in a wide arc and circle around until we’re back to where we were.”
She stopped humming just long enough to say, “I’m not sure why you considered this dance so shocking.”
“We’re coming to that.” He tugged her close, apparently taking her by surprise, for her color heightened. “You lift your left hand over your head to touch your fingertips tomyleft hand as you align your right shoulder with my right shoulder. At the same time you place your right hand on the left side of my waist and I place my right hand in the same spot on yours.”
As the position entwined them so that their right forearms lay across each other’s stomachs and their left hands met overhead, forcing them to gaze into each other’s eyes, she stopped humming. “Oh my,” she said breathlessly.
He didn’t move, though he relished the feel of her slender belly against his arm and the widening of her eyes as her lips formed a surprised O. “Now you understand why the servants might misinterpret our . . . lesson.”
“Indeed.” With her color deepening to scarlet, she dropped her gaze from his.
God help him. That blush made everything harder. Including certain parts of his body.He would need an ice bath after this was done.
“Wh-what comes next?” she asked.
“We make two turns in this position.” But he didn’t move. When she glanced up to find him regarding her steadily, he murmured, “Are you going to hum the tune? Or shall I count it off?”
She groaned. “Of course I’ll hum. Forgive me for stopping.”
A choked laugh escaped him. “No man alive would complain about being locked in this pose with you.”
At once she started humming.
That was a different sort of torture, since he now had to move. He led them into the turn while staring into the warmth of her pretty eyes, which he wished weren’t gazing at him so greedily. If she was even aware of that.
He couldn’tstopbeing aware of it. Or of the sensuality of the dance. The slow swivel they made was all the more erotic because her fingers dug into his waist, probably so she could keep her balance. But he indulged in a wild fantasy that those questing fingers were sliding inside his coat . . . waistcoat . . .shirt,so he could feel them exploring every inch of his chest.
And lower.
Holy hell. It was all he could do to keep his touch steady when he really wanted to smooth his hand up her ribs and over her bodice to cover one—
“Keep turning,” he said in a guttural voice as they finished the first circuit, though his breath felt scratchy in his throat and he could hardly get the words out.
As if recognizing his difficulty, she hummed louder. Which only made him want to halt the humming with his mouth.
“Now we bring our left hands down,” he said, “clasping them together while both of us pivot to face forward, and we slide our right hands over until they meet between us where we can join them together, too. In other words, our arms should form a cross in front between us.”
It was comical to watch her expression as she tried to make sense of his instructions. After getting everything mixed up, she stopped in mid-step. “I’m sorry, you’ll have to show me that one again.”
“Of course.” He faced her once more. “Let’s return to our former position.”The one where I caress your waist and stare into your lovely face.
“Lord save me,” she muttered.
He agreed, though he doubted anything would save them from the conflagration this dance sparked between them.
