Page 66 of The Wolf and the Wildflower
“It is theonlyreason I am here,” she admitted softly, even as it revealed too much of her yearning. “I wanted to feel your arms around me like that.”
His eyes flashed, darkening as if they held a storm caged within. For a second, they blazed with breathtaking heat.
“Dance with me,” he said.
Something she couldn’t understand began beating in her heart, and she placed her hands within his, allowing him to lead her inside. A ripple went through the crowd, and Jules became aware that everyone seemed arrested by their walk to the dance floor.
“Everyone is staring,” she said, annoyed at the nervousness coursing through her body. Jules could feel her breathing deepening and quickening.
“I have not taken to the floor since the ball started.”
Despite hearing the earlier whispers, Jules was startled. “The duchess is disappointed.”
“I find the crowd…discomfiting.”
For a man who loathed the idea of fearing anything because such emotions were a weakness, she knew it was not easy for him to admit that.
As if reading her mind, he said, “I am not afraid to share any truth with you.”
They took their position on the floor, and she placed her hand on his shoulder. The strains of the waltz leaped to life and filled the space with its elegant melody. “I am not afraid to share any of my truths with you, either, James.”
A small smile touched his mouth and a warm feeling suffused her entire body. “You will need to dance with someone else. Otherwise everyone will wonder who I am, especially your mother.”
His eyes caressed over her face, searching every nuance of her expression. “No.”
“James…”
“No.”
There was that unbending resolve in his tone. Her mouth closed on further protests as he took her into his arms. Jules had learned dancing as a gentleman, and she had been taught to lead. Yet that did not matter, for the duke was so commanding in his movements that she had no choice but to surrender all control to him as he twirled them to the elegant and sensuous Viennese waltz.
“No one else is dancing,” she gasped, closing her fingers reflexively on his shoulders.
“I know.”
Oh God, this would indeed be a disaster. Why were they all watching instead of coming on the dance floor?
“Your eyes on me, Wildflower,” he softly commanded.
Jules lifted her regard to his and became lost. There was a look in his eyes that was as unfathomable as the terrifying depths of the ocean. That sense of smallness he had alluded to that one felt when staring at the power of nature, Jules felt it now. He sucked her under, and her heart ached at the cruel beauty of the need she felt burrowing under her skin. An unexpected dart of fear went through her.
“Do not fear what is between us,” he said, spinning her into a twirl. James commanded her steps with graceful and powerful movements, and with each glide and twist and turn it felt like the eyes of thehaut tondissected their every move.
“Are you not at all uncertain about it?”
“No.”
Her mind groped for something, anything else, yet nothing came to Jules. The ache of want in her chest became a physical thing, and there was no ease in its tightening grip. James tugged her a little closer than what was considered proper, and a breath trembled from her lips. They glided across the expanse of the ballroom, staring into each other’s eyes. Jules felt dangerously alive, her heart and body exquisitely tormented by the intense feelings burning through her for this man.
“I am not afraid, James.”Liar, a small voice inside taunted.
He spun her away from him, and she twirled in two rotations before she was back in his arms, this time even scandalously closer.
“Good.”
The waltz ended, and he escorted her to the refreshment table where he bowed before making his way from the ballroom. Another ripple of shock went through the room, and she could feel the duchess’s eyes burning into her. Jules snagged a glass of champagne and emptied the contents, somehow knowing that James was out there waiting for her.
Chapter Twelve
