Page 44 of Ravishing Camille
He did look regal in his black swallow-tailed evening suit, ivory satin waistcoat and elaborately tied silk cravat. Pierce wore similarly striking attire and Camille found herself smiling at the thought that many a lady here would want him or his friend…but have neither. Not while Brianna was near this man. Not while she was Pierce’s partner…at least for tonight.
The thought of another in Pierce’s attention stabbed her with sorrow. She forced herself to the matter of welcoming Mister Macfarlane.
“On a Wednesday evening,” Lee greeted them all, “one would think the theatre would be poorly attended. Good evening, Pierce and Miss Bereston. I’m delighted we are a foursome.” His sky-blue gaze landed on Brianna with a sensual intensity that had the lady parting her lips.
Pierce carried on with the introductions.
Camille extended her hand to him. “We thought you’d enjoy sterling company, and so we invited my former school friend to join us.”
Lee bowed low over Brianna’s hand with a slow appraisal of her upswept auburn hair and rosy lips. Then he lifted her hand and kissed it, a chivalrous charm that in the bright light of the foyer illuminated his instant desire. “I am delighted to meet you.”
Brianna acknowledged him with a wide arch of her brows and no small bit of astonishment. At once, she seemed to shake herself and recovered her usualelan. “I’m quite honored to meet you, sir. I’m afraid, however, you won’t be happy to have met me.”
Given in good jest, her comments had him gazing at her in confusion. “And just how is that, Lady Brianna?”
“I promise to draw every detail from you about your home which means you’ll miss the play entirely.”
“I know Japan so well, my lady, that I shall not miss this performance, but prefer the honor of your full attention.”
“You sway me with your compliment, sir.”
“Wait until you feel the full force of my own questions,” he said, so good at this banter that Camille grinned.
“You’ll allow me to learn everything?”
Lee lifted her hand to his lips once more. “I ensure it.”
Brianna blushed, her lashes fluttering. The man was newly arrived from another country only weeks ago and yet clearly knew how to charm an English woman.
Brianna tipped her fan at his chest, a more familiar gesture than their brief introduction might allow. Yet Lee took no umbrage. Just the opposite. He reached for her wrist, turned up her hand and plucked her fan from her fingers.
“A woman who enjoys the language of the sticks should possess her own incomparable ones.” He deposited her fan on a waiter’s stand. “I will send one to your home tomorrow before your breakfast.”
Brianna—an heiress and aristocrat who was never smitten by any man easily—stared at him in what Camille would say was awe. “I’d like it in yellow,” she told him in a voice that sounded very much as if she were in a trance.
“The color for an empress,” he said and lifted her wrist—this time—for the blessing of his lips. “None other.”
Camille arched both brows. Brianna did indeed shiver at this man’s attentions.
“Shall we go up?” Pierce turned to Camille with laughter in his eyes.
Camille gave him her arm and they found the circular stairs off to the right and up to the entrance to the balcony boxes. She debated if sitting with Pierce in such proximity was a good idea. But in the regular floor seats, they might have been closer, their knees and thighs touching. When he opened the door to their box and he took her cloak to hang in the ante-room, his fingers lingered on her bare shoulders. She stilled. The four chairs in red velvet and cream brocade were no farther apart than the seats below. But each pairing of two sumptuous upholstered fauteuils gave an intimacy to the private space that implied more than simple affection between partners.
He took her hand and led her to the fore of the box. She peered over the railing. Below, a hundred or more mingled as they found their own seats. Some were in parties, others alone. Camille caught the eye of one former school friend of hers and Brianna’s. She turned to tell her, but her friend was much too involved with Lee Macfarlane to tear herself away. In truth, he focused so intently on Brianna that he enjoyed himself as well.
Camille cast another look at those on the floor—and halted. Her gaze met those of Aldridge Connor. She smiled and inclined her head in acknowledgement. But he did not. He held a glass of wine or whiskey and downed it, then set his mouth in a firm line. In the next moment, he caught sight of Pierce and their two companions, but returned to scowl at Pierce.
She recoiled at Connor’s animosity. His behavior, silent though it was and far removed, was nonetheless rude and oddly unsettling. She turned away.
And sat down. She opened her program but the print swam before her. That Connor should be so disconcerted by Pierce’s presence confused her. She’d not felt any hostility between the men. Why should there be?
She sought a distraction, anything not to look down again to the house seats.
From the corner of her eye, she observed how Brianna and Lee whom she had just met seemed to live in a world of their own. They talked as if they were old friends. They laughed as if they cared not for any others in the world. They touched as if they had before.
Was this fascination? Of course it was.
Camille held her breath and caught a glimpse of dashing, darling Pierce. Desire burned her from the heart out. She had seen it this morning when Pierce touched her. Felt it this afternoon when they’d toyed with each other, their toes under the table, teasing each other as they had for years. Rejoiced in it on the walk home, the press of her aching breast to his arm.
