Page 30 of Lord Carlisle's Enticing Lure
“It’s time you left off with ‘sir’ and ‘my lord.’ I am Clive to you. As you are dear to me.”
She opened her mouth to object.
A wicked smile curled the edges of his fabulous lips. “If you say it is too soon, I will take that as promise that there will be a future.”
She went wistful, the impossible not hers to claim. But she would reveal what she could…and hope not to delude him. “Oh, Clive, I surrender. I could hope there is a future, but—”
“There is.” He crushed her close. She cared not that others would see or object. To be held by him, seduced with words by him, set her aloft with a thrill she’d never known. “I would make it so.”
“If time permitted—”
“It does, my dear. I command it to be.” He smiled, forcing all her anxiety to drift away. “If you do not come with me to the floor, my Gigi, I will kiss you here now and in such passion that—”
She caught her breath. Two fingers to his lips, she perceived how others paused to stare.
“No kissing?” He arched a devilish, long blond brow. “Then we must dance.”
“Clive…please.”
“I will please you and myself, and soon. Now, come. We are dancing.” He took her glass and put it away, then led her out onto to the chalked floor. “This that the master has called a country dance. Simple and a bit of fun. I’d say, sweetheart, you need some fun.”
Sweetheart.No one had called her that for so many years. Her papahad. Never her husband. What was Clive doing to her to tear down her past and create the shining lure of a love affair with him? “Fun. So rare a treat. I think, Clive, you are too prescient.”
“Thank goodness for that, then.” He held out his hand, and even through the fabric of her silk gloves she could feel his hunger for her.
She glanced about as they took up a place in the square drawn upon the floor. “You must tell me what to do. I’ve danced in Blois and Paris, but not here.”
“You will do beautifully. Just follow my lead.”
The formations were simple, just as Clive described them. The dance was easy as a breeze, and Giselle found herself smiling at him as they parted, faced other partners, then reunited, only to walk hand in hand down a long line of dancers and return to their four-squared positions.
“That was more fun than I anticipated.” She would give him that. After all, she’d been so standoffish that she might have, at any point, alienated him. And she had no desire to do that. Not any longer. She wanted him…closer.
“Would you care for another glass of wine now?”
“I would.”
He spun around. “Ah, a footman. We needn’t hunt at all.”
She took the flute from his long fingers and allowed the frisson of his touch to do its work. This man seemed to flow in her blood, whisper to her heart and linger there.
“Shall we stroll on the balcony? The night is soft,” he said with a look of innocence on his face.
“Let’s.” She asked for trouble. Friendship with him—with anyone—was not recommended. Not until she finished her final project. But she’d been captured by his determination to be her swain. She should not allow her appreciation for his face and form to influence her need to fill her lonely days, let alone her bleak, cold nights. But he persisted, and she was conquered. Now she wanted him. Tonight.
Few took the air on the balcony, so the two of them wandered to one side. The abutting wall blocked the wind that whirled up from the sea and created a calm nook in which to stand and drink and talk.
“How long do you remain in Brighton?” he asked her, nonchalant, as if he had not mesmerized her with sensuous longing inside the ballroom.
“Indefinitely.” Though that was the truth, she could not predict her departure.
“Do you plan to stay in the hotel?”
“Perhaps.” Did he want to offer an interlude with him? Her heart jumped at the hope. “It affords me privacy, and I prefer that.”
He knitted his brows, and in the silhouette he presented to her, she saw a man confounded. “You have that special grant from His Majesty’s Government that permits you to visit on the southern shore.”
The visa that he’d mentioned before was a paper she guarded with her life. “I do. I can stay as long as I wish.”
