Page 17 of How to Seduce a Duke this Autumn
Adam’s blood froze, his head whipping to his friend. “Say that again?”
A sigh. “I just received the news myself. It’s ten percent accurate. The spare has boarded a ship back to England.”
“Ten percent? Why even mention it in the first place?”
Jack shrugged. “As duke, you should know this. This is why you should act ten percent faster to secure your love.”
“She is not my love.” Not yet. Not anymore.
There was that sharp pain in his chest that surfaced every time he thought of Charlene.
“You cannot still be denying this? But you love her.”
Adam scowled. “Don’t speak of love so casually. She chose my brother.”
“And how did that end?”
Adam cursed, glaring at his friend. Horribly. It bloody ended horribly.
You are all the same.
That one sentence would probably haunt him forever. “We are not compatible,” he simply said. They were not, no matter what the feelings. They were one-sided anyway. And she thought him the same as his brother. No, whatever may be his dreams at night, they could never be his reality in the day.
That sunny chance of love had set forever. Every sunrise that followed was subtly different, for no two suns or sunsets are ever the same. Unless, of course, one was to stand in the exact same spot for an entire lifetime.
And what human could do that?
He felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Come now, old friend, let’s make the best of this, eh?” Jack made a sweeping motion over the crowd. “You’re not going to stand here all night, looking like a masked statue. Not that I mind. I don’t care for this sort of affair either, but your mother will skin us both alive if you do.”
True. “She might. She might not. What the eye does not see, the heart cannot fuss over.”
“You believe she doesn’t have eyes and ears everywhere?”
Oh, she most certainly did. He couldn’t refute that either.
Adam sighed. His gaze was locked on the dancers gliding effortlessly across the floor. The kind of life that never seemed to touch him. So poised, posh, and pompous. At least that was what he had thought while growing up. He much preferred the open seas. Vast. Raw. True beauty.
“Go on,” Jack prodded again. “Pick a woman. Ask her to dance. You’ll forget all about your brooding by the end of the waltz. Also, it should get your mother off your back.”
“She wants me to engage, too. Form connections.”
“I’ll introduce you to the Duke of Mortimer later. That should please her. You dukes should have some influential friends.”
“Much obliged.”
Jack gave Adam a friendly shove. “Now, go dance with someone so we can get out of here quicker.”
Adam sighed. “I don’t know who.” The last thing he wanted was to give any woman here the wrong impression.
Jack’s grin widened. “It’s a masquerade ball. Everyone’s wearing a mask. Half of them are strangers. Who’s to say who’s who? Just ask one of them. Dance with her. Well, ask three if you must. You know as well as I do that women can’t resist a man who looks like he doesn’t care. And frankly, if you are recognized, I’ll jump into a bush of thorny roses completely naked.”
Adam smiled at that. “I feel like a fraud asking anyone to dance. I don’t belong here.”
“You do belong here,” Jack said, his voice firm. “Whether you like it or not, you have a place among all of them. If you want to nitpick, I’m the one who doesn’t belong.”
“The difference between you and me is that you don’t care.”
