Page 6 of A Daring Mistletoe Kiss
“Oh! There you are,” Nancy exclaimed from a few feet away, Lord Dare at her side. “We’ve been looking for you.”
Oh, right.She’d forgotten she’d promised Lord Dare a dance! He was her actual target for tonight, and she’d sought him out in the garden for that purpose. But now that she’d kissed Chatteris, she had no desire to steal a kiss from Lord Dare as well. She did, however, need a distraction.
“My lady.” He offered her his arm and his most famous rakish smile. “Shall we?”
Pippa extended her hand to place in Dare’s outstretched palm when a bigger hand intruded upon her field of vision. Her gaze flew up to … Chatteris?
“The lady is dancing with me.”
Dare arched a brow. “Chatteris, good evening. You must be mistaken. Lady Pippa has promised this dance to me.”
“No mistake.”
“My name is clearly written on the dance card.”
Chatteris gave a curt nod. “How remarkable that you would believe that.”
“You’ve clearly lost your bloody head,” Dare said.
Chatteris snorted. “That remains to be seen.” With that, he all but swept Pippa to the dance floor.
“What are you doing?” she hissed before they were forced to part and circle around the other dancers.
“What areyoudoing?” Chatteris replied when they were once again drawn together. “Drinking. Kissing men. Dancing with rakes?”
“You just pawned your sister off to that rake,” Pippa shot back.
The muscles beneath her palm stiffened, and she let out a small laugh when Chatteris snapped his head to Nancy and Dare, the tension only leaving his body when he spotted Jeremy.
“You did that on purpose,” he ground out.
“You stole my dance.”
“Can a dance be compared to a kiss?”
Probably not. It occurred to Pippa that in all her years of knowing the earl, they’d never once danced. Until tonight.
Was it because of the kiss?
For some reason, the idea unnerved her.
“Seeing as we’ve never danced before, it might not be that far off from a kiss.”
“You meant to kiss Dare tonight.” Before she could answer, he went on. “Don’t bother to deny it. And before you tell me it’s none of my concern, let me remind you that you are a guest under my roof. Everything you do is my business.”
Pippa inhaled deeply, unable to escape the soft scent of pine. Even when she curtsied to another gentleman, allowing her a short reprieve from Chatteris’s gloomy visage, escape proved impossible.
Pippa couldn’t very well tell him about her mother’s diary. They did not have the kind of relationship where they shared such intimate details. However, it seemed that she had awakened the beast within him with her actions tonight.
Seizing a moment with Nicholas Byrne had not been a wise thing. In fact, it might very well prove to be calamitous. It was the sort of moment, if left unguarded, one might regret in thefuture, and if there was anything in the world Pippa hated more, it was regret.
“So,” he demanded when they reunited. “Are you going to tell me what has gotten into you?”
“I admit, my actions may appear impulsive, but I do have my reasons, which are quite sound.”
“And what reasons might those be?”
“Why are you so riled, Chatteris?” Pippa countered.Because I kissed you or because I didn’t mean to kiss you?
