Page 81 of Her Heartless Duke

When their names were called out, the whole ballroom fell into an almost reverent hush and Isaac could not help but marvel how things were so different only two years ago.

Two years ago, he never would have imagined marrying Olivia, as fixated as he was on Lady Vivian at that time. She was a lovely woman, to be sure, but she wasnotOlivia.

“You know, I am very glad you did not marry some idiot bloke before I got back from the Peninsula,” he murmured to her.

His wife could hardly hold in the giggle that bubbled in her throat. “I would have thought you would have married before me, Your Grace. As I recall, you intended to marry someone else. Pray, what could have changed your mind?”

“That would have been a gross error of judgment on my part,” he admitted. “Fortunately, I was waylaid by an amazing goddess with the most outrageous proposal I have ever heard in my entire life.”

“Really? And what proposal did this amazing goddess put before you?”

He looked down at her, his eyes drinking in the lovely sight of her sparkling eyes, the rosy flush of her cheeks that signified renewed health and vitality. His gaze dropped further down to her lips and he had to remind himself that they were in a ballroom full of people and he could not kiss her as much as he wanted.

“Dance with me, Olivia,” he whispered huskily instead.

She looked up at him with a smile that left no doubt about her love for him. “I could dance with you for the rest of my life, Your Grace.”

For Isaac, it was as if the whole world fell away and there was no one else there but the two of them.

Dancing with Olivia had always been a surreal experience, one that ensnared his soul from the very moment she stepped into his arms.

And now, he would never, ever let her go.

EPILOGUE

The lights were brighter than Olivia recalled they had been three years ago when she ran out of the same ballroom, her heart breaking into tiny pieces, her body on the verge of failing her.

Now, she was dancing before the entiretonin the arms of the only man she had ever loved, her strength and vitality renewed almost as much as her heart had been healed.

After all this time, they had finally come full circle to the same dance competition that once brought them together.

“I wonder if we might have had a chance of winning tonight,” she mused as he whirled her around, his movements precise, masculine, and yet undeniably elegant.

“We would have won every single year, my love,” he replied. “They were fortunate we absconded from the competition the last time. And that we could not participate this time.”

Olivia giggled, her heart the lightest and the most carefree it had been in all her existence. She was now with Isaac, married to him for the last two years. She did not need to win a dance competition to attract a match.

“They say that one finds one’s true love in these dance competitions,” she told him with a mischievous smile.

“Really? Is that why you were so adamant on joining and winning?”

“Youknowwhy I wanted to win so badly.”

His eyes softened and she could still see the pain lingering in them. The thought of losing her was still a fear that kept him awake on many nights over the last three years, her presence the only cure that soothed his soul.

“I know that you wanted to join so you could get my attention,” he said softly. “So bold and audacious you were, my love. How could I ever refuse such an offer?”

Olivia burst out laughing. Oh, how he never ceased to make her laugh! Isaac made her truly, incandescently happy.

“It was not my initial intention, you know,” she told him.

“But you pivoted rather quickly,” he teased her. “A good strategist would find a way. An even better one would capitalize on a better opportunity.”

She shook her head. “I would say it was as much of a gamble as it was a strategy.” She looked up at him. “I gambled with my heart, you see.”

“And then you won mine,” he told her in a low, husky whisper. “All of it, all of me—it is yours. Always and forever.”

She smiled up at him. “Always and forever.”