Page 17 of House of Blood and Roses: Vol. 2

I finish the spin with a hand on his chest.

"You're a fast learner, Bea, I'm sure you'll understand in no time."

"I'm glad for your faith in me," I murmur, looking up at him and very much wishing that everyone else was gone so the two of us could be alone.

"Always."

The song comes to an end, and I break away from Linc, stepping back and dipping into a deep curtsy. He offers me his arm and I slip my own through his, leaning against him.

"I like that we don't have to hide any more," I say.

"We can do a little more than just not hiding," he says, drawing me to the front of the room. "Now I get to show off how I feel about you."

I frown. "You're not about to kiss me in front of everyone, are you?"

He laughs. "No, I don't think that would be considered appropriate."

We reach the front of the room and he gestures to one of the servants standing at the side of the room. He approaches and hands Linc a flat black box. He takes it from him, and the servant disappears away.

"This is for you," he says, cracking open the lid and showing me a stunning necklace within.

"Linc..." I reach out to touch it. Lord Fallmartin has made sure I haven't lacked for anything in terms of clothes and jewels, but I've never worn anything this fine, including the golden bracelets I'm wearing that are gifts from my father.

I can't even count how many rubies are strung onto the gold, but there are so many of them that I can tell it's going to be heavy.

"Turn around," he says.

I do as he asks, and he takes the necklace out of the box, reaching around to rest it around my neck.

"This isn't your real present," he murmurs, his fingers brushing against my skin as he does up the clasp.

"What do you mean?" I touch the stones, feeling the weight of them. "It feels real to me."

He chuckles. "This is the gift I'm supposed to get you because everyone is watching. I have an actual gift for you in the library."

"Linc." I turn around in his arms, bringing us closer together than we should potentially be considering there are so many people around us. "You didn't need to get me one gift, let alone two."

"I know." He brushes his hand against my cheek. "But I want to give you gifts, and I want everyone to know how much I care about you."

I meet his gaze, feeling the adoration looking back at me. "I wish we could leave already."

"Me too," he responds. "But instead, perhaps we can dance again."

"Are you just trying to stop me from dancing with anyone else?" I tease. "Because I hate to break it to you, but I danced with Lord Luca already."

Linc laughs. "No, I'm just trying to spend as much time with you as possible." He takes my hand and leads me back to the dance floor, even though it isn't long since we left. Plenty of people will have seen us break away and witnessed him giving me his gift. Including Lord Fallmartin, though I'm not entirely sure where he currently is. I don't bother to look for him. He made his expectations of the evening clear and I'm easily going to meet them.

The music starts, and we go through all of the motions for the start of the dance. Linc draws me into hold and the two of us start to dance. It's not as complex as our previous dance, with a slower tempo and less fancy footwork. But that gives us plenty of time to be able to actually talk to one another.

"Lord Fallmartin assured me there's no feast tonight," I say.

"Good. I didn't expect there to be one, but it's nice to be certain."

"I'm glad," I admit. "The fewer feasts I have to witness, the better."

"That's something we can both agree on." He spins me around with ease.

"Absolutely." I move closer to him than I should technically be for the dance, but I don't care. No one's going to say anything about it.