Page 26

He extended a long finger and traced her jawline before hooking it under her chin and lifting her face up for his perusal.

She clenched her teeth and tried not to shudder in revulsion at his touch.

It would only give him more satisfaction.

“Good girl.” He released her chin and flicked a curl laying on her shoulder.

She pressed her lips together and turned towards the dance floor, tightening her grip on her own fingers as her eyes burned.

He was a nightmare of a man, but he was her husband, or he soon would be.

Her throat tightened and ached. Not yet.

Not here. She took a deep breath and focused on her hands, her feet, the glow of the candles in the candelabra, anything but how close she was to tears or the man beside her.

She couldn’t fight against the inevitable, but she would be damned if she showed an ounce of weakness for his benefit or theirs.

“Darling, darling,” Mrs. Harrison called out.

“It seems your mother needs you,” Regina said.

“So she does. Excuse me, dear,” he turned towards Regina, “I trust I can leave you here without incident.”

She stared at him in mutinous silence. Wondering how long he would wait for an answer before leaving. It took a full minute but, in the end, he sneered and walked away leaving her alone in the ballroom for the first time in her life.

Dear . She already hated that word.

He wanted submission, and it would be easy enough to fake. She would find a way around him, as she’d found ways around every member of the ton who wished her ill.

“Miss Mason.” She heard Leo’s voice over her shoulder and her heart seized in her chest, flashing throughout her body like a shock of cold.

She turned and, yes, it was him. Clean and neat as usual, in the same suit he’d worn to dinner weeks before.

Handsome as sin and just as forbidden. It was like a dream, or a twisted nightmare. She couldn’t tell.

“Mr. Kingston.” It came out as a gasp. Her hand curled into a fist over her stomach where a swarm of butterflies had taken up residence.

“I need to speak with you.”

“I…” she glanced around the room frantically looking for Mr. Harrison. “My fiancé is here.”

“Yes, I’m aware. That is what I wish to speak to you about.”

“Where is he?”

“He’s in the other room. Come with me.” His hand closed over her wrist lightly.

“What?” She gave her head a hard shake. He couldn’t be serious about that request. This wasn’t the time or the place “I cannot speak with you here, people will gossip.”

“A dance then?”

“That would be worse!” she replied, before lowering her voice at the curious looks sent her way.

“One dance and I promise I will leave you be.”

“My parent’s…”

“Your Aunt Theo is detaining them.”

Aunt Theo? Was she party to this? Did she know?

Regina didn’t know what weakness had seized her, but the next time he tugged at her wrist she followed him.

It could have been his eyes or the idea of him being her first dance as well as her first kiss, but she nodded and allowed him to lead her to the dance floor. Too late she realized it was a waltz.

“Rajani,” he said, and she shivered, barely maintaining her footing.

“Don’t call me that. I can’t be that person anymore. I am Regina, or Miss Mason.” She could barely meet his eyes as it was. He was too close, too warm and hard and everything a man’s body should be.

“Miss Mason then, since we are back to honorifics, I take it you still mean to go ahead with your wedding.”

“Of course. I must.” It was torture being this close to him, having his arms around her waist. He still smelled like wood and amber and rosemary. It took every ounce of concentration to prevent her from pressing her greedy body a little closer so she could feel his one last time.

“And that kiss, what was that? A dalliance?”

“It was an… indiscretion. I didn’t mean to do it.” And she could not altogether claim to be sorry for it, even if the consequences were proving to be more than she could bear.

“An indiscretion.” He seemed to be weighing the word in his mouth while those eyes pierced her soul searching for the answer she was terrified to give. There was an intensity in them she had never seen before.

She had to be honest with him. She couldn’t have him standing in the corner, always testing her willpower, always reminding her of what she was giving up. “I treated you unfairly, I can admit that. I was reckless and you deserve more than I can offer you.”

“And what if you could offer it?”

She blinked up at him. What the hell was he talking about? “I… I cannot.”

“But if you could?”

She couldn’t make her mouth say the words even as her heart was shouting confirmation. “There is no point to answering that question.”

“I need to know.” The dance came to an end but when she tried to pull her hand away his grip tightened. Would he not let her leave? What was he going to do?

“Please,” she whispered, and he released her.

But in the next moment, before she could walk back to her station against the wall, he pulled her further away to a sparsely populated enclave, his body standing between her and the guests.

She had never seen him look this… earnest before.

This intense. She should have been afraid, she should have been outraged at his refusal to adhere to her wishes but instead she found herself… intrigued.

“Did you mean what you said?” he asked. “That you would rather be my wife than his baroness?”

Oh God, her eyes were burning again. She had the answers on the tip of her tongue, but she had already failed her family once before.

She couldn’t do it again. She had to stand strong even if every ounce of her wanted to hold onto him and never let go.

Why was he torturing her? “Why are you doing this to me? I told you that in confidence. Why would you ask me such a thing here of all places? No, I don’t want to marry him, is that what you want me to say? ”

“I’m not asking that. I am asking if I would be your choice if you could make it.”

“I did make it,” she snapped, hoping a show of anger would give her a way out. “I chose their happiness over my own.”

“What does that mean? Did you kiss me because it was me or because I wasn’t him?”

She glanced around the room noting the curious looks from even more guests. “Keep your voice down for God’s sake, people are watching.”

“Would someone who isn’t him be enough?” he asked.

She dropped her head and closed her eyes. “Please, don’t do this to me.” The sight of his desperate face was painful .

“Regina, we are ready. Where is that girl?” Mrs. Harrison called.

Terror filled her at the sound of her mother-in-law’s voice. God, if they found her with him… she couldn’t even think about it. “They are asking for me.”

“You need to answer me first,” his hands fell lightly on her bare shoulders holding her in place as securely as bars of iron. His touch… she couldn’t stay there. She had to leave but she didn’t have the strength to pull away.

“Please, have mercy.” She didn’t want to cry here, not with all these people standing witness gawking and whispering.

“Just tell me.”

“Miss Mason,” she heard her fiancé call her name and she looked over in a panic to see him and her parents walking over to her and Leo. She met their eyes, and her breath caught in her throat. It was a nightmare; she had to get away.

“What are you doing?” her mother asked.

“It’s all right.” Leo assured her.

“I am begging you to stop this,” Regina twisted away from him and started away, but he followed her, his firm grip on her shoulders effectively blocking her escape.

His hand rested against her cheek. “Look at me.”

Her eyes shifted to his. The tenderness in his expression wrenched her heart but it was the intensity of his gaze that held her attention.

He wasn’t paying any mind to anyone but her and her answer.

“Please, just this once don’t think of anyone else, just answer me.

If you truly had the choice would you choose to be with me? Yes or no.”

Her mouth stayed shut. Yes or no. It was the choice of a lifetime, a choice no one else had ever given her.

“Yes or no, Regina.”

“Yes,” the answer tumbled out of her mouth on a breath just as a hand closed roughly around her wrist.

His eyes widened slightly at her response, his hold on her shoulders tightened in defiance of the person trying to pull her away. “Say it again.”

“I say, Kingston, it’s one thing to steal a dance but this is another thing altogether,” Harrison said.

She felt someone tugging on her wrist, but she couldn’t look away from Leo.

It felt like she had been hypnotized. She could hear the voices around him but with his gaze on her, she couldn’t turn away.

Then the strangest thing happened. With her life’s work falling apart around her, and all the eyes of London on her, the fear began to recede.

As if his certainty was leeching into her through his hands.

He knew something. He wasn’t asking for his own edification.

Her answer was the key to something, something that could change her life forever.

“Say it again, Regina.”

“Take your hands off her,” Harrison insisted.

“Yes,” her voice was stronger this time, and she saw in his face that he heard her.

“Yes what?” Harrison asked.

Leo nodded and let out a relieved breath. “Alright.”

“Remove your hand you impudent little peasant.”

“No,” Leo replied, shifting to stand beside Regina, his eyes still fixed on hers his hand curling around hers strong and sure.

Oh God. What had she done? What was happening? Why wasn’t he trying to take her away?

“What did you say?” Harrison asked in disbelief.

“I said no. I don’t believe I will.” He turned his head to look at her fiancé for the first time since he had arrived.

There was something different in him. It felt as though he was an entirely different person.

Everyone was assembling around them now, her parents, Elodia and the viscount, Aunt Theo.

Her future mother-in-law. She wanted nothing more than to run away but Leo…

His back was straighter, his shoulders set.

There was an air of resolution that seemed new.

“If you are so eager to breed some mongrels of your own you are welcome to whichever poor sighted, dim-witted bitch who will have you, but that is mine.” Harrison insisted, pointing in her direction.

“That?” she said, fresh outrage filling her chest. Her free hand curled into a fist. He was too much.

“‘That’ is in fact a ‘she’ and no, she is not.”

She turned to him again. He wasn’t moving an inch. “Leo what are you doing?”

Mr. Harrison stalked up to him and Leo lifted his chin in response, his gaze steady and steely as if he was facing down a wild dog. “You will remove your hand and leave this house this instant, or I will have you removed forcibly.”

“You can try but you will be disappointed with the results, Edward.”

“Ed—” he glanced at Regina in outrage then back at Leo. “Who do you think you are to call me by my born name?”

“I am Miss Mason’s fiancé,” he said, adjusting his grip on her hand. “But you can call me the Baron Starkley.”