“And you were smiling at him. Excessively!”
“Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do when dancing?” she asked as he led her into one of the circular figures. The movement meant she came a little nearer to him, and Luke was certain the heat in the room had picked up a little bit.
“Yes, but I have met Mr Knight before. His conversation, whilst wholesome, is not sparkling.”
“And yours is?” she asked drily. Her words pulled a hearty laugh from him.
“Yours certainly is, though you try to hide it behind propriety and say things that you think you should say.” His words brought a blush to her cheeks. She looked down away from his eyes, somewhere on his chest. “Was that blush for me, Miss Storey?”
“Insufferable,” she murmured, shaking her head. He could have sworn there was a smile on her cheeks, but it was gone the moment she looked up again. “You flatter yourself. You think that if I blush, it must be for you. Perhaps it is from the dance?”
“Then I am relieved to hear you feel that heat too,” he whispered. With so many couples on the floor, he felt confident in hiding a stolen touch. He moved his hand slightly from her waist, slipping it further across her back, making the hold more intimate. He moved it back a second later, for it was a tantalising touch, just one to tease her. Her lips had parted, and that blush had grown even more.
“Nowthatwas flirtation,” she said, her smile so evident now, she clearly made no effort to hide it, much to Luke’s relief. “Here I was thinking you had no interest in flirting with me at all.”
“How so?”
“Did you not declare once to not be flirting with me?” she asked. “There was also the rather awkward meeting yesterday outside of the shops. You seemed keener to escape my side at once. Flirtation was the last thing on your mind.”
“It was at the very top of my mind, but forbidden things often are,” he whispered, teasing her a little more.
Another gentleman was not looking where he was escorting his partner, and they were aiming straight for Luke and Miss Storey. He had to pull her forward a little more, to save her from the collision. The move brought them closer together, with her chin turning up toward him.
“Is that what I am to you?” she whispered even quieter than before. Luke slowed their movements a little, adjusting his hold on her hand so that two of their fingers were entwined, rather than their hands being just clasped together. It was a much more intimate hold, one he longed for, but prayed no one else had noticed but Miss Storey. “Am I merely the allure of the forbidden to you?”
“No.” He found the answer falling from his lips with ease. “You are more than that.”
“Well, your flirtation is growing stronger by the second,” she said, smiling as if trying to brush it off as she inched back from him a little. He was relieved to see she did not adjust their hands and maintained the more intimate hold.
“Then permit me to deepen it some more.”
“I am not sure that is a good idea—”
“Why? Because you do not want it? Or you are afraid others will witness it?” His question got no answer. Yet the biting of her lip gave him the answer he so wanted. Luke steered Miss Storey around the floor again, finding the thrill growing with every second, just in the way that she was looking up at him, as well as their conversation. “You deserve a better man than Mr Knight.”
“I beg your pardon?” she said, her eyes going wide and her jaw agape. “Lord Yeatman, it is not your position to tell me who I can and cannot dance with.”
“I quite agree with you. I am not telling you. I am advising you.” He spun her away from another potential collision, drawing her so near that she gasped, their bodies mere inches from one another’s.
“I speak as a friend. Mr Knight is a kind enough man. There is nothing wrong with him, but you are not a lady who should put up with being bored and wear false smiles on her face to make it seem as if she is having a good time with the man she dances with. You should be enjoying your dances, and the company should be….”
“Be what?”
“Thrilling,” he whispered the word to her, leaning down a little more. She didn’t blink as she stared up at him. That gaze was so intense that he forgot momentarily to look around them. Anyone could have collided with them, and he would have been unprepared for it, looking only at her.
“We should step apart from each other a little,” she murmured. “If anyone is watching us.”
“I know.” He sighed and moved back an inch, giving her space and concentrating on the dance. As they stepped from side to side, he changed the way their hands were gripping each other’s again, pressing their palms together. It was an intimate thing, before sliding her fingers between his own.
“If anyone sees…” she whispered.
“Yet you are not pulling away.” At his words, she smiled. For the first time to Luke’s mind, Miss Storey did not hold back that smile. She gave way to it completely. “There now, you should be smiling like that always.”
Before any more could be said between them, the music came to an end. They bowed and curtsied to each other, at all times holding that gaze, before Miss Storey rather insistently urged him to leave the floor, clearly reluctant to be caught alone with him on the dance floor again. He escorted her away in silence until they reached the edge of the dance floor.
“Thank you. I…I should return to my friends.” She seemed to invent a reason to go and hurried off, curtsying so quickly that Luke did not have the chance to stop her. He couldn’t even offer to find a drink for her before she had gone. Instead, he had to watch her run away from him, like a mouse fleeing a cat, hastily slipping between groups in the crowd as she hurried to find her friends.
He watched her for the next few minutes, realising just what he had done. He had broken his promise to Jemima, yet he didn’t regret it. It seemed he was at a point where staying away from Miss Storey was impossible.