What was surprising was that Lewis Blackman made a growling sound that Connor could have easily produced himself.
‘Go on, Kate,’ Lewis urged. ‘Let your hair down for once.’
Connor wished she had done that in a far more literal sense. He’d seen that astonishing fall of silky black hair but it was all buttoned up again right now. Not in the usual braid she wore at work but kind of folded into a complicated knot thing at the back of her head. Something looked different about her, though… Her face looked softer.
Make-up?
No. She had ditched her glasses again, that’s what it was. He could see her eyes clearly. He saw the way they widened at Lewis’s rather abrupt instruction. He saw a cloud of, what… hurt? Embarrassment?
A hint of fear, even?
He could deal with that. He caught Kate’s hand and smiled.
‘How ’bout if I say please? Or perhaps please, please, please?’
* * *
How could anybody refuse an offer like that?
Kate could feel so many people watching her. She could sense the astonishment mixed with envy that was coming from all the women nearby. Connor had gone the whole hog with a pirate costume. The wild wig with its braids and beads and a red bandanna. A flowing white shirt with its cuffs carelessly unbuttoned. More flowing white fabric as a sash that had a knife in a scabbard attached to it. Knee-high black boots. A heavy layer of eyeliner and the dusting of authentic designer stubble completed the look to perfection.
He looked every inch a pirate. Dark and dangerous and… quite simply devastatingly attractive.
And here he was, holding the hand of the person with the least imaginative costume here. All Kate had done had been to tack some strips of an old white sheet to the only formal dress she possessed, which was, of course, a classic black number.
Any woman in her right mind would jump at the chance to dance with Connor. They had been all evening. Kate knew that because, despite her very best intentions, she had found her gaze drawn to him time after time and he’d been with a different partner on every occasion. She had told herself she had just been waiting to see him dance with Bella but when he’d finally approached her niece, Bella had clearly refused. Bella was now being led onto the dance floor by someone dressed as Pinocchio, but she caught Kate’s glance and waved. No. It was more like a signal that it was high time Kate joined in the fun.
Even Lewis was staring at her with a vaguely perplexed expression. He’d sounded almost exasperated in ordering her to go and dance and ‘let her hair down for once’.
For once? Did her boss think she needed to get a life as well?
Kate could have dealt with whatever negative impressions everyone around her had if she’d stuck to her guns and refused to make an idiot of herself on the dance floor. She had every intention of doing exactly that until the moment when Connor took her hand.
That smile.
It went with the expression in his eyes that said very clearly,I understand… you can trust me.
Feeling somewhat stunned, Kate allowed herself to be led onto the dance floor.
For probably the first time in her life, accepting the invitation of a man and thereby relinquishing control didn’t feel like a personal threat.
It felt curiously like a gift.
* * *
Holding Kate in his arms on the dance floor felt exactly the way Connor would have expected it to feel.
It would have been much easier if the music had been a bit faster. He could have kept more of a distance between their bodies and given Kate a twirl or two and it might have been fun to shake her up a little. But here he was, dancing to quite a slow track with a woman he didn’t understand and didn’t even like.
Dr Graham was following his lead but she was trying to keep her steps and her posture perfect and avoid eye contact. It felt stilted and awkward.
There was only one way he could get through this, Connor decided. He closed his eyes, tugged Kate more firmly into his arms and let the music take over.
* * *
This was so hard it was unbearable.
Kate knew how to dance. Once upon a time, so far back in her life it was totally irrelevant now, she had loved letting go and allowing music to flow through her body. To drift with its current.
