Seger downed the rest of his champagne in a single gulp and set the glass on a table. He hadn’t come there to play hero, but he supposed it couldn’t be helped. He would dance with her once and do what he could to talk some sense into her. Then he could at least say he tried.
He approached the ladies and bowed slightly. “Good evening.”
“Good evening,” they both replied simultaneously.
He offered his hand to the heiress. “Shall we?”
Clara gazed up at her dream lover in a shock-induced stupor. She hadn’t expected him to approach her after he’d been the one to march her back to Mrs. Gunther the first time they’d met. She was surprised he hadn’t turned and run in the opposite direction when he’d recognized her a moment ago.
But who was she to refuse such a gift? All that mattered was that he was there, and she was going to dance with him.
She placed her gloved hand in his. He led her onto the floor and stepped into a slow waltz. They danced for a moment or two before he finally spoke.
“Miss Wilson, isn’t it?”
Smothering her surprise at his candor, she looked him in the eye. “Yes. It appears you’ve been reading the papers.”
“I have indeed,” he replied. “You’re quite the sensation.”
She raised her chin. “That was not my intention. The London press is very aggressive.”
He inclined his head. “Yes. Which makes me wonder why you took such a risk coming back here tonight. I thought I made myself clear last time. I warned you about the dangers of a place like this for a woman like you. Did you not understand my meaning?”
“I did.”
“Then why have you returned?”
Clara rummaged around her brain for an answer when she didn’t want to begivinganswers. She wanted to be the one asking the questions.
“It seems, sir, that you know all about me, yet I know nothing about you. That’s hardly fair, is it?”
She barely recognized the bravado in her voice, the deep, seductive timbre. Perhaps it was something in the air. The whole room reeked of pure, unhampered sexuality.
“There are rules here,” he replied. “Identities are to be kept secret.”
“But you broke the rule when you revealed that you knew my name.”
The corner of his mouth turned up in a sly grin. “You’re not going to report me, are you?”
“Good gracious, no. Not unless you want me to.”
He chuckled. “I think not. Only because it would put you in the spotlight more than me, and I don’t think that’s a wise place for you to be at the moment. Not among these people. They have no mercy when it comes to the violation of their rules.”
Clara tilted her face upward and remembered how wonderful it felt to be kissed by those beautiful lips. “Then I should thank you again,” she said sweetly, “for being my champion a second time and warning me away from danger.”
“Not that it did any good the first time. All you did was leap back into the fire. Strange, you don’t strike me as the type of woman who enjoys things hot and hazardous.”
“No? HowdoI strike you?”
“As the type who doesn’t usually take risks. You seem innocent and free of sin, which makes you stick out like a sore thumb here.”
Clara pursed her lips. “I’m not sure if I’ve been insulted or paid a compliment.”
“It was, for all intents and purposes, a compliment.”
They continued to dance around the room, and Clara considered all that he had said and realized she still knew absolutely nothing about him. Sophia had told her to be creative. How the blazes was she supposed to do that?
“Obviously,” she said, “you don’t attend many balls other than these, or you would not find me so fresh. I’m no different from most other young ladies my age.”
