“The same thing you did to me,” she said. “I imagine.”
“Which is?”
“Made me forget every sensible reason to uphold our agreement. Made me want things no one should want in a public ballroom. Made me consider throwing propriety into the fire if it meant touching you.”
His jaw flexed. “Then touch me.”
“Elias—”
“Touch me,” he repeated, voice threaded with desperation. “Just once. Something to sustain me through the rest of the night.”
Her hand lifted before she had fully decided to move. When her fingers touched his cheek, he closed his eyes and leaned into her palm like a starving man.
“This is torture,” he murmured.
“The sweetest kind.”
“There is nothing sweet about this. It is agony.” His eyes opened, dark and unguarded. “I need to kiss you.”
“We shouldn’t—”
“I am well past shouldn’t. Past sense. Past control. One kiss. One that is ours.”
“One kiss won’t be enough.”
“No,” he agreed hoarsely. “But it is all we may have for now.”
And then he kissed her—a kiss desperate and tender all at once, a claiming and a surrender combined. His tongue traced the seam of her lips, and she opened for him, tasting champagne and need and something darker, richer.
His hands came up to frame her face, holding her like something precious and breakable, even as the kiss turned deeper, hungrier. She gripped his coat, pulling him closer, feeling the solid warmth of him against her.
Someone laughed nearby, the sound carrying on the cold air, and they broke apart, both breathing hard.
“We should return,” she said, though she did not move.
“We should,” he agreed, making no attempt to release her. “In a moment.”
“People will notice.”
“They have already noticed everything tonight. Our dances. Our proximity. The way we…” His voice dropped. “The way we look at one another.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“That depends entirely on what you want from this marriage.”
“What doyouwant?” she asked softly.
He held her gaze, thumb sweeping the curve of her cheek.
“Everything,” he said quietly. “The appearance and the truth. The duty and the desire. The public role and the private reality. I want the woman you are with others, and the one you are only with me. All of it. Forever.”
She swallowed. “That is… very exact.”
“I am a very exact man.”
“So I have observed.”
His breath touched her lips. “What else have you observed?”
