Page 66 of The Rented Bride

“Will you dance with me?”

She hesitated and his heart hammered. What if she said no? What if she said yes?

“Okay.”

Trent stood, held her chair, then led her to the small hardwood floor where a few other couples swayed under the subtle lighting. He grasped her left hand with his right and Cassie placed a hand on his shoulder. He pulled her close. Damn, was that a small tremble in her body? Desire rocketed to his cock. In a slow slide, he shifted his hand higher on her back, but kept a space between them so he could stare into her eyes.

She looked at him and smiled. “You’re a good dancer.”

“That’s three years of ballroom dancing talking,” he said.

Her brows rose. “No way.”

Trent chuckled. “Granddad insisted. He said a man learns respect for a woman on the dance floor.”

Her mouth parted in surprise.

He fought an urge to kiss her.

“He is a very special man, isn’t he?” she asked.

His heart warmed. “Yes, he is.”

She sighed. “How I wish I could get to know him better.”

What had Lindsey said when Trent told her his grandfather was dying? “Baby, I’m so sorry. It’ll be all right.” He’d thought it so sensitive of her when she’d held him close, then let him make love to her. But Cassie’s response demonstrated compassion, as Lindsey’s had only seemed to. But instead of offering empty hope, Cassie had recognized that the world would be a poorer place without his grandfather. Disgust filled him with the realization that Lindsey had done nothing more than use her most powerful weapon—her body—against him.

His disgust was as much for himself as it was for her. How had he been so easily and completely fooled? She wasn’t the first woman who’d wanted him for his money. He’d believed that her success meant that she had no lust for his money. Cassie, on the other hand, had him over a barrel, but hadn’t used his desperation to milk more money out of him. In fact, she hadn’t asked for a single thing. Now, she danced close to him without artifice. No accidental rubbing of her body against his chest, no looking up at him through her lashes.

And last night…last night he’d lain awake until the wee hours of the morning, his cock hard and throbbing. Cassie, however, immediately fell asleep. Her soft, even breathing had nearly driven him insane. He couldn’t remember a single time he’d gotten into bed with Lindsey where she’d simply fallen asleep.

“Trent.”

Her voice pulled him from his thoughts.

“The music has stopped,” she said.

Her lips glistened in the light. From the corner of his eye, he spotted who else, but Tomas. Had he seen them? Tomas looked up. Yep, he’d seen them.

“I’m going to kiss you,” he told her.

She blinked. “What?”

“Tomas and his wife have just been seated behind me. We can’t have them thinking we’re anything but happy newlyweds.”

Her eyes narrowed and he braced for a hard ‘no’ or even a slap. She shifted her hands to his shoulder and pulled his mouth to hers. The first touch of her lips set him on fire. Splaying his fingers wide across the small of her back, he crushed her to him and devoured her mouth. Tongues glided together as they shifted, melding their mouths and their bodies. Tasting, touching, and barely dancing. In his imagination, he drove her back against the wall and—She pulled away so hard he felt like a rubber band.

She arched one brow, then whispered, “Play with fire, Mr. Weston, and you get burned.”

Trent blinked, then threw his head back and laughed.