AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Dashlane rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, but her father patted the top of her head. “Wore yourself out today with all the preparation.” Then he tapped a glass. “Remember this the next time you think about having a glass of alcohol.”
“I will.” She gave her father the most innocent smile she could muster. “Is my hair terribly mussed?”
“No dear, it looks perfect.”
She stretched, raising one arm up and yawning. “In that case, I shall rejoin the party. I feel much refreshed.”
“Excellent,” her father cheered as he clapped.
“Has Lord Dashlane been seeing to my care?” She looked over at him then, his gaze unwavering on hers. His eyes were dark, and his brows set low.
“He has,” her father answered. “Wasn’t that so kind?”
She gave a large false smile, first at her father and then at Dashlane. “It was. I shall reward him with a dance.”
His hard stare turned to a glower.
* * *
Ash tightened his grip on her waist as the first strains of the waltz played.
One thing was certain. Whatever he thought he knew about Cordelia Moorish, he’d been wrong.
She was quiet, subdued, talented, all that was true. But she also drank too much champagne, pretended to fall asleep in a stupor, and collected dances for favors not actually given. She’d successfully manipulated both her father and him.
Granted, her father was clueless to the fact that he was being put on, but Ash? He knew full well that she just stole a dance from him, and he’d been unable to stop it without revealing that he’d been alone with Cordelia.
She was rather dangerous. And that was unexpected.
And scary as hell.
Because if she could outthink him, he might find himself caught in a web of her making with no way out. He had already been captured in this dance. He’d nearly been caught in a kiss.
She was still stunningly beautiful, complex, and as sophisticated as he’d first imagined. She was just more than that and every new thing he learned made her increasingly dangerous. Damn his fit of jealousy.
Her waist was so slender beneath his hand and as he pulled her closer, he felt her gasp, and the tiny jerk of her body as her lungs expanded. It touched some male need in him, and his chest puffed out as they spun across the floor.
She’d told him she didn’t want to marry but what if that was all part of a ruse? Lure him into feeling safe and then spring the trap.
“I know that you see a viscount before you,” he said as he let go of her waist to spin her about and then pulled her close again.
She blinked. “I see a man before me.” Her eyes searched his face. “One who currently looks angry.”
“I’m not.” They glided across the floor. “I think leery is the better word.”
Her brows rose as she stared at him. “Why is that?”
He spun her again, but this time when he pulled her close, he began dancing them toward the terrace doors. They needed to get a few things straight. “I’m not going to be caught by you, Cordelia Moorish. You or any other woman, for that matter.”
She stared up at him, her lips pressing into a firm line. “Did we or did we not establish that I do not wish to catch you or any other man?”
He narrowed his gaze. When he’d been poor as dirt with barely enough food to eat, he’d seen the worst of people. The lengths they’d go to take from others. He’d thought at one time, the upper class might be different. They weren’t. In his short time as a member, he found they were every bit as ruthless and selfish. The question that plagued him was where he went from here. He had no answers. “In my experience people rarely just tell you the truth.”
She gave him a wide-eyed stare, her hand going limp in his. “That does make sense, I’m afraid.” And then her shoulders sagged a bit. “What did my father mean about you needing seed money?”
He growled out a low sound but didn’t provide any actual explanation. He hated discussing his past and his teeth clenched at the idea, but he didn’t exactly want to leave her company either. That was the trouble. Despite his best efforts, he was drawn to her. To tell her the truth, however, was only to give her more possible weapons. Then again, her father already knew so it was only a matter of time before she found out. “I inherited the title last year, only to discover that I am in debt up to my eyeballs.”
The corners of her eyes crinkled. “From whom did you inherit your title?”
