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And once Arabella discovered who Maddux truly was, and what he’d done to tear her family apart, that desire in her gaze would quickly and undoubtedly turn to hatred.
Chapter 4
Arabella felt as though she was being swept off her feet by the handsome, enigmatic man who’d asked her to dance, and it was a unique sensation that made her feel wonderfully light-headed and as though a dozen butterflies were fluttering around in her stomach.
After she’d gushed about attending the ball for the first time, an easy silence fell between them as Raevynn continued singing her ballad, and Arabella realized that while this man knew her name, she didn’t know his. And since she’d like to believe that maybe they’d spend more time together this evening beyond this one dance, she ventured to find out.
She glanced up at his face—God, he was so big and tall she had to tip her head back to see that far up—and found him looking down at her with a heat and intensity in his amber eyes that made a shivery warmth trickle through her veins. She should have felt intimidated by his immense stature, by the slight tension in his jaw and the fact that his body was nearly twice as big as hers. His strong, muscled arms could effortlessly crush her if he so wished, but despite his commanding presence, she felt strangely safe and secure with him.
There was a certain edge about him that fascinated her. Though he wore a fitted tuxedo that had to have been tailor-made for his size, he looked nothing like most of the clean-cut men in attendance. His shaggy brown hair was long enough to fall rebelliously past the collar of his suit jacket and was finger combed away from the sharp, attractive angles of his face and jaw. She caught sight of what appeared to be a puckered scar along the side of h
is neck that disappeared into the collar of his shirt just where her hand rested on his shoulder, and she had to fight the urge to skim her fingers over that disfigured flesh and ask him what had happened.
“What is your name?” she asked when she could finally get her brain to engage properly without ogling him.
He hesitated a few noticeable seconds before answering. “Maddux Wilder.”
Her lips parted in surprise. “The Maddux Wilder?”
The corner of his mouth quirked with what appeared to be amusement, and it was enough to soften the harsher lines of his face. “As far as I know.”
Falling head over instant infatuation with the host of tonight’s ball was the last thing Arabella ever expected to happen when she’d arrived this evening. But she couldn’t deny her attraction to this man whose hand was pressed so intimately, possessively even, against the small of her back.
He tipped his head to the side curiously, though his gaze was direct and back to being intense. “How do you know of me?”
She flashed him a cheeky grin as he swept her in a slow circle in time to the music, causing his thigh to press ever so slightly between hers, yet firm enough to make her breath catch in her throat because of how arousing it felt. "Well, your name is directly connected to the charity ball, so there is that."
He chuckled, the sound low and deep . . . and somehow oddly relieved. “Ahhh, that’s very true.”
Seemingly catching something, or someone, in his peripheral vision, Maddux shifted his gaze from her face to over her shoulder. His entire body suddenly stiffened against hers, and a muscle in his cheek ticked as he clenched his jaw. His gaze flashed with animosity before he deliberately subdued the emotion, just as a hand clasped tight around Arabella’s arm from behind her and tried pulling her away from Maddux.
Momentarily confused by what was happening, she clung tighter to Maddux, except the fingers around her upper arm held firm, pinching against her skin in a way that she immediately knew it was Gavin tugging at her, even before she turned her head to look at him.
His expression was furious, his voice dripping with reproach as he berated her. “Didn’t I tell you to stay close and not to wander off?”
She opened her mouth to issue the scathing response she’d been holding back since the limo ride, but Maddux spoke first.
“I would advise you to take your hands off her, Gavin,” he said, his words a low, deliberate command and laced with unmistakable warning. “Now.”
Gavin sneered at Maddux, making it clear that the two men knew one another on some level, and defiantly cinched his fingers tighter, causing a soft whimper of pain to escape Arabella’s lips.
“I can put my hands anywhere I want on her,” Gavin shot back daringly, openly defying Maddux’s order. “This woman is my date for the evening.”
A frightening rage flashed across Maddux’s expression, and lightning quick, his hand shot out and clamped around Gavin’s wrist. A battle of wills ensued as Maddux exerted enough pressure and strength that Gavin was forced to release her arm or risk his bones shattering under the increasing tenacity of Maddux’s unrelenting grip.
As soon as Gavin finally, begrudgingly let her go, Maddux stepped back from Arabella but pinned Gavin with a hard, ruthless stare. “If this woman is your date for the evening, then maybe you ought to pay more attention to her or some other man is going to steal her right out from under you.”
With Raevynn having finished her predinner set of songs, people had now started to glance their way, and much to Arabella’s relief, Gavin came to his senses and realized that they were close to making a scene at a private venue. Whatever nasty reply he’d wanted to issue in response he wisely held back, but there was no mistaking the resentment seething off of Gavin.
Maddux turned back to her, the anger he’d just displayed with Gavin replaced by a surprising warmth and kindness as he picked up her hand, lifted it to his lips, and placed a gallant kiss on the backs of her fingers that made her heart flutter fancifully in her chest.
“It was a pleasure meeting and dancing with you, Bella,” he said, his smooth, deep voice sounding genuinely gratified. “I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening.”
With that, he turned around and walked away, blending into the crowd until Arabella could no longer see him.
“Fucking asshole,” Gavin said, bitterness coating his derogatory words.
“Don’t vilify him, Gavin,” Arabella said, giving the other man a look filled with nothing but scorn and contempt, which was exactly how she felt about him and the situation. “Maddux was a gentleman for defending me, while you’re the one who put a handprint on my arm that will most likely bruise by tomorrow because you felt you had the right to claim me like some caveman. But here’s a news flash for you. You don’t have any right to me at all.”
