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“You say you could not resist dancing with me?” Sophia whispered, with her words so quiet that he had to draw her closer to him in order to hear her. The movement of his hand across her waist and her back made her breath hitch. He loved that sound, and desired more of it.
“You know by now I cannot.”
What am I doing? This is very much not putting up a barricade between us!
Yet his body didn’t seem able to listen to the whirring of his thoughts.
“I am glad,” Sophia confessed with a smile. She looked down at his chest, breaking the connection of their gazes as he led her around the floor, avoiding the other couples with ease. “There is something I wish to speak to you about, Jeremy. Something I was terrified to talk of, but after what you have just said, perhaps, there is a chance, I do not need to be nervous.”
He didn’t really understand what she meant. Holding onto her, he drew her closer still, so that she had to tip her head up toward him.
“You have me confused, but surely you and I have shared so much of ourselves, that you do not need to be nervous of speaking to me.” He emphasized his words with a wink, reminding her of all that their bodies had shared. She smiled a little more as her eyes returned to his.
“I hope you are right.” She breathed deeply. “I am uncertain how to put this into words, but perhaps I should just say it?”
“I’d encourage you to do so, for you have me on the edge of my seat with curiosity.” He was playful with his words as he turned her round another time.
“Very well.” She held his gaze, with her hand that rested in his curling around his fingers. “Jeremy… I…”
“You?” He encouraged her on.
“I am afraid my wish to explore the excitements you and I could share had a result I had not expected. The feeling was not fleeting. It did not pass in the two nights we spent together.” She chewed her lip, clearly nervous of going on. Confused by her words, he slowed their dance a little, so that they were swaying from side to side.
“I do not understand,” he whispered.
“What I mean to say is…” She paused again, breathing deeply. “My heart is yours, Jeremy. If you should ever want it.”
Jeremy froze. The dance grew perfectly still as he stared at her.
What did she say?
“Jeremy?” she murmured, with her voice barely audible at all. She must have been acutely aware of how still he was, for she pulled on his hand, urging him to dance again yet he could not. “Will you not say anything?”
Her heart is mine?
Jeremy wasn’t sure what feeling came first. Was it the swell of happiness, that he was not alone in this madness? Whatever feeling it was, it was quickly drowned out by another.
The last time a woman told me this, she lied. She never loved me at all.
For a brief second, he was back in his study years ago when the letter had arrived from that woman, where she had made it plain what she truly thought of him.
“Jeremy? Say something,” Sophia pleaded, pulling on his hand and shoulder.
“Sophia, that was not…” He faltered off, unable to say any words at all.
This was the very moment he had been hiding from for years, the moment he told himself he would never have to meet again. At once, Sophia reacted. She released his shoulder, though not yet his hand.
“You can say nothing, can you?” she whispered, her voice breaking in the middle.
He continued to stare at her, speechless.
“Oh my god, I have fallen for a man who can never look at me as I do him.” She spoke as if talking to herself and looked down into his chest. “You told me all you could give me was one night, and yet I didn’t listen, did I? I was foolish enough to think it could all mean something else.”
“Sophia, wait,” Jeremy tried to speak at last, but it was too late.
She released his hand and backed up from him. The movement was sudden, so sharp that others on the dancefloor turned to look their way and the crowds watching began to whisper, clearly wondering what argument had taken place.
“Sophia?” Jeremy whispered. She was in pain, and he could see it. Her eyes glistened wet in the candlelight as she looked away from him, her cheeks turning red.
