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How very odd. She shook her head and continued to make her way through the crowd. Twice more she saw possibilities, but when she dared to move closer, they scattered like fall leaves in the wind.
She crossed her arms with a frown. She was starting to get truly confused at this point. She patted her coiffure, but it still seemed to be perfectly in place. Even so, she decided that a visit to the ladies’ retiring room might be in order, just in case there was something amiss about her overall appearance.
Calliope had just reached the edge of the ballroom when a figure slid in front of her from outside the hallway.
Sebastian.
“Hello, Lady Calliope.”
She ground her teeth and tried not to notice how attractive he appeared. Dressed in black and white formal attire, his sandy hair slicked back from his forehead, and those dark eyes as piercing as ever, he still made her feel hot and cold at the same time.
She hated him even more.
“If you’ll excuse me, Lord Blakely. There’s somewhere I need to be.”
She started to move around him, but he moved to block her retreat. “Please, I just want to talk to you.”
Calliope narrowed her glare on him. “It would serve no purpose. I have nothing to say to you, and I shan’t believe anything you spout off to me.”
He blew out a heavy breath. “That night at Vauxhall. It wasn’t my fault—”
She angled her head to the side. “Oh, so I suppose Lady Abaline’s mouth saved you from a terrible fall?”
“Yes. No!” He realized his mistake immediately, as it was obvious he was doing his best to latch on to whatever excuse he could.
“Good evening, my lord.”
This time Calliope managed to slip past him, but she didn’t make it far, as her elbow was grabbed from behind and the viscount propelled her toward an open door. “Release me at once!” she demanded but was ignored as he dragged her inside the room and shut the door. He released her, but only after he’d blocked off her only avenue of escape.
“You need to listen to me,” he said firmly.
Calliope noted that they were in a modest parlor, but it was the window on the opposite side of the room she was more interested in. She stalked over to it and unlatched the pane.
“What the blazes are you doing, woman?” His voice was one of disbelief.
She ignored him as she slid up the window and hitched up her gown. “I’m leaving,” she mumbled, and then started to throw a leg over the side of the sill.
“Have you lost your mind? We’re on the second floor!”
Firm hands grasped her and tried to pull her back into the room, but she pushed him away. She glared at him. “I don’t care! I refuse to stay here and have you tell me more lies!”
He narrowed his eyes, and then released her, taking a step backward. “Do you really believe that I could be so calculating and cruel?”
She refused to relent. To do so meant that he held all the power over her again. She was already so devastated that it was all she could do not to fling herself into his arms and forgive everything he’d ever done. But if she did, and she was wrong to trust him a second time, her entire world would be shattered.
“I can’t take that chance,” she whispered.
Sebastian had it all planned out—this grand scheme to win back Calliope, to prove that he wasn’t a rake anymore, not since he’d met her. He had browbeat the men on her ridiculous list, with Lord Osgood’s kind assistance, and threatened them all with scandal if they so much as breathed in her direction. He had been pleased to find that his ploy had worked marvelously. They had kept their distance from the lady all evening.
Once he had her alone, Sebastian planned to seduce her, to show her how wonderful it had been between them. Afterward, they would collapse in a pleasure filled heap and he would ask her to marry him.
Happily ever after. The end.
Unfortunately, this was no fairy tale, and considering the woman had nearly climbed out of a two-story window in an effort to flee his attentions, it was not turning out to be the romantic interlude he had predicted.
He might have considered getting on his knees and begging to her to listen to him. Instead, it was the soft plea that abruptly began to unravel his carefully laid plans. In that instant he knew it wasn’t going to be that easy to prove to her that he’d changed his wicked ways. Although he’d had his forgiveness speech promptly rehearsed, it crumpled to dust when compared to the pain he’d heard in her voice.
He kept his voice low and even. “Please climb back inside. Once you do, I’ll leave you alone. I was the cause of your upset. I don’t want to be responsible for your demise as well.”
