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“Yes.” He tugged his cuffs straight. “Tonight is not the occasion I thought it would be. Apparently, I misread the invitation.”
What didthatmean?
Chloe was left standing in the center of the ballroom without an answer. He walked away.
Chapter Two
The irritating thingabout leaving a ball after only one dance was that one’s coach had only just been stowed, and the horses given their rest. Justin had no choice but to wait outside while the grooms and coachman prepared to convey him home. He considered walking the distance himself, but that would only be more awkward to explain later.
He paced back and forth, his boots crunching over a thin coating of frost on the drive. With every step, the damn waistcoat jingled, reminding him that he might as well be the court jester.
What a fool.
He stopped and stripped off his gloves and coat, tossing them onto a nearby bench, and began tugging the buttons of the wretched vest. The sooner he had this thing off, the better.
Unfortunately, the waistcoat was as vexing as the woman who’d tricked him into wearing it. The buttons refused to yield to his will. Damned tassels. For God’s sake,tassels.How had he been so stupid as to wear the thing? He lost all powers of rationality where Chloe Garland was concerned.
He spat a vicious bit of blasphemy into the night air.
“Lord Cheverell?” The light, familiar voice came from behind him.
Chloe.
He cursed again, silently this time, and turned.
How was it possible for a woman to be even lovelier in the dark? There were no glowing candles to illuminate her pretty features or her tempting figure. But the moonlight turned her skin to gleaming silver satin, and even though shadows cast by the lanterns obscured her upswept hair and the finer contours of her features, nothing could hide her wide, lovely eyes, nor her lush, deep red lips. Those lips that teased and tempted.
She looked at his hands, which remained frozen in the act of tassel-wrestling. “Do take care not to rip out the stitching. I worked hard on that.”
“Youmadethis?”
“Of course. I didn’t trust that anyone else would make it sufficiently hideous. Asymmetrical snowflakes are surprisingly difficult, and adding the fifth leg to the reindeer took time. The hardest bits were thosepompons.”She nodded at the fuzzy red balls sprouting from the right lapel. “I pricked my finger more than once.”
“Good.” He renewed his attack on the stubborn buttons.
“Come now. It’s only a waistcoat. I didn’t know it would injure your pride so deeply.”
