AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She shook her head. “Not yet. I want to know why I should avoid Lord Cringlewood. Obviously, I will not be accepting his suit—”
“I should bloody well hope not.”
He’d kill Cringlewood before that happened. But he also realized he didn’t like the idea of her acceptinganyone’ssuit.
Idiot. You just met the woman.
“What are you and Vivien so concerned about?” Sabrina pressed.
“Best to just leave it at that, lass.”
Her mouth twitched with irritation. “I have a right to know, Mr. Kendrick. If Lord Cringlewood is more than just s typical fortune hunter, he shouldn’t be allowed to swan about theton, courting unsuspecting women.”
Graeme couldn’t disagree with that, but how much to tell her?
“Let me think about it, then.”
He gently pulled her from behind the column and swept her into a gap in the colorful throng. Sabrina let out a delicate snort but gracefully came into his arms.
For a few minutes, Graeme let himself relish the mundane yet now somehow profound act of dancing with a pretty girl. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d drifted away on the music and motion, letting all his thoughts and cares drift away, too. How long it had been since he’d just . . . felt. Now he relished the sensation of Sabrina’s trim figure held lightly but securely in his embrace, the swish of her bright yellow skirts skirling around his legs. She was lithe and light-footed, and followed his steps with easy assurance.
Even better than his enjoyment washerenjoyment, shining through in her bright gaze and in the upward tilt of her rosebud mouth. That Lady Sabrina Bell was a canny lass and nobody’s fool was evident enough. But there was also an innocent verve about her, so fresh and appealing that it stirred a visceral response deep within him—something that seemed perilously close to happiness.
It was such a wee frippery, this dance, and yet Graeme found himself wanting this feeling again and again. Wantingher.
That was the perilous part. It was stupid and impossible and all the things that made such emotion the height of idiocy.
Sabrina Bell came from a world that was no longer his, a comfortable, peaceful world inhabited by comfortable, peaceful people. Graeme had strayed beyond that world some time ago and could never go back.
Nor did hewantto go back, knowing what he did about the dangers lurking at the edge of that peace and comfort. That other world needed men like him, willing to do the ugly, dirty work necessary to protect it.
Protect her.
As the music rose to a flourishing conclusion, Graeme skimmed his partner to the edge of the crowd, turning one more circle before halting. His gaze locked with Sabrina’s in a disconcerting and intimate understanding, as if they’d both gone into the Serpentine that day as strangers but had emerged from that chilly water as something much more.
Sabrina blinked and stepped out of his arms with a self-conscious laugh. “Goodness, Mr. Kendrick, you are certainly an energetic dancer.”
It took him a moment to answer. “I’m a Highlander, ye ken. We’re barely civilized, remember?”
“You seem quite civilized to me. On the surface, at least,” she added, as if to herself.
That was a bit too close to the mark. “May I fetch you a cup of punch? Or take you back to your . . .”
He frowned. Who was she with tonight? There hadn’t been even the slightest hint of a chaperone, something which fit with her independent attitude.
“Your party,” he finished.
“No, thank you. What I’d like to do is finish our discussion about Lord Cringlewood.”
Hell and damnation.
He flashed his best rueful smile. “Must we?”
“You know, I much prefer it when you’re not trying to be charming.”
“But I’m famous for my Highland charm, ye ken.”
“I’ve never heard that. In fact, I’d never heard about you at all until the other day.” She frowned. “How is that possible? You’ve obviously been in town for quite some time. Do you not socialize?”
