Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Chapter Two

“Our dance, I believe, Sophia.” Dante had no intention of waiting to hear her refusal as he drew her determinedly onto the dance floor the moment the musicians began to play a waltz.

“You know perfectly well ‘we’ do not HAVE ‘a dance’!” Her eyes flashed her displeasure as she attempted to resist going into his arms. “Besides, I have already promised this dance to Lord Thorpe—”

“Then his loss is my gain.” Dante gave that gentleman a hard and dismissive glance as he approached. “Now place your hand in mine and your other hand upon my shoulder—please, Sophia!” he bit out when he knew from the light of battle in her incredible green eyes that she was about to argue further. “Everyone is watching,” he warned softly, his sigh heartfelt when she at last moved reluctantly into his arms.

Dante’s impatience, his desire for this woman, was now at such a pitch that he wished for nothing more at this moment than to whisk her out of the ballroom and up the stairs to her bedchamber above, where he would proceed to make love to her until she had no breath left with which to offer so much as a single one of the verbal set-downs she had shown him since he had dared to steal those kisses from her ten years ago.

He and Lord James Rowlands had met and become friends at the boarding school they had both attended, and as the heir to the title Duke of Claybourne, James had been more than a little put out when his uncle Simon, a man already in his fifties, had announced it was his intention to marry Lady Sophia Shelby, a young lady who was but two and twenty years old, and the beautiful and vivacious daughter of a gentleman who had been cast out of Society some years ago.

Invited to spend several weeks of the summer holidays with James at the country estate of his uncle and guardian the Duke of Claybourne, and his young and beautiful duchess, Dante had taken one look at the exquisitely beautiful Sophia Rowlands and known, that for all of his youth, he desired her in a way he never had any other woman.

A desire which had resulted in his stealing those kisses from Sophia the first time he managed to engineer a few minutes alone in her company…!

The result of his impudence had been for him to never receive another such invitation to stay at the home of James’s uncle and aunt, the only occasions upon which Dante so much as glimpsed the beautiful young duchess during the next ten years being when they attended the same social functions—Dante invariably in the company of his rakish friends, Devil and Lucifer, Sophia always on the arm of her much older husband.

The same excruciatingly painful ten years that Dante had known that he still desired Sophia Rowlands, Duchess of Clayborne, to the exclusion of all other women, and that SHE continued to look upon him as nothing more than that impudent boy.

Dante’s exclusivity of desire for Sophia had earned him the reputation of being cold and heartless in regard to the women whom, when physical desire became too much even for his legendary self-control, he occasionally bedded.

But, if the conversation he had overheard taking place a short time ago between Sophia and her two companions was a true indication of Sophia’s own needs, then it would appear that desire might shortly be appeased to everyone’s satisfaction.…

* * *

Sophia was most unhappy at being trapped in this way into dancing with Dante, and so forcing her into a proximity with him which she would far rather have avoided. Indeed, Dante held her far too close for propriety as he whirled her expertly about the ballroom, his fingers firm and warm about her gloved ones, his arm like steel about the slenderness of her waist.

Which resulted in Sophia being far too aware of him for comfort as their legs touched often during the enforced intimacy of this particular dance, and the hard warmth of Dante’s chest brushed in arousal against the softness of her breasts, causing the sensitive tips to tingle and harden in response.

An occurrence she was sure Dante was all too aware of if the smile of satisfaction on those sculptured lips, as he looked down at her challengingly, was any indication!

Neither did Sophia care for the predatory light she could now see gleaming in his wicked eyes.

His next comment confirmed that she was perfectly justified in feeling that apprehension. “You need look no further for your lover, my dear Sophia,” he assured her in that purringly sensuous voice as his arm tightened about her waist to draw her even closer. “I assure you, I will be more than happy to oblige you!”

Sophia drew her breath in sharply, even as she looked about them to see if anyone else might be close enough to have overheard his words. She was reassured that her reputation as being an attentive and entertaining hostess was fully justified as she saw that all of her guest were either occupied in dancing, drinking, or simply engaging in lively conversation, rather than paying heed to Sophia and the Earl of Sherbourne. A man who needed to be reminded that he was still, and always would be, four years her junior, and as such, totally unacceptable as a lover to her or anything else!

Her own green eyes glittered as she looked up at Dante. “You are not only an impertinent young puppy, sir, but you must also be addle-brained, if you think for one moment that I would ever countenance any sort of relationship between the two of us—”

“There is but one relationship which I have ever thought to ‘countenance’ between the two of us, my dear Sophia,” he assured her gruffly.

Sophia drew her breath in sharply, wondering if she might have done something in these past ten years to reveal she was not as immune to Dante’s handsome virility, to those kisses he had once pressed upon her, as she might have wished to be.

She gave a firm shake of her head. “The very idea of the two of us being in any sort of relationship is—”

“Ridiculous? Preposterous?” Dante finished with a softness that no longer sounded sensual but dangerous. A danger which was also reflected in those hard and glittering green eyes, and the thin, uncompromising line of his mouth. “Feel, Sophia, feel how ridiculous I find that claim!” His hand moved from her waist down to her bottom as he pulled her tightly against his thighs.

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