Page 54 of An Extraordinary Lord

“No.” What she was tonight…simply breathtaking.

But he didn’t dare let himself go there. She was emblematic of everything he’d spent his life fighting against, and he couldn’t forget that. No matter that Clayton doubted her guilt, no matter how selfless she’d been with the people in the Court of Miracles. No matter how alluring she was.

So he lifted her hand to his lips to place a kiss to her fingers and answered instead, “You’re my secret weapon.”

She laughed at the unexpected comment, just as he’d hoped, and the tension between them faded. Apparently, distraction worked just as well in ballrooms as in sword fights.

“Are you ready for tonight?” he pressed.

“I was a lot readier before I knew you were a baron.” She sent him a chastising glare that would have done a governess proud. “You should have told me before.”

“And have you refuse to come? Never.”

The little hellcat had the audacity to look offended.

“It was hard enough preparing you for tonight.” He stopped them at the edge of the dance floor. Only a few yards away at the head of the room stood Prinny and what seemed like half the crowned heads of Europe. She didn’t belong here, he knew that. But his gut certainly felt as if she did. “I couldn’t risk having you flee at the last moment.”

“I wouldn’t have done that, not after you’d gone to so much trouble.”

Guilt pricked at him. When she said things like that, he wished he could trust her more than he did. “Madame prepared you well, then?”

“She taught me not to spill my drink, not to flirt with the footmen, and how to curtsy to anyone who looks important and call them ‘my lord’ and ‘my lady.’ Is that what you mean?” She slid him a mischievous look. “My lord.”

“Perfect,” he grumbled and stopped her before she could drop into a low curtsy that would have done the queen proud. “She’s prepared you to be a housemaid.”

With another laugh, this time at his expense, her red lips curled into a teasing smile that tingled down through him to his crotch.

“What Madame couldn’t teach me, she made up for in contingency plans,” she explained. “All kinds of strategies to keep me from drawing attention to myself. Is it working?”

“No. Everyone is staring at you.”

She glanced around at the crowd and caught half a dozen people watching her. “Because I’ve done something wrong already?”

He frowned, not at all happy about it. “Because you’re beautiful.”

He couldn’t help looking into her green eyes as he said that. But damnation if the little minx didn’t stare boldly back, her eyes gleaming as heat flared once more between them. Desiring her was becoming as routine as breathing.

“And because none of them have any idea who you are,” he added. “Which makes you not only stunning but also mysterious.”

“Apologies,” she said in a throaty rasp that only cinched tighter the knot she’d already put into his gut. “Next time, I’ll blacken an eye and knock out some teeth, shall I?”

Next time.There wouldn’t be a next time. Tonight was singular, and he wasn’t prepared for the disappointment that panged sharply in his chest at that realization. “Just try to fit in, all right?”

She cast her gaze to the end of the room at the royals and heads of state. “Does this mean you won’t introduce me to the regent? I’ve always thought Prinny so debonair. Maybe he’ll dance—”

“Let him get his own girl.” He covered a surprising prick of jealousy by adding cheekily, “After all, he has an empire full of them.”

“Now, now, Mrs. Fitzherbert! What a thing to say about—”

“The pleasure of dancing with you tonight belongs to me.” He took the glass from her hand, tossed back the remainder of the champagne, and handed it off to a passing attendant. “Princes be damned.”

Her mouth fell open, for once stunned silent. He opportunistically seized the moment to pull her onto the dance floor and into a waltz.

When she finally found her voice, she warned, “I think that was treasonous.”

“Well, you know us barristers.” He quirked a grin. “Always a seditious lot.”

He twirled her in a circle and kept turning her against all rhyme and reason until she fell laughing against his chest. Then he took her into proper position and promenaded her across the floor.