Page 35 of A Single Obsession

“You’re looking very beautiful tonight.”

Beau gave a silent groan. How had he come out with such a well-used line? Couldn’t he produce something more original than that?

Eliza blushed furiously at his unimaginative compliment, but said nothing and didn’t so much as glance up at him.

He tried again. “Has anyone ever told you that you dance like an angel?”

This evoked a better response. She stared up at him, an impish grin on her face. “Often.”

For a moment, their gaze held, and he was struck by the colour of her eyes. Such a pale blue and yet not wishy-washy, but sparkling with intensity.

“Your eyes are like sapphires,” he said, staring into them and seeing his own reflected there.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, biting her bottom lip as her shy smile spread. “What a pretty thing to say.”

Her response encouraged him, but he wanted more. He still hadn’t persuaded her to peek up at him from under her lashes like she’d done with Ant. He did not know flirting could be such hard work.

Eliza dropped her gaze, but he continued to stare into her heart-shaped face, wishing she would look up at him again.

He could no longer see into her eyes, but he was aware of the charming dimple that appeared in her chin when she smiled and, just above it, her mouth.

Hardly realising what he was doing, he focused on her mouth. He found it…mesmerising.

What would it be like to kiss those full, red lips?

Chapter 15

Eliza felt the intensity of Beau’s gaze before she saw it. It lit a beacon of hope in her heart. He liked her. She was sure of it.

Probably not as much as his horses, but more than Harriet. She had not seen him looking at her rival that way. And right now, that was the most important thing. That he preferred her to Miss Whitlow.

All her instincts told her Beau needed help. She could not fathom what had brought him to her side in such a strange mood. What had made him act like that? He had never tried to flirt with her before.

The fire in his eyes looked dangerous. If she was not mistaken, he had been focusing on her mouth before he met her gaze, and that meant only one thing.

He wanted to kiss her.

Her heart quickened at the thought, but this was neither the time nor the place. She wouldn’t trap him into marriage by encouraging him to embrace her in the middle of his mother’s ballroom.

His gaze was doing strange things to her insides. It would be safer if he stopped staring at her like that. She needed to do something. Fast.

If she could get him talking about horses, maybe that unsettling light in his eyes would disappear.

She took a big gulp. “Tell me about the Four Horse Club.”

A bewildered expression passed over Beau’s face, as though he had forgotten where he was, but then he seemed to come to his senses. The fire in his eyes flickered and died, and he launched into a detailed account of his driving club.

“We meet several times every year, when we all rig out in the same style. Can’t say I care about clothes that much, but it gave me a genuine sense of pride when I put on my blue and yellow striped waistcoat for the first time. Some of the others have made a thing of trying to mimic a coach driver and—”

“You won’t break your teeth, will you? Anthony says he knows of one member who had them knocked out so he could whistle like a coachman.”

Beau’s face hardened at the mention of his friend’s name. Eliza could barely stop herself from grinning. Was he jealous?

“I would not go to that extreme.” He paused and stared into her eyes. “Would you care if I did?”

Eliza’s colour deepened. She could not find her tongue in response to the directness of his question. A brief nod was the best she could muster.

Beau seemed satisfied, and his face softened. “It’s the driving skill required that attracts me, not the need to mimic a coachman.”