Elegant Sins - Stasia Black Page 0,29

if he had the most power. It was as if he knew he would be given first choice, the equivalent of being granted the first round draft pick, I imagined—and then there was just something in the way he stood. He had presence.

But then I felt his eyes on me.

I swear electricity tingled on my skin everywhere his gaze caressed. It was a completely inappropriate reaction for the situation. What the hell was wrong with me? This was a business deal of sorts. It was no time for… for…

“Montgomery Kingston, it is time for you to choose the belle.”

The older man in the silver cloak spoke the words and yet I only had eyes for what those words evoked.

Oh my God! It couldn’t be and yet it was. It was him! The man Mrs. Hawthorne had called her boy. Even his name was ostentatious: Montgomery Kingston.

It was a name that said we have old money and you should bow at our feet.

No, I could never allow Montgomery Kingston to be the one.

But then Montgomery started walking around each woman, caressing the identical pearls at each of their necks.

And it took everything I had to stay where I was standing and not go jerk the bitches backwards out of his grasp.

When he reached for the pearls of the belle beside me, I was close enough to hear her gasp of delight.

She wanted him. She was a pretty brunette. Catalog model pretty, not stunning. But her breasts were all but falling out the top of her gown, and I’d yet to meet a man who wouldn’t choose a great rack over everything else.

Still, I watched on. Maybe even glared on.

Don’t pick her. Don’t pick her. Come to me.

Wait, where had that come from? Hadn’t I just decided he was the one man I didn’t want?

But then, with as little hesitation as he had moved on from each of the girls before her, Montgomery pulled his hand back and lifted his eyes toward me.

It was too much. I couldn’t hold his gaze.

Shit. What now? Would he dismiss me just as easily as he had all the others? Was that what I wanted?

I tried to look over Montgomery’s shoulder for the shy, plain guy, but Montgomery was standing right in front of me now and when I looked up, all I could see was him. Or more accurately… all I could do was stare at his lips.

He was so much taller than me, his lips were at my eye level. They were thick and full, and surrounded by the slightest stubble that made my legs quiver beneath my full skirt.

Wrong reaction. Wrong reaction! Get your head on straight, Grace. This man looked like a sculpted angel. But he could just as well be a devil.

Then again, there were no second chances in this dangerous game.

I sucked in a quick breath and tilted my head back so I could look Montgomery in the eye. I had about five seconds to size him up or I’d lose him. I had to look beyond his flawless face and try to see the man inside.

But I had no idea what I saw in his eyes because I…

Suddenly I couldn’t think straight.

I had a plan. I was supposed to—what? What was I supposed to do? Strategize. Right, strategy was important.

I blinked but couldn’t look away. The electricity buzzing between us was too loud in my ears. It drowned out every other thought.

And then he reached for my pearl necklace.

I didn’t gasp only because I wasn’t breathing. He lifted the pearls and placed one against my bottom lip. His blunt, calloused finger brushed the plump flesh and I opened to him. I couldn’t not.

His eyes demanded and I gave.

My tongue peeked out from between my lips and his eyes darkened.

Yes. That. More of that. I wanted more of that. Needed it.

When he teased, playing with the pearl on my tongue, the breath I’d been holding suddenly released with a sharp expulsion.

His nostrils flared and when he suddenly pulled his hand away from my mouth, I was left weak-kneed and blinking in shock.

W-what was that? I wasn’t supposed to react like this. I was supposed to be alluring and enticing, but in the way that an ice sculpture was—untouchable and cold. Not have this molten lava firing through my veins.

Our surroundings suddenly rushed back in the next moments. I was in the pristine white ballroom once again. All around us, people watched on in silence. I wasn’t the only one waiting