Pride and Papercuts (The Austens #5) - Staci Hart Page 0,22
the top of her head. She leaned into him and sighed.
“Look at you two,” I said. “Hot night on the town with a babysitter and everything.”
“Kids are hard,” Cam said. “Fortunately, part of my job involves parties where I get to dress him up like my own personal duke.”
“And fortunately, your duke doesn’t mind so much.”
“It’s true.” She smoothed the chest of his coat. “I can’t imagine many of your football buddies would be caught dead in a top hat.”
“Depends on whether or not there was a promise of women. And here, there’s always a promise of women—and the good stock too.” It could have sounded sleazy if he hadn’t said it with such affection, his eyes on hers and hers on his like a couple of schmoops.
Feeling like I was intruding, I glanced at the door again before scanning the room for Wyatt.
“Looking for someone?” Annie asked.
My cheeks warmed. “Actually, yes. A reporter I met here.”
“Thanks to me,” Cam interjected.
“Thanks to Cam,” I echoed. “He said he’d be here, so we didn’t exchange numbers. And now I’m wondering just how big of a mistake that was.”
“I’m a big believer in fate,” Annie said with conviction. “If he doesn’t come, I bet there’s something better in store for you.”
“I wish I had your faith,” I snarked, just before the fine hairs on the back of my bare neck lifted. The sensation was electric, the most intense point in the center of my neck, at my spine.
Absently, my fingertips sought that spot, brushing it as if I expected to find something foreign there. I’d had this feeling before, the latest at that abominable meeting with—
I whirled around, somehow both staggered and unsurprised to find Darcy standing several yards away.
He was as dark as a gathering storm, his eyes charged and jaw hard.
Does he always look furious? I wondered. Was his brow ever smooth? Did his lips ever soften? Was there ever a moment when his body wasn’t immovable stone, stubbornly planted in the current of a river?
Although he really did look furious, I didn’t know that he actually was. There was a spark in his eyes like lightning, a rumbling power in him like thunder. But I couldn’t be entirely sure that it was fury or rage, not when the draft of his storm curled around me, drawing me toward him.
I’d taken two steps before I realized what I was doing, and at that point, it’d have been worse to stop and admit my mistake. So I strode toward him, my chin in the air to cover my incredulity on marking his apparel. Because instead of a suit, he wore tails and breeches and Hessian boots. His vest was a deep gold, his shirtfront and collar white. And around his neck coiled a cravat, the knot just where his Adam’s apple would be if I unwrapped him. The tails billowed, tucked artfully in the top of his buttoned vest.
He’d dressed up. A curious smile brushed my lips.
I stopped a few feet away, and for a moment, we just kept on watching each other as a Leon Bridges song came on.
“Would you care to dance, Miss Bennet?”
Stupified, I answered with a word I wondered if I’d regret, “Yes.”
He offered his hand, and I slipped mine into his palm, astonished to find it warm and smooth when I’d imagined it cold and coarse. He led me to the dance floor and turned me, pulling me into him by the waist and taking my hand again, holding it casually to the side.
I hadn’t had a choice. He’d taken command, relieving me of any responsibility of decision—my body moved with his simply because he willed it. Our bodies were flush, and this close, caged in the steel of his embrace, I felt like a porcelain doll, small and delicate and priceless. He smelled of amber and oak, of earth somehow, which couldn’t be right, not given where he’d come from. I looked up, my heart rate doubling when I found him looking down at me. I could have counted the creases in his lips or the clusters of black lashes framing his dark eyes.
When I found my voice, I broke the silence with levity. “I have to admit, I’m shocked to see you in costume.”
“It’s a suit. I always wear suits. Fabio wigs, however, are a hard limit.”
I laughed despite myself. “I’m also surprised you’re here. After the last party, I didn’t think you’d ever step foot in here without Georgie dragging you.”