Pride and Papercuts (The Austens #5) - Staci Hart Page 0,55

save me. Thank you—I wasn’t sure how I was going to get out of it. No didn’t seem to be working.”

At that, a shadow passed across his face. “He wasn’t out of line, was he?” There was some possession or protection in his voice, and the sound did something warm and tingly to my insides.

“He was, but not in the way you’re suggesting. Collin is harmless. Clueless maybe, but harmless.”

“Good.”

We swayed in a circle, observing each other.

“So was your line about making a misunderstanding up to me just for the sake of the ruse, or did you really want to dance with me?” I asked.

“It wasn’t a line. In fact, I’ve been thinking about asking you to dance tonight for days.”

There again was the shock, but it wasn’t cold. It was hot as the inside of a firecracker when the fuse reached its destination.

I shook it off, covering my reaction with redirection. “And what about the misunderstanding?”

“It seems the two of us have been in a state of constant misunderstanding, haven’t we?”

“How so?”

“We’ve been known to only share a handful of sentences before one of us is mad. But then there are the times between when everything feels … possible. Like now.”

He picked up our momentum, turning us around in wider steps. As we spun, I felt opposing forces try to pull us apart. But he kept our bodies pressed together with his hand on the small of my back, defying the science and logic with nothing more than that palm. And when we slowed again, I was left breathless.

“I know I’ve apologized,” he said, which was good because I couldn’t speak, “but I’ll do it again. And again, if I have to. Because this?” He turned us. “This, I like. So I’m sorry for misunderstanding you. For underestimating you. Has proving me wrong been entertaining, at least?”

“It really has.”

His smile lifted by degrees. “I mean, you’re still going to lose.”

“I thought you said yesterday I was sure to win?” I asked with one brow arched.

“That was before you told me all your secrets.”

A zip of electricity shot through me. “Well, get ready to eat crow when I win. And then you’ll have to endure my unstoppable mouth.”

The air tightened between us.

“I’ve been thinking about your unstoppable mouth for days too,” he said in such a way, I didn’t know if he realized he’d said it aloud. His eyes snapped from my lips to meet my gaze. “Your ideas are too good to keep to yourself. I have a feeling keeping you quiet wouldn’t serve the team the way that letting it run wild would.”

He didn’t mean it like you think he did. He doesn’t want to kiss you, and remember that you don’t want to kiss him either. Not really. Like, not really, really. Stop imagining things.

“You say that now,” I joked, ignoring my fluttering heartbeat. “Remember that I don’t usually agree with you.”

“But what if that’s exactly what I need?”

His eyes were hot and somber, as if the realization caused him unseen pain. It was a longing I saw in the depths of his eyes, an empty space he didn’t know how to fill. And I was struck with the impulse to smooth his brow, to wash away his pain. To fill that empty space.

But before I could speak, he looked away. And what he saw erased the man he’d just shown me. It was the slamming of a door, a wall of steel sliding into place, separating him from the rest of the world again.

I glanced over my shoulder in frustration and curiosity and found a face that shouldn’t be there for a dozen reasons. But inexplicably, there he was, Wyatt Wickham, eyeballing Liam from across the room.

Liam returned the favor.

“What the hell is he doing here?” Liam growled. He actually growled, the words coming from so deep in his throat, there was no other way to describe it.

“I don’t know,” I answered, confused.

“Laney—tell me you didn’t bring him here tonight.”

I backed away, offended. “Of course not. How could I do that to Georgie?”

Another emotion shot behind his eyes, but he schooled it before I could tell what it was. “He told you what happened?”

“That’s too big of a conversation for right now. We’ve got to get him out of here.” I moved in his direction, but Liam outpaced me.

“Yes, we do.”

I cursed under my breath, doing my best in heels to keep up with him, his stride so broad in his hurry, he could have cleared