hated to admit it, there was something remarkably appealing about him. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t make herself be truly angry with him. Oh, yes, knowing how she responded to his charm and his gentle touch, she believed he was a scoundrel of the highest order.
“You are not only a lady of great beauty, Miss Blair, you are a lady of delightfully quick wit. I haven’t been called impish in years. I’m impressed.”
“It’s not my desire to please you or to entertain you, my lord. I only want to be done with you.”
He laughed softly. “Tell me, would you believe me if I told you that most of whatever you may have heard about me is not true?”
“I think that would make your integrity as suspect as your flattery.”
The music started and the dance began. Millicent didn’t have time to think. She could only fall into his rhythm and step and let him lead her through the dance steps. When his hand touched hers, the tingles skittered up her back as if she weren’t wearing gloves at all.
He picked up the conversation where they had left off and said in a low seductive voice, “In that case, Miss Blair, I won’t bother to deny a single word you have heard about me, and you can assume it is all true. How’s that?”
“Perfect,” Millicent answered as she yielded to his expert leading in the dance.
“I can see I’ve made you happy.”
“I would have been happier had you not sought an introduction. Something tells me you somehow knew I would be free to accept your invitation of this dance.”
“How could I possibly know that? I would have to be a wizard.”
“Perhaps you are. I’ve heard you have great power over young ladies and that you can make them endanger their reputations and lose their heads over you.”
“The gossips give me more credit than I deserve, Miss Blair. I simply wanted to meet you and dance with you. I had no idea what dances you had free.”
Millicent felt her hand tighten in his, and she was certain he put emphasis on the word what. He couldn’t possibly know what she was doing, could he?
“I’ve not seen your card. You could have already promised this dance to another.”
“Yes, of course.”
If Millicent wasn’t careful, her guilty conscience was going to make her say the wrong thing and make him suspicious of her. She didn’t need anyone asking her too many questions.
“So you are only in London for the Season?” he asked after a moment of silence.
“Perhaps a little longer, I can’t be sure right now.”
“And where do you call home?” he asked as the tips of his fingers once again stroked inside her hand.
“Where my mother lives,” she answered and easily changed the subject to say, “I haven’t met either of your friends, Lord Chatwin and Lord Dugdale.”
“Does that mean you want to meet them?”
“Certainly not. I was merely making conversation.”
“Good. I would think you’d react to Fines and Andrew much the same way you have to me.”
“No doubt.”
“You have been filled in on the gossip about all three of us, I see.”
“It didn’t take much. I think the three of you must try to do things that make people want to talk about you and make the scandal sheets want to write about you.”
“Perhaps we have. What would you say if I told you that we were thinking of mending our ways?”
“Probably that it’s too late to make a difference. The damage has been done.”
Millicent was close to being in a dither. The lazy stroll his fingers made on her hand was making her crazy with need to return the sensuous touch. She was supposed to be too sensible to fall for his persuasive machinations, but she was finding herself quite susceptible to him.
She had to do something to break the spell he’d cast on her. No matter how special his touch made her feel, she had to remember that with this man she was just another young lady in his arms and therefore he felt free to trifle with her. He was a rogue’s rogue.
“Do you caress the hands of every lady you dance with?” she asked.
His blue eyes darkened. “With all that you’ve heard about me, I’m surprised you have to ask.”
“I wanted to know if you would tell the truth or fill my head with the silly notion that I’m the first.”
“You are far too clever for me to tell you anything silly.”