Slightly Tempted Read Online Free Page A

long-fingered hand encased in a white glove.
     
     
    "The nod of approval of the patronesses of Almack's," he said, raising his eyebrows as he led her away. "It is of some . . . significance?"
    "It is all utterly tedious," she said with a look that reminded him again of a jaded dowager. "A lady is not permitted to waltz in a London ballroom until she has been granted their permission."
    "Indeed?" he said. "Pray why?"
    "Many people do not approve of the waltz," she said. "It is considered fast."
    "Fast?" he asked, bending his head closer to hers.
    "As in improper," she said disdainfully.
    He grinned. "Ah, I see," he said. And he did too. Good old England. It had not changed. It was as prudish as ever.
    "I had danced it a thousand times at home with my dancing master and my brothers," she told him. "But I was not allowed to dance it at my own come-out ball!"
    "Just as if you were a child!" he said, looking shocked.
    "Precisely!" But she looked suspiciously into his eyes as they took their places on the dance floor and waited for the music to begin.
    Lord, but she was a beauty!
    "Are you a British spy?" she asked him.
    He raised his eyebrows at this abrupt change of subject.
    "There is a rumor to that effect," she said. "You have been gone from England for a long time. It is thought that perhaps you have been engaged in intelligence missions for the British government."
    "Alas, I'm afraid I am nothing so romantic," he said. "I have been away from England for nine years because I was banished from there-by my father."
    "Indeed?" she said.
    "It concerned a woman," he said with a smile, "and the theft of a priceless jewel."
    "Which you stole?"
    "Which I didnot steal," he said. "But do not all accused and convicted thieves say the same thing?"
    She regarded him for a moment from beneath arched eyebrows. "I am sorry you are not a spy," she said. "Though I daresay you would have been unwilling to answer any of my questions about the military situation anyway." She turned her head toward the orchestra dais-the music was beginning at last.
    He set his right hand behind her waist-it was so slender that he might almost have spanned it with his two hands-and took her right hand in his left. Her free hand came to rest on his shoulder.
    She was very young. And exquisitely lovely.
    And Bewcastle's sister.
    Dancing was one thing at which he excelled. He had always loved the elegant figures of the minuet and the quadrille, the vigorous intricacies of country dances-and the sheer erotic thrill of the waltz. Perhaps the British were wise to protect their very young from its seductive pull.
    He led her off into the dance, waltzing and twirling with small, careful steps while he tested her knowledge of the dance and her ability to follow a lead. She had been well taught. But she possessed something more than just precision and accuracy. He could feel it even during that first minute, when they danced as sedately as everyone else around them.
    She showed no further inclination to converse, and he felt none. She smelled of some soft, floral soap or cologne-violets, perhaps? She felt very youthful, very slender, in his arms. She was light and warm and pliant, and he could feel her slippers moving across the floor only inches from his own shoes.
    "Is this how the English waltz?" he asked her.
    "Yes." She looked up at him. "Is it not how everyone waltzes?"
    "Shall I show you how it is done in Vienna,chérie ?" he asked her.
    Her eyes widened, though whether in response to the question or to his use of the French endearment she did not say.
    He twirled her with longer strides and a wider swing about a corner, and she followed him. He even elicited a sparkling little smile from her.
    The waltz had never been intended to be a plodding, mechanical affair, everyone twirling slowly and in perfect time with one another. He danced it now as it was surely meant to be danced, his eyes and his mind focused upon his partner, his ears bringing in the music and