Her Favorite Duke by Jess Michaels

Author:Jess Michaels [Michaels, Jess]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Passionate Pen
Published: 2017-06-13T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Simon knew he shouldn’t stare at Meg across the room, but he couldn’t help it. He’d never been able to stop himself. Now, though, she stood with Christopher, and from their expressions it was obvious they were engaged in a serious conversation.

After Kit’s anger in the billiard room, Simon could only imagine what was being said. And he deserved all of it. His heart lurched as Meg said something to the earl, then began to come across the room toward him.

Simon had spent years telling himself to resist this woman. But how could he when she glided through the crowd, her gaze focused solely on him? She was beautiful beyond his capacity for description. And she was his. But only because he had stolen her out from under someone he loved like a brother. Because despite whatever else had happened, he did love Graham.

But he loved Margaret more. That had been all that mattered in the end. That had guided all his selfishness.

She reached him, unaware of his roiling, troubling thoughts, and smiled. That smile lit up the world, lit up his world. “Will you dance with me, Simon?”

He stiffened at the request and the impression it would leave. Them looking happy and light together seemed a cruel slap in the face to Graham.

“Is that a good idea?” he asked.

Her smile faltered, and she swallowed hard before she said, “We’ve always danced before, Simon. Always.”

He shook his head. “And look where it has gotten us.”

Now there was no smile anymore, just a flash of pain and struggle. “Are you determined to be so miserable with where we are?”

“How can I not?” He glanced around the room, at all the eyes that were subtly or blatantly on them. “Look at them staring and judging and whispering. Look at the strain on James’s face as he leaves the dancefloor with Emma. They should be happy and instead they must now deal with this. Look at the way I’ve betrayed all our friends. You talked to Kit—he must have stressed his disdain to you just as much as he did to me.”

She shook her head. “Actually, he did not. Idlewood told me he regretted whatever words were said between you earlier tonight. And he feels, as I do, that you are punishing yourself enough.”

He wished that were true. It didn’t feel true. It felt like he should suffer.

“Please don’t refuse me,” she whispered, and took his hand.

Meg smiled, not the bright, glowing smile she had displayed when she approached, but something soft. Gentle. Something that was for him, only him. He was drawn into it, drawn into her, just as he had been for years. If it was wrong then, he hadn’t cared. He’d still felt it even as he fought it.

He’d lost the fight in the end. When she looked at him that way, he would always lose the fight.

She seemed to sense that and wordlessly led him to the dancefloor. He put his arms around her, shivering as his hand splayed across her hip, his fingers folded around hers so intimately.

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