An Offer From a Gentleman

“I can live with you hating me,” he said to the closed door. “I just can’t live without you.”

“You’re very quiet,” Benedict said softly.

“I was just thinking.”

“About?”

“About what I’d miss—and what I wouldn’t miss—should my life drastically change.”

His eyes grew intense. “And do you expect it to drastically change?”

She shook her head and tried to keep the sadness out of her voice when she answered, “No.”

His voice grew so quiet it was almost a whisper. “Do you want it to change?”

“Yes,” she sighed, before she could stop herself. “Oh, yes.”

He took her hands and brought them to his lips, gently kissing each one in turn. “Then we shall begin right now,” he vowed. “And tomorrow you shall be transformed.”

“Tonight I am transformed,” she whispered. “Tomorrow I shall disappear.”

Benedict drew her close and dropped the softest, most fleeting of kisses onto her brow. “Then we must pack a lifetime into this very night.”

“Are you a painter?” he queried.

She shook her head. “Just curious.”

“Why is your favorite color green?”

“And that is all I’m going to say on the subject,” she agreed.

“Very well.” He smiled, a lazy masculine sort of smile. “What, then, am I permitted to ask you?”

“Nothing, really.”

“Nothing at all?”

“I suppose I might be induced to tell you that my favorite color is green, but beyond that I shall leave you with no clues to my identity.”

He touched the corner of her mouth. “You keep smiling,” he murmured.

“I like to smile.”

His hand found her waist, and he pulled her toward him. The distance between their bodies remained respectable, but the increasing nearness robbed her of breath.

“I like to watch you smile,” he said. His words were low and seductive, but there was something oddly hoarse about his voice, and Sophie could almost let herself believe that he really meant it, that she wasn’t merely that evening’s conquest.

“Why is it,” he said, halting for a moment when they reached the hall outside the ballroom, “that you always seem to be laughing at me?”

She laughed again; she couldn’t help it. “I’m happy,” she said with a helpless shrug. “I’m just so happy to be here.”

For a few hours, at least, Sophie could pretend that this gentleman could be her gentleman, and that from this moment on, her life would be changed forever.

It was nothing but a dream, but it had been so terribly long since she’d let herself dream.

She appeared undecided, and so he tugged at her fingers, pulling her closer—only by an inch, but somehow it seemed she was only a kiss away. “Come,” he said. “Dance with me.”

She took a step forward, and he knew his life had been changed forever.

“There is only one thing to do, then,” he murmured. “I shall teach you.”

Her eyes widened, then her lips parted, and a surprised laugh burst forth.

“What,” he asked, trying to sound serious, “is so funny?”

She just smiled. Beamed, actually. Benedict supposed that compliments were meant to bring a measure of happiness to the receiver, but never had he seen a woman react with such pure, unadulterated joy.

He stepped forward. He wanted that joy for himself.