Chapter 12

From the moment she stepped into the ballroom, she could sense all eyes on her—particularly a pair of blue-gray ones that seemed to scald her with their heat even as she turned her back to the group of three gentlemen on the other side of the ballroom.

"My dear, you look stunning! Absolutely stunning!" Scarlett breathed in wonder as she pulled back to admire Alice. "Look at her, Phoebe—do you ever recall her looking so breathtaking?"

Phoebe just giggled. "I chose that dress, you know. Mama could not make up her mind, and I was afraid she was going to send for Madame Deveraux one day before the ball!"

"Madame Deveraux would have a fit!" Scarlett shook her head. "But she might just accept, considering all the rumors that have been flying around—" She glanced meaningfully at Alice, who only averted her gaze towards the floor as heat began to creep up her cheeks.

"Well, at any rate, I am sure it would have cost Lady Brandon an arm and a leg to have a dress made at such short notice!" the redhead finished.

"I do not think Mama would have minded if it meant that I would get to marry a duke," Alice remarked with a slight grimace. "In fact, she might even consider surrendering the rest of her limbs just to be certain!"

Their small group burst into giggles which attracted a group of young gentlemen. One of them even asked Alice for a dance—a rare occurrence, as far as balls went.

"That dress is really working wonders," Scarlett remarked with a wry grin. "I should have Madame Deveraux make one just like it."

Alice fought the urge to roll her eyes at that statement. Scarlett, with her vibrant red hair and lively spirit, had received a great number of offers since her first Season, but none of the poor gentlemen had ever caught her interest. Still, that did not stop them from coming to pledge their suit year after year.

"You are already beautiful, dearest." Alice sighed. "If you were to become any more spectacular, your father would have to beat your suitors off with a stick, and a great many ladies would be happily praying for your demise."

In response, her best friend playfully swatted her arm. "Oh, do stop it, Alice!"

As they bantered with each other for a while, Alice became aware of Colin accompanying an older woman and a younger lady who looked no older than Phoebe. Her bright eyes and shy smile somehow gave off the impression of innocence.

That must be his younger sister. The one he wishes to improve his reputation for.

Alice shook her head as she watched the siblings and their grandmother make their way across the ballroom. Two people could not have been any more different. Where the Duke was tall, arrogant, and domineering, his younger sister was possessed of a more delicate structure with a shy sweetness about her.

"That must be Lady Evelyn Fitzroy," Scarlett commented. "She is the younger sister of the Duke of Thorns and has spent most of her time in the country estate with their grandmother, Lady Wellington."

"You do keep up with the latest gossip," Alice remarked with a wry smile.

When the party of three finally reached them, she found that she could barely breathe comfortably. It was one thing to watch Colin from across the room and an entirely different thing to be standing before each other.

"Lady Alice," he greeted her in a cold tone, "may I introduce my grandmother, Lady Wellington, and my younger sister, Lady Evelyn Fitzroy. Evie, Grandmother, this is my betrothed, Lady Alice Barkley."

"Oh, my dear," the older lady greeted her with a pleasant smile. "I cannot believe how much of a boor my grandson has been to keep you from us."

Alice felt her initial anxiety slip away at the older woman's enthusiastic reception. "The pleasure of this introduction is all mine, Lady Wellington. His G—Colin," she amended hastily, "has told me lots of wonderful things about you."

"Has he now?" the old woman murmured, slyly glancing at her grandson.

"Of course," Alice told her warmly. "And Lady Evelyn, too."

"Oh, just Evie would be fine!" The young lady beamed at her. "After all, we are to be sisters soon."

Alice felt her heart falter a little at that word. Sisters.

But we are just pretending—no, lying to them. To everybody.

She caught Colin giving her a curt nod, and she smiled and nodded towards Evie. "Of course, Evie."

She ducked her head and avoided Colin's intense glare as she introduced her sister and Scarlett, much to the pleasure of Evie, who found someone closer to her age who had just made her bow that Season, too.

As Phoebe and Evie happily began to chat with each other, she felt Colin grab her dance card, his dark eyebrows snapping together. Alice felt her face heating up as his eyes scanned the names there.

"You are not dancing with anyone but me," he told her arrogantly when he handed her dance card back.

Alice blinked at him in disbelief. "I beg your pardon?"

"Dance with me, Alice."

He did not ask so much as he pulled her onto the dance floor just as the musicians began to play the first few strains of the next song. Alice could only stumble through the requisite bow and the first few steps before Colin's calm presence steadied her.

"For the love of all that is holy, look at me!"

Those words were uttered with such a charming smile that Alice could not help but just stare at him in complete incredulity.

"Your Grace, might I remind you that you were the one who dragged me onto the dance floor most unceremoniously without a moment to prepare," she reminded him primly. "I believe I am entitled to gather my wits about me."

"I do not believe you have lost them," he replied blithely as they swept across the dance floor, "if your sharp tongue is anything to go by."

"Oh, so now you are complaining about my sharp tongue?"

Her glare faltered when she saw his dark gaze drop to her lips and linger there. Smoldering.

Was he thinking of something roguish? She did not really know. No one had ever looked at her the way Colin did—like a Wolf sizing up its prey before a meal.

"There are many things I could think of that involve your tongue," he told her huskily. "But none of them are appropriate for a crowded ballroom like this."

So, he is thinking of something lewd!Alice gaped at him in shock. And he certainly has no qualms telling me just that!

"You… you are absolutely impossible!" she sputtered.

"True." He grinned at her. "But you like talking to me anyway. Dare I say that you are actually enjoying taking a walk in uncharted territory, little lamb?"

Heaven help her, she knew that she should not—but she did. Heart pounding in her chest, heat flooding her face, she truly did enjoy talking to this particular Wolf. So much so that she believed she had taken leave of her senses.

As the dance came to an end, he leaned towards her, his lips brushing the sensitive shell of her ear. "Come with me to the balcony, Alice."

His voice was deep, mesmerizing. Like sinful dark chocolate gliding on her tongue, warming her throat, and filling her with a luxuriant heat.

She shuddered a little, her eyelashes fluttering as she looked up at him. "Whatever for?"

He just smiled mysteriously and pulled back. "To break your rules."

Promise, dark and forbidden, was evident in his husky voice, ensnaring her senses until she felt lightheaded from it all.

The music ended, and he bowed before her, pressing a soft kiss to the back of her hand, lingering ever so slightly as his dark gaze swept up to meet hers. A smirk traced the edge of his lips, and Alice feared that the Wolf in him had already heard the thundering of her heart and scented the desire that had begun to stir faintly within her.

She closed her eyes and shook her head slightly, trying to compose herself as he walked her back to where their sisters were still talking most animatedly. She caught Lady Wellington watching them with approval in her deep gray eyes.

Did she, perhaps, know what Colin had just whispered to her? She doubted the older woman would approve of what he had in mind.

Heavens, even Alice herself knew that nothing good would come of it. Meeting at dark balconies—why, that was a recipe for ruin!

But then again, were they not supposed to act the part of the enamored couple? It would be unusual for them to not want to be in each other's presence at all…

As Alice pondered whether she should or should not, her eyes unerringly strayed towards the open balcony, where the shadowy outline of a tall, broad-shouldered figure stood.

Her heart pounded in her chest once more, loud enough to obscure all common sense.

Slowly, she began to walk towards the balcony.

* * *

She is not coming.

Colin frowned as he stared up into the starlit sky. Had he misread the desire in her eyes, then? The sharp intake of her breath?

The signs were unmistakable—she wanted him as much as he wanted her.

Or perhaps she was just more levelheaded than he was at that moment, which was far more disturbing than his former consideration. A blow to his ego if anything.

Angrily, he began to stomp back into the ballroom when his body collided with something—no, someone.

He frowned as the unpleasant thought of being caught out on the balcony with some other young lady surfaced in his mind. But then he caught a whiff of the faint fragrance of lotus flowers, and he knew.

"Alice?"

"Your Grace!"

He smiled as his arm wound around her waist. They really needed to work on how she should properly address him.

"You little fool," he murmured, pulling her deeper into the darkness. "Anyone could have seen you!"

In the light of the moon, he could see her petulant pout as he pulled her into a gazebo. The sight of her sticking out her lips sent a fierce stab of desire straight to his already hardening member.

"Well, I was not the one who suggested we meet out here," she pointed out.

"True," he admitted. "But… have you never really?—"

He bit back the words when he realized just how innocent and how untutored she really was. Of course, Lady Alice Barkley would not know the first thing about sneaking out of a ballroom for a scandalous tryst, as she had never tried it, and the knowledge of it filled him with an immeasurable amount of masculine pride.

Only he had been the one who had been able to lure her out, like a Wolf calling a lamb to the darkness.

"Come here," he murmured huskily, pulling her into his embrace.

"Y-you cannot be doing this," she protested softly, placing her hands on his chest as she looked up at him. "Monopolizing all my dances, dragging me into such scandalous locations, meeting me in secret…"

Colin smirked at the uncertainty flickering in her eyes. She had such beautiful, expressive eyes, her every emotion apparent in them. Just looking at her like this, he could read her like an open book.

"Why are you here, then?" he asked her softly, reaching up to toy with a stray curl that had fallen to the side of her face. He delighted in the slight shudder that ran through her. "Have I not made myself clear?"

She frowned, a small sound of exasperation escaping those luscious lips of hers. "In what manner have you not made yourself clear? You have already repeated countless times that this is nothing more than a fake betrothal?—"

"Exactly," he said firmly. "But you seemed to have missed the part that fake betrothal or not, you are mine for the next thirty days."

He gave her no chance to protest as he drew her into his arms, his lips swallowing whatever objections she might have had.

Bloody hell, those lips of hers had been driving him mad all night, wondering just how they might taste—and he was not disappointed. On the contrary, he wanted nothing more than to devour her over and over and over again.

The first touch had been meant to subdue her, to let her know that he was the one in control. The moment she responded in kind, he was lost.

A Wolf caught in a lamb's net—and one he had no desire to escape.