My Wicked Little Lies. Victoria Alexander

But I am not so shallow as to prefer you not dance with a lady because of her gown.” She glanced at Lady Dunwell over Adrian’s shoulder. “I don’t like the way she looks at you. As if you were dessert and she is considering how very tasty you might be.”

      “I am exceptionally tasty.”

      “Yes, you are, but I am unwilling to share my dessert.”

      “Nor does this dessert wish to be shared.” He grinned. “But Beryl Dunwell looks that way at every man.”

      “No, she doesn’t,” Evelyn said firmly. “You are the one who evaded her clutches. And she is not a woman to give up easily.”

      “Nonsense, she only turned her attention to me when Richard proved uninterested.”

      “Your sisters have told me she pursued you for several years.”

      “Unsuccessfully,” he said firmly. “And then I met you and I was lost. Besides that was two years ago.” He shrugged as best he could without a misstep. “She is now married to Dunwell, whose ambition suits her own.”

      “You are a better catch than Dunwell,” she said.

      “Yes, I am.”

      “You do realize there is such a thing as too much confidence?”

      He chuckled.

      “Women like her do not give up easily.” She shook her head. “It’s only been a mere two years.”

      He stared down at her. “Why, you’re jealous, Evie.”

      “It is a lovely gown,” she said in a lofty manner.

      He laughed.

      “Very well.” She huffed. “I am always jealous, darling. You are a most accomplished man and quite handsome as well. Any woman would be ecstatic to have you.”

      “Ah, but you are the loveliest woman in the room. And I am the luckiest man.”

      “Yes.” She met his gaze directly. “You are.”

      It was a joke between them, which was the luckier to have the other. Although in truth, she had always thought she was the lucky one, and no one knew that better than she did herself.

      He laughed again and held her a bit tighter than was proper. Not that she minded. The music swelled around them, the whirl of dancers surrounded them, and it would all have been quite perfect. If only ...

      She responded to his banter but her mind drifted. She had found Adrian at very nearly the perfect moment in her life. He had been precisely what she’d needed then and remained so to this day. She knew without question he loved her as she loved him. Still, if he knew what she had been, the things she had done, wouldn’t that love be, at the very least, tarnished? At worst destroyed?

      “I have been thinking of late ...”

      He led her through another turn and she followed him without effort. Nonsense. Adrian, of all the people she knew, would understand duty and responsibility and loyalty. What he might not be able to understand was deception. Not that she had ever actually lied to him. Not in the strictest definition of the word. It was admittedly a fine point. One he might not agree with wholeheartedly. The man was the most forthright, honest person she’d ever met.

      “A mistress for me perhaps and ...”

      And they had both agreed their respective pasts were behind them. Still, his past consisted of amorous affairs and roguish living and all those sorts of behaviors second sons with too much time and money and few responsibilities tended to indulge in. Certainly, he had handled many of his family’s business affairs for years as he had a head for such things and apparently Richard had not.

      “A lover for you ...”

      “Only fair,” she said absently.

      Still, he wasn’t the heir, and from what she’d been told, he’d seen no need to behave as one. It had all changed, of course, when Richard died.

      “I do think Lady Dunwell might ...”

      But Adrian had more than lived up to expectations. Indeed, he had taken on the responsibilities of his position as if he, and not his older brother, had been the one destined for the title. The music drew to a close and she barely noticed.

      “We’re agreed then.”

      “What?” She looked up at him.

      He escorted her off the floor. “You haven’t heard a word I said.”

      “Nonsense. I was listening quite closely. You said—” She stopped and stared. “What did you say?”

      “I suggested that we might pursue new interests. Life has been rather dull of late. I was thinking a mistress, a lover.” He shrugged. “That sort of thing.”

      “Adrian!” Shock coursed through her. “Surely you aren’t serious?” At once his words popped into her head. “And Lady Dunwell? Why, I would shoot you myself before I would permit such a thing. Whatever are you thinking?”

      “I’m thinking it’s a sad state of affairs when a man can’t command the attention of his own wife,” he said wryly.

      She narrowed her eyes. “You were teasing me.”

      He chuckled.

      “It was not the least bit amusing.”

      “It was most amusing.”

      She sniffed. “Perhaps if you had named any woman other than Lady Dunwell, there might have been some humor in it.”

      “That was the best part.” He accepted two glasses of champagne from a passing waiter and handed her one. “You deserved it.”

      She raised a brow. “Because I was not paying attention to your every word?”

      “Absolutely.”

      “You are an arrogant man, my lord.”

      “Confident.” He grinned, then sobered. “You are preoccupied tonight and you are never preoccupied. I don’t like it. It’s disturbing.”

      “My apologies for disturbing you.”

      “I didn’t mean it like that.” He frowned. “But this isn’t like you, and I confess I am a bit worried.”

      Her tone softened. “I’m certain it’s the weather, Adrian. It’s endless and dreary and spring is never going to come.”

      “Spring will come.” His tone was matter-of-fact but his gaze searched hers. “It always does.”

      She smiled into eyes shadowed with concern. The man was most perceptive and he knew her entirely too well. She was a fool to think she could hide anything from him. Still, at the moment, it couldn’t be helped. And it was time she stopped feeling pitiful and confronted the task at hand. The sooner she accomplished what was required of her, the sooner she could put the past firmly behind her forever. And banish that look of worry in her husband’s eyes.

      “You’re right, of course. Although I do wish there were some way to hurry it along.”

      “The druids held rites to hurry spring.” Adrian sipped his champagne. “Under the stars. Naked, I believe.”

      She stared at him. “That’s nonsense.”

      “Not at all. The druids had all sorts of rites.”

      She scoffed. “Not naked.”

      “Not that we know.” He shrugged. “However, there is little of accuracy known about the ancient peoples who once inhabited this land.” He gazed over the ballroom as if he were looking into the long-distant past. “I like to think most of their ritual dances were undertaken without clothes.”

      “Adrian!”

      “You would have made an excellent druid.”