Finding Forever(27)

The usual tremors racked her body. She tried to ignore them — unsuccessfully.

“I’m really not a musical kind of person.”

“Upbringing plays a big part in that, I believe. I took lessons in playing several instruments. My favorite was probably the violin.”

“You play the violin?” she asked, and her resistance to him faded a bit more as he swept her across the floor, his eyes focused on her, his body making light contact with hers.

“I’m hardly an expert, but … yes,” he said with a slight growl as he pulled her tightly against him for just a moment before pushing back and turning her in a slow spin. “Now focus a little more so my toes will survive.”

“I have a feeling that you’re not telling the full truth. I can’t imagine you taking up any new task without mastering it,” she said.

He only smiled at her.

They circled the dance floor for the next half hour, and Whitney was surprised to find herself making fewer and fewer mistakes as she learned first a simple dance and then a more complicated one, and without any harm to his feet.

“Many things have changed around here since your arrival,” Liam told her.

Did he consider this good or bad? She had to wonder.

“I hope I haven’t been causing too much trouble,” she finally murmured.

“Trouble is exactly what you’re causing,” he said. “I’m thinking that we might never let you leave.” He spun her in a fast circle, taking her breath away.

“I don’t think you’d be allowed to lock me away, either in an attic or in one of your dungeons,” she said once her head also stopped spinning.

“Don’t be too hasty. You know what ‘they’ say about assumptions.”

“I wouldn’t do well locked away from the rest of the world. How would I ever be able to dance then, especially since I’m getting so good at it?” she said. Their banter was making her let down her guard even further.

“That would be a true tragedy — you’re obviously so good at dancing around subjects.”

“You’re a very good teacher,” she told him.

He pulled her a bit closer, and those butterflies in her stomach flew off in a flurry.

“I couldn’t teach someone who was unwilling to learn,” he said, and it took her a moment to remember what they were talking about.

But the music stopped playing, and it was time for Ally to have her piano lesson. Whitney’s moment with Liam was broken, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

Then she gave him a look that had him gazing back at her suspiciously. “What are you up to, Ms. Steele?” he asked warily.

“How about I teach you a few of my dance moves?”

“I suspect that’s not something I want to learn.”

“Oh, my goodness, let down your hair for a few moments and allow yourself to have some fun.” Whitney walked over to the mp3 player and switched the music to one of her nephew’s hip-hop songs. She turned back toward Liam and chuckled quietly to herself over the horrified look on his face.

“You can do this. It’s very easy, really. You just move your hips to the beat,” she told him, and she started swaying her body in a way that had a new light shining in his eyes.

He looked at her for a moment longer before he joined her in what wouldn’t count as the greatest attempt at hip-hop dancing known to man, or woman.

A few songs later, though, they were both laughing and sweaty, and she was having more fun than she’d experienced since the moment she had lost her sister. Then he grabbed her hands and swung her under his arm, and they did a blend of waltz and hip-hop, neither of them aware of the rest of the world.

When he tripped and fell to the floor, Whitney couldn’t keep the laughter from spilling out. Snooty Liam Felton was filled with surprises, and she was beginning to succumb to his spell.

As the song ended, a throat clearing alerted them they were no longer alone. They both turned to find Alexandra, that starchy aristocrap … oops, aristocrat … Whitney had met several days ago, standing next to the door with a look of horror on her face.

“What are you two doing?”

“That is none of your concern,” Liam said. He stood up, and ice filled his eyes as he began straightening his clothing.

“Considering that you have kept me waiting, I believe it is my concern,” she snapped, sending a fiery look Whitney’s way.

“Waiting? For what?”

“We have a meeting,” she reminded him.

“I’ve scheduled nothing with you,” he told her, his voice growing slightly more fierce.

“Maybe if you weren’t playing with the commoners, you would remember what’s important,” she said.