Straightening in her seat, Grace called softly, "Dorian?"
"Hmm?" He didn't open his eyes.
"Did yoy enjoy the ball?"
"Hmm."
Unknowingly, Grace leaned forward on her seat. "Did you meet your friends there?"
"I don't have friends," he replied sternly with closed eyes.
"I mean, you were speaking with someone very happily at the dining table. I thought you met a friend," she enunciated the last word through her teeth.
His eyes snapped open and he suddenly straightened on his seat. The movement caused Grace to realise she had leaned forward and she clashed back to her seat.
Dorian wrinkled his brows looking at her like he was reading her. And then slowly, his lips pulled up in a smirk.
Grace blinked rapidly and averted her eyes, feigning disinterest.
"Grace?"
"Hmm?"
"What were you asking?"
She tried to yawn and covered her mouth. "I was merely curious about the woman you were talking with." She smiled a bit. "What was her name again?"
Whith his smirk intact, His brow raised. "Lady Bridget."
"Oh yes. Lady Bridget." Grace brought her finger to the corner of her mouth and asked, "Whose wife is she again?"
A soft chuckle left his lips. "She is not yet married, Grace."
Grace pursed her lips and then curved it in a way that she hoped appeared as a smile. But still her teeth gritted in annoyance. "Oh, I thought the way she changed her seat in the middle of the dinner must be to sit beside her husband."
She didn't know why that made her husband grin. "No. She just wanted to speak something important to the minister who was sitting two chairs next to me."
"Oh," her voice sounded breathy because Grace couldn't stop the sigh of relief that she let kut. Lady Bridget did not change her seat to sit beside Dorian but to talk with a minister. But then, Grace frowned again. Wasn't the woman saying something that made Dorian laugh?
Looking up at him, Grace narrowed her eyes.
"Are you jealous, Grace?"
She snorted. "What do you mean? Why would I be jealous?"
"Well," Dprian shrugged, "perhaps because I am your husband and any wife would be jealous if a beautiful woman was sitting next to her husband?"
With gritted teeth, Grace tried to smile and waved her hand. "No, no. I am not such an insecure wife."
He nodded with a smirk and leaned back on his seat.
Grace leaned her body forward and narrowed her eyes. "Do you think Lady Bridget is beautiful?"
To her utter surprise, Dorian gave out a small laugh.
Her eyes narrowed even more. "You said 'a beautiful woman', didn't you?" The smile was becoming to be a very difficult task
for Grace.
The carriage bumped suddenly making Grace jerk. And since she was leaning almost to the edge of the seat, her hands landed on Dorian's thighs to balance herself.
"Pardon me," she whispered but as she tried to sit back, Dorian held her wrist and pulled her.
On his lap.
"Dorian," she whispered, trying to squirm out but he wrapped his arm around her, holding her steady. His other hand still held her wrist, gently but firmly. The breath she took pulled his scent in her senses and her bottom felt his strong thighs beneath.
Grace felt pink and hot.
"Forget about Bridget," Dorian whispered looking up at her. "Tell me, are we spending the night together?"
Grace's hand that was wrapped around his shoulder tightened on his coat. "Are you giving me my promise?" She whispered back.
Dorian buried his face into the crook of her neck without touching her skin. His silky black hair on top of his head touched her cheek in the most lucious caress.
A groan vibrated from him and Grace felt that vibration in every part of her body.
"No," he said to her neck.
His refusal upset her and she squirmed again to release herself from his hold. His hand pulled her even closer makeing their entire bodies touch each other.
"Dorian." Her breath made some strands of his hair move.
She felt him inhaling her scent and her own lungs sucked a mouthful of his scent when she felt his cheek grazing her bare shoulder.
"Let go, we are not going to spend the night together," she said softly, trying to wring her hand out of his grip, all the while her heartbeat accelerated.
He tightened his grip. "What will it take to change your mind?" He raised his head and then looked at her.
Grace gazed at his golden eyes that glowed in the darkness. His lids were heavy and his mouth pressed in a thin line like he was controlling something which took too much strength.
Their lips were close.
"You know what would change my mind," she answered, inches away from those lips.
Closing his eyes for a moment, he groaned. "This is absurd. What sense it makes to make me promise something that might not even happen in future."
Grace fiddled with the fabric of his coat with her free hand. Truth might help him understand her. "I told you I am not ready to loose myself in you if you can't do the same."
The frown on his gaze showed that he didn't understand clearly what she meant. So, Grace decided to expain clearly.
"I am really sensitive, Dorian," she said looking at her hand playing with the fabric of his coat. "If I allow myself to be closer to you, I am sure I would start loving you."
Dorian blinked over his intense gaze at her confession.
Grace added, "Then I would love you with all my heart. And if you go on with someone else later, you will take away all my love. My heart would be an empty shell, without any love and I would forget to love even myself." Trying to swallow the lump in her heart, she shook her head. "I do not want to be like that," she said in a broken voice.
His chest was heaving while they both gazed at her. Want was evident in his eyes. She could feel that no one had ever said something like this to him. Women must readily be allowing themselves under him. But Grace had promised herself that she would never do anything that might be a threat to her self reapect. Her parents's relationship was a very sour one. And Grace had no intention to make her relationship with Dorian like that. She would rather prefer it stayed tasteless. Atleast, it won't hurt her then.