“No.”
“What’s the matter, little brother?” He nudged my shoulder too hard, sending me back a step. “Afraid your plaything would be more interested in sharing my bed than yours?”
“She’s not my plaything.” She wasn’t my anything.
Tadhg’s eyebrows lifted.
“If you set foot inside that ballroom, I will use Ruairi for target practice.”
“All right. All right. I won’t go inside. Unless Aveen asks me to,” he added, shoving my shoulder again when he passed.
The moment he rounded the side of the house, I started for the stairs, wiping my sweaty palms down my breeches. If I’d had a heart, I imagined it would’ve been pounding. I paid no mind to the couple holed up in the entryway, making my way toward the lavish ballroom. For a man with no money, Lord Bannon certainly had spared no expense in celebrating the sale of his daughter to the highest bidder.
My gaze immediately found Aveen spinning on the floor with some balding twit, smiling at him like he deserved it.At least it’s not Robert.
Her sister sipped champagne in a chair along the wall.I needed to put the woman I wanted out of my head and focus on my mission. Aveen’s sister smelled like lavender and drink. When I stopped in front of her, she looked up with wide, reddened eyes.
“What are you doing tucked away in a corner all by yourself?”I asked through a forced smile.
“All this excitement is overwhelming,” she said, her words sweetening the air.Lie. “It’s not every day one’s only sister gets engaged.”
I glanced toward the dance floor only to find Aveen with some fat toad. “Which means you should be on the floor, celebrating.”
“Tonight, I prefer drinking to dancing,” the sister said with a haughty lift to her pointed chin.
That makes two of us.
“That’s brilliant news for me,” I whispered, as if it were some sort of secret confession. Women loved that sort of shite, especially the drunk ones. “I’m a terrible dancer. Would you like some company?”
She blinked in surprise, glancing around the line of empty chairs on either side of hers. “These seats are reserved, I’m afraid.”
Reserved?There wasn’t a single person within earshot, let alone anyone looking for a feckin’ seat. “Reserved for whom?” I managed without sounding as if I wanted to murder her.
The girl held out her empty champagne flute, giving it a shake. “The next man to bring me champagne.”
I bolted for the closest waiter, took two glasses, and returned with the offering, giving Aveen’s sister the fullest of the lot. If I got her drunk enough, she’d retire early. From the way she swayed in her seat, it wouldn’t take much. “To betrothals,” I said, unable to keep the bitterness from my tone as I took the chair next to her.
Her smile tightened. “To drinking.” She scowled at something over my shoulder, then drained every last drop before setting the glass on the windowsill at her back. “Do you know what? I think Idowant to dance.”
I abandoned my glass as well, standing and offering my hand like a good little distraction. “If you care not for your toes, then I would be honored to be your partner.”
The woman’s gloved hand slipped into mine. She stumbled when she stood, but I kept her from falling into a pair of girls wearing matching purple dresses. Aveen’s sister giggled to herself the entire way.
Eventually, we made it through the gauntlet of well-dressed humans to the edge of the parquet dance floor in time for the next waltz to begin. Aveen’s sister stood far too close, and her brow furrowed in concentration as she counted to herself under her breath.
“I don’t care for liars,” she said with a mischievous grin.When I asked what she meant, she said, “You claimed to be a terrible dancer and yet you haven’t stepped on my toes once.”
I gave her shin a dig with the toe of my boot. “Better?”
Her grin widened. “Much.”
I supposed she wasn’t the worst human I’d met, which was why I allowed our first dance to melt into a second. Robert Trench watched the two of us from beside the grand fireplace. I winked at the bastard, relishing the redness in his jaw when my hand “accidentally” slipped to my partner’s hip.Whoops.
He could’ve put a stop to this madness. All the fecker had to do was refuse to marry Aveen and none of this would be happening.
Before I knew it, the hour was upon us. So much for getting my charge to go to bed. If anything, she seemed to have sobered a bit. I needed to get this one out of here so Aveen could slip away unnoticed.
“This ballroom is rather stuffy,” I whispered, keeping my gaze on Robert’s, “wouldn’t you agree?”