Never Fall for Your Fiancee
- Автор: Heath Virginia
- Год: 2021
- Язык: английский
- Год: St. Martin's Publishing Group
- Жанр: Исторические любовные романы
Электронная книга - «Never Fall for Your Fiancee». Краткое содержание книги:
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Virginia Heath's fun characters and situations will have you laughing out loud! Don't miss this wonderful read! - Sabrina Jeffries, *New York Times* bestselling author**
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The first in a new historical rom-com series, a handsome earl hires a fake fiancée to keep his matchmaking mother at bay, but hilarity ensues when love threatens to complicate everything.**
“I suppose I could own up to not being able to dance. After all, it would hardly come as a surprise when I am so musically incompetent—but then, of course, it would mean calling you a liar again. Because you wrote to her in great detail about our first magical waltz…”
“I could teach you to waltz.”
“Oh, don’t be daft, Hugh…”
“No—I’m serious. You could politely refuse to dance with anyone at the assembly except me. It would be seen as perfectly acceptable and understandable that you should want to have as many conversations with your new neighbors as possible instead of dancing. You are to be the new mistress of Standish, after all. Your sisters can dance every dance. I’ll have Payne and Lucretia teach them on the side. Then, the only dance people will expect you to dance will be with me and we will only dance the waltz. My mother will love the symbolism. It will look gloriously romantic.”
“It will look ridiculous, Hugh. I will look ridiculous. Singing badly for your mother to avoid imminent catastrophe is one thing, making a complete fool out of myself in front of a room full of strangers is quite another.”
“Will you at least allow me to try to teach you?” He stood, holding out his hands, and watched the charming furrow he always had the urge to kiss away appear between her dark brows.
“I cannot dance!”
“But this is the waltz. The waltz is entirely different to all the other dances because it relies on the gentleman leading! If it all goes wrong, it is me they will blame. All you will need to do is count to three and be able to hold on tight while I twirl you around. Come … I’ll show you.”
“Now? It’s late and I am not sure I have the patience yet. It’s been a particularly trying day. Perhaps tomorrow…”
“There is no time like the present and we have the place all to ourselves.” Which was probably a dangerous combination, but he couldn’t summon the enthusiasm to care. Not when he needed her to smile again to make him feel better.
“This is pointless.” Reluctantly, she allowed him to pull her up. “I take absolutely no responsibility for stepping on your toes. Expect them to be completely crushed.”
It would be worth it if he could send her to bed happier than she was now. “And I take absolutely no responsibility for you falling helplessly, head over heels in love with me as I twirl you around—because the waltz is the dance of love and seduction, my dear faux fiancée … and I am sinfully wonderful at it. So sinfully wonderful I’m surprised they haven’t made a law against it. Or me.”
“And so modest.” There was the smile he missed. The saucy glint in her lovely emerald eyes as he arranged her arms into the correct pose. Both warmed his heart. Nothing kept his Minerva down long. “Have you forgotten you are effectively paying me to dance with you?”
“There is that.” He slid his palm around her waist slowly, savoring the opportunity to hold her in his arms just once more. “Will flirting cost me extra?” The corners of her mouth began to curve upward. “Because to waltz truly well one has to flirt.”
“Most assuredly. In fact, I can tell you now it will be very expensive. I shall have enough on my mind concentrating on the steps while simultaneously being your Minerva. Therefore, additional chores, like flirting, come at a premium. It will be so expensive I doubt even you could afford it.”
He loved her like this. Funny and confident and bold. Unburdened. “I am a very rich man.”
“True … but as you rightly pointed out, I do have rather a lot on my plate, so I must decline for now. Should I need another thousand pounds, rest assured I shall let you know.”
“A thousand pounds? You put a great deal of stock in your capabilities at flirting.”
“No more than you put in your capabilities at waltzing, sir.” Standing in a perfect dance frame in his arms, staring along her nose at him in mock disdain, she let out a withering sigh. “Are we going to stand here like this all night? My arm is beginning to ache. I am not being paid to endure aching limbs either. They also come at a premium.”
“Very well, Mademoiselle Mercenary. Try to follow my lead. Whatever I do, you must mirror. It’s simple.” He attempted a few steps, all of which she got entirely wrong and most of which resulted in her stepping on his foot.
“I told you this was pointless!” The light in her eyes had dimmed again as she tried to tug her hand from his. “I am incapable of dancing.”
“It isn’t you—it is me. I am teaching you poorly. Let’s try it again. Mirror…” Then it occurred to him that likening the waltz to a mirror was the root of the problem and perhaps not the best instruction to a novice who lacked coordination—because each time Hugh stepped forward, so did she. He let go of her and demonstrated the steps again on his own, pointing at his feet. “Imagine together we are drawing a big box on the ground.” She might not understand dance, but she understood art. “I will start on the right foot.” Which was the foot she would need to begin with. “I step back on the right. I step to the side with my left. Then I bring my right foot together to stand beside the left.”
“That is a triangle, not a box.”
“Exactly right! Because it is only half of the dance. To complete the box, now I step forward on my right. To the side again on my left and…”
“Bring your right foot together with your left again to return to the point you started?” She drew a big square in the air with her finger.
“See—I told you it was simple. Shall we try it side by side?”
Without touching, they danced several tentative squares until Hugh was certain she understood the basics, while he simultaneously spoke the steps. “Back, side, together—forward, side, together—back, side, together—forward, side, together—one, two, three—one, two, three…” It took five minutes before she had it, but once she did, there was no stopping her.
“Squares … unbelievable.” Minerva suddenly beamed at him in wonder. “Look, Hugh! We are perfectly synchronized! Have you any idea what an achievement this is for me?”
“I am starting to understand.” And he felt proud to have found a way for the waltz to make sense and for encouraging her to smile again.
“What do we have to do next?”
“Nothing other than what you are doing. No matter what I do, simply concentrate on drawing your box on the floor. Ignore my feet.”
“I thought we were mirrors.”
“I’ve smashed the mirrors. The mirrors were a stupid idea and I am an idiot for thinking of them. Now you are drawing a perfect box with your feet and I’m going to draw the same box with you.”
“I really don’t understand…”
“And that is the beauty of it, my lovely Minerva, you really don’t need to.” He took her hand in his and placed the other at her waist. “You just need to trust me and allow me to carry you for a change rather than vice versa.” He held her closer than the dance required but nowhere close enough for him. “Draw your box, my darling.… Back, side, together—forward, side, together—one, two, three…” Miraculously, it worked and nobody seemed more stunned by it than Minerva.
“We’re dancing!”
“I know.”
“I haven’t stepped on your toes!”
“That I also know. My toes thank you.” She giggled and he felt ten feet tall.
“When do we start twirling?”
“Not until we’ve practiced an hour of this at least. Let’s not run before we can walk.”
“An hour? But, Hugh … it’s past midnight. Your mother has another packed day planned tomorrow and I don’t want to face her tired.” And he didn’t want to spoil the moment by making her fret.