Page 3 of To Dance with a Devil

As Bonnie knelt beside him, however, her pale green eyes darker than he’d ever seen them, this was almost impossible to remember. She pressed her lips to his again, and he groaned, pushing her down onto the grass and filling his hands with her. She arched beneath his touch and sighed with pleasure as he gave one full breast a gentle squeeze and then took her nipple in his mouth. The wanton little cry she made jolted through him and the longing for more was so fierce it hurt.

Oh God, he was doomed.

He licked and teased and grazed her with his teeth, desire a wild thing in his blood now, thrashing inside him and demanding release, and then he looked up. For just a moment he was caught in her gaze, in the emotion he saw there… the love. Jerome felt his pulse thudding unevenly and was trapped by the soft look her eyes, and then panic won out and he pushed away from her. He got to his feet and strode away, his heart crashing about in his chest.

“Jerry,” she said, her disappointment all too clear. She should get used to that, he supposed. He’d always be a disappointment to her if she looked at him like he’d hung the moon.

“No,” he said, trying to keep the word as soft and gentle as he could make it, even though frustration and desire were simmering beneath his skin as if he was boiling in a cauldron, the witch’s brew that Bonnie seemed to stir in his blood fighting to control him. “We can’t, Bonnie. No.”

“We could,” she persisted, and he wanted to curse her for putting temptation in his way. “I wouldn’t—”

“No!” He almost shouted the word, his fists clenched against the desire to fling himself to the ground beside her and take everything she offered him. He took a breath and said it again, softer, his regret audible. “No.”

“No,” she repeated, and he hated the sound of it, the way it sounded so defeated, as though she’d known it would be the answer.

Of course she’d known, he raged to himself. He’d told her so, hadn’t he? He’d told her there was no future for her with him. He had no intention of marrying, not for a long, long, time at any rate. Why on earth would he tie himself down with a wife and children when his life was so agreeable? He need only stay out of trouble and Jasper wouldn’t nag him to settle down.

Jerome dried himself off as best he could, discarding his wet drawers for now. He’d have to retrieve them another time before they scandalised some visitor or other, or his mother, heaven forbid. When he turned around, Bonnie was dressed too. He caught her eye and let out a breath, smiling at her. If he wasn’t so dashed fond of her this wouldn’t be so hard, but he was. He did love her, but not in the way she wanted him to. He’d been too much the wide-eyed innocent in his youth, giving his heart away at the drop of a hat and making a blasted fool of himself. Never again, he’d sworn to his brother and himself, and he’d meant it.

“We’re friends, Bonnie,” he said, his voice soft. “Don’t spoil it.”

She nodded and flashed him a grin which didn’t reach her eyes. That unpleasant ache took up residence in his chest again.

“Come along, you nuisance of a female,” he said, holding out a hand to her. “We’d best smuggle you into the house, again,” he added, tutting at her. “You look like a half-drowned cat.”

“Such a way with words you have, Jerome,” she said, pressing her free hand to her heart and pretending to swoon. “I’ll faint if you keep saying such romantic things.”

He snorted and tugged her hand into the crook of his arm. “If you faint, I’ll leave you here and you can find your own way home. I’m famished and I’ve not energy enough to haul your lifeless corpse all the way to the house, I can tell you.”

This time Bonnie slapped the back of her hand to her head. “Oh, my,” she said, as her knees buckled, and she slid elegantly to the floor.

A moment later, she peered up through her fingers at him and grinned. Laughing and shaking his head, he reached down and grasped her hands.

“Addlepate,” he said with too much affection in his voice but unable to stop it.

“I know,” she said with a sigh, before hauling herself to her feet with rather less elegance than she’d fallen.

Relieved that she’d recovered her good humour, Jerome grasped hold of her hand and escorted her back to the house.

Chapter 2

Dear Alice,

I’m so sorry you’re missing out on all the fun. We’ve all been so lucky to be asked to stay on for the earl and Harriet’s wedding. You’d think Lady St Clair would have had enough of us by now—me, anyway—but she’s always so gracious. I wish I had an ounce of her sophistication. I’m sure she thinks me an unruly hoyden and will be glad to see the back of me.

―Excerpt of a letter to Mrs Alice Hunt from Miss Bonnie Campbell.

18th September 1814. Harriet and Jasper’s engagement ball. Holbrooke House, Sussex.

Bonnie laughed, delighted as Harriet’s brother Henry spun her around. He looked a little unnerved by her unabashed enthusiasm, as well he might. Well-behaved young ladies did not laugh their heads off and bounce about the floor like Bonnie did. Well-behaved young ladies gave shy smiles and glided about as if they were floating just above the parquet on little fluffy clouds made of innocence, rainbows, and pink ribbons, or something equally nauseating.

If such a thing had existed, Bonnie would have stomped her little cloud into the dirt and gladly a long time ago. She didn’t want to simper and be a good girl and do as she was told. She’d had done once, a long time ago, so long ago that she could only just remember it, only just remember the cold stone beneath her bony knees as she prayed to a God who’d refused to listen to her pleas, her promises to be a good girl. Being good hadn’t gotten her what she’d wanted then, and it never would, so she was done trying. She’d get what she wanted through her own efforts or she’d fail, but it would be her doing and no one else’s, certainly not some capricious deity who’d ignored a desperate child.

She didn’t dare look at Jerome, too certain he’d be glowering at her. He’d promised to help her with her dare before troubling himself to discover what she had in mind, poor fool, and now he was stuck. He’d tried everything he could think of to change her mind, but once Bonnie had focused her brain on something that was an end to it. She’d made her plans, and he had promised. It was a fait accompli, and so she’d told him.

She waited until almost eleven o’clock before she slipped away. For her plans it would hardly be considered late in the evening, and yet it was long enough. She hadn’t wanted to miss Harriet and Jasper’s engagement ball, but it was likely her last chance for such a scheme. This way she could plead fatigue after having danced herself into exhaustion with no one thinking it suspicious. Smiling to herself, and with anticipation simmering in her veins, she hurried up the stairs to her room.

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