Keep reading for an excerpt from Dancing With Daniel | Rakes vs Wallflowers- BOOK 2
CHAPTER 1
Daniel left the Mangrove ballroom to steal a smoke. It had been hours of standing on his feet and being witty and genial. And while he was for the most part terribly accommodating, he couldn’t help but want a few moments to himself.
He leaned against the brick wall and took a deep breath allowing the smoke to invade his lungs and help to loosen some of the knots and kinks that had tightened throughout the day.
Randall had finally done it. He had actually married the luscious Eden. Daniel wasn’t shocked anymore, there had been a time that he never would have thought the leader of their debauched crew would have ever entered the bonds of matrimony.
Daniel took another long drag, holding it in before releasing the smoke into the night air. Funny how life can change, how things that seem impossible can become all too reasonable in an instant.
He heard a soft cry, almost like a kitten. He stamped out the cigarette with his boot and went to join the party when he saw what he thought to be a woman’s skirt further into the garden.
He followed the noise and came upon an older man trying to force his intentions on a young girl, she didn’t even look old enough to be out.
Not thinking twice, he grabbed the man by the shirt and punched him twice hard in the face. The second punch broke his nose and knocked him out.
The girl had the decency not to scream, but her whimpering did not cease, she refused to look him in the face. He looked at her more closely and realized that not only did she look young, but that the man had ripped her bodice open.
He felt his breeches grow tight at the sight of her beautiful young breasts exposed to the night air despite her desire to cover them. They were high and tight with pink nipples that were begging to be played with, sucked into his mouth.
She was so tiny, he felt lecherous. She couldn’t be more than a child. Why was he responding this way, what was wrong with him?
“Are you alright?” he stumbled over the words as he tried to reach out to touch her arm. But immediately regretted it the moment his hand touched her silky skin. His cock continued its traitorous assault against the front of his breeches. He couldn’t figure out why he was so bloody hard. And then to add insult to injury he watched as her nipples pebbled.
“Damn!” he couldn’t help the word, it was almost a plea. “I don’t want to hurt you, sweeting. I will not hurt you.”
“You didn’t hurt me,” her low husky tone was like a silken scarf caressing him everywhere, he shuddered as his cock jumped.
“Who are you? Who is that man to you?” Daniel asked helplessly.
She brought her eyes to his for the first time that night, “You know me, Viscount Moberly.”
He looked at her more closely and then it hit him like a ton of bricks. This was not a child. Sure, she was small, but that was only her stature.
He had danced with her once, at a ball.
It was all coming back to him. She had rubbed up against him like a practiced courtesan, to the point that he had almost taken her right there on the dance floor. Although his mother, her mother and half the ton would have been watching, it takes a lot to distract him, and this girl had done it.
“Eva Johansen,” he whispered in wonder. “What am I thinking?”
He quickly slipped out of his jacket and wrapped it around her. Ignoring the way that she felt when he touched her, ignoring her scent, her sigh of relief.
“What are you doing out here and who was that?”
She shrugged, looking so hopeless and fragile, her big brown eyes filling with tears, “That was my betrothed. My parents are forcing me to marry.”
“Why, I do not understand this?” Daniel looked at the man on the ground.
“I think the better question is why you are out here Viscount Moberly with an unmarried girl in a state of undress? Unless she is merely one of your light-skirts and in that case, you really should not have her at a friend’s wedding.”
Of all people to find them in the garden, why did it have to be Rose Darlington? Not only was she the worst gossip of the debutants, but she had been originally invited to be a Bluebell and was so horribly mean to Sophie the Eden kicked her out. After that time, Rose, had made it her personal vendetta to be vindictive to the remaining Bluebell’s.
“Why are you even here, Rose?” Eva stuck out bravely, “You don’t like any of us anyway, please do not bother yourself. I will go away.”
“The tramp speaks, how quaint. But I wasn’t talking to the trash.”
Daniel held out his hand to Eva, “You will not speak to my fiancé that way. She had had an accident and is borrowing my jacket. For you to delight in her misfortune shows what a small-minded person you are. Good day.”
He all but carried Eva away from the scene, knowing that the Darlington woman was no doubt going to spread the venom of her wrath far and wide he did the only thing he could think of.
He went to the nearest entrance.
Keeping his coat wrapped tightly around her he whispered in her ear, “Please forgive me.”
Then he raised his voice garnering the attention of the entire throng.
“Please everyone, I have an announcement to make. Because my best friends are so very happy we have decided to join them in wedded bliss. Miss Eva Johansen has just accepted my hand in marriage.”
There was a great wave of applause as Eva looked up at him in horror just before his lips crashed down over hers.