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Seth stared at the weasel before hi hilanced at the drink in his hand As though suddenly reaze shot back to Aurora

"Pardon me, did not mean to detain you with idle chatter Especially with so s moistened his nearly nonexistent lips "I’ll just collect this little tart and be on my way We’ll find another room"

Aurora drove back another step, heedless that she trod over Seth’s foot

Without thinking, Seth flexed his hand around her arm and announced, "I’m afraid not The lady is unavailable"

"Now see here, Rutledge," Billings blustered, puffing out his chest "I found her first"

Seth cocked a brow "And you’ve lost her"

With a decided as set the drink down on aover the ri No need to get proprietary"

Even as he uttered the words, he scoured Aurora with a hungry leer

Seth stroked her arer, Billings bit out, "Enjoy yourself, Rutledge I’o at her when you’re finished"

She flinched in his arrowl rose up frorated, wondering at the sudden and fierce protectiveness that surged through his stormed from the rooain

"I take it he was the reason you were conteh the ?"

She whirled around, her eyes flashing "I’ht-skirt!"

"I never said you were," he countered

She pressed her lips into a mutinous line "But I’m here At this ball" She waved a hand "I’e me to be"

"And why should ith escaped her It was a wholly uncalculated sound that sent a lick of heat spiraling through his sto for Fleur to join hi of ways to seduce the tantalizing creature before him

"It doesn’t, of course" Her chin went up another notch

She edged back another step, reht He sensed he had her for only a moment more And for so forward, he grazed his knuckles over her cheek Her eyes widened, but she did not pull back

Watching her closely, gauging her expression in the event distaste should e the delicate line of her collarbone

Dipping his head, he tasted the war at the wildly thruue

Her breathing grew harsh He pulled back to stare into her ain No distaste there

His stomach knotted at the way her eyes consumed him, as if she could see hiht down to the marrow of his bones

Absurd, really No one knew hile member of his family, alive or dead Not a soul existed that he could talk to, share his deepest thoughts But then, no one had ever fit that description For a brief irl with freckles, scraped knees, and a wild mane of hair never pinned in place Jane They had been friends

Confidantes His heart twisted Tie eyes peering at him so intently, so starkly, made him feel oddly connected to her She felt… fah you know me?" he demanded "Do you?"

She blinked those wide eyes of hers "No Of course not"

And why, he wondered, should he care if she did? If they had o It couldher out of that scandalous gown and burying hi lust she had roused within him

Once he sampled her charms, he would see she was no different froht in so sense back into herself Her gaze drifted beyond hi the rasped her arms and pulled her back to hith

"You don’t have to go," Sethat this creature that had awakened desire in hireat precipice, waiting to see whether or not he would drop like a stone through the air

"I can’t," she replied in a ragged voice that ripped through hiain, he had been refused

Soo Not until he knew so about the way she looked at hihtened on her arms

Ridiculous as it seemed, he would uncover theabout her before they were finished

Starting hat she looked like out of her gown

"Come, this is a ers caught hers gently and twined with the slender digits "You can do anything you want, be anyone you want to be," he coaxed