The Debutante (Season Series #2)

Chapter 9: The Inaugural Ball (Part 4)

Our dance seemed to last both forever and a fleeting moment, the music building to its crescendo far too quickly. My heart swelled anew, the giddy feeling of being in Andrew's arms frightening away all of the malicious thoughts in my head.

"I hope you'll manage to sneak away again later, I'm growing more and more desperate to escape this tedium," Andrew leaned in to whisper, his words sending a shiver up my neck as his breath caressed my skin, "This is turning out to be one of the worst evenings of my life."

"I think you might be exaggerating just a smidge," I smiled up at him, "You've danced with the most beautiful girls in the realm and a princess too! Unless, of course, it's being stuck dancing with me that has you so sour..."

"Hardly," he grinned, the corners of his eyes crinkling in that special way, "Dancing with you has been the highlight of my night. But I fear the rest of it will be spent disappointing you in order to keep up appearances."

"Was my dress not ravishing enough?" I asked jokingly, despite the sneaky tendrils of doubt that were slowly creeping back into my thoughts. Andrew chewed his lip, sighing.

"You already know that I think you're the most beautiful woman here," he said, but his expression darkened as he added, "I'm sorry, Libby. I didn't want this to be how you remembered your inaugural debutante ball."

My stomach dropped as I frowned up at him, his words opening the floodgates for all the thoughts that had been banished to the back of my mind.

"What do you mean?" I asked warily.

"Now that Dulciana's here, I'm under strict instructions to entertain her," he said, shooting a frown towards where his parents had descended from their thrones and were speaking with the foreign princess. Over the princess' shoulder, both the king and queen's eyes were on us and neither of them appeared pleased.

"Then I suppose you'd better have something special planned to thank me for being so forgiving," I smiled, despite the chasm that was splitting open within me, "Which isn't so difficult since I consider last Season's masquerade as my real debut."

Andrew's eyes filled with such emotion that when he leaned towards me I was half certain he was about to kiss me before he closed his eyes and pulled away.

"Someday, I'm going to kneel before you for all the world to see," he said, his green eyes intense as the music crescendoed to a finish, "And I won't have to remember myself when all I want to do is kiss you."

We stopped moving, yet while the rest of the dancers had broken apart, Andrew hadn't relinquished his hold on me. After the words he'd just spoken, I had no desire to release him either. My insides were a tangled mess, the only clear emotion being an overwhelming desire to remain in my prince's arms.

"And here we were hoping to cut in."

Even Thomas' voice couldn't rip my eyes from Andrew's face, but the glint of a ruby dress next to him did.

"I was hoping one day you could show me how to dance this...polka, was it?" Dulciana asked, her voice lilting prettily with her Ardalonian accent. She was still holding Thomas' arm, clearly waiting for me to disengage myself from Andrew, but I made no move to release him. It was only when Thomas cleared his throat and spoke again that Andrew let my hand go.

"Mother and father wish a word with the two of you, but Dulciana was hoping for another dance first," Thomas said, studiously ignoring me as Andrew bowed to the princess.

"Yes, of course," he said, offering a hand to her. She dimpled prettily again, eagerly releasing Thomas to line herself up for yet another dance with Andrew. I hesitated, unsure whether I was supposed to curtsey to her or simply move away. She must have spotted my hesitation because she turned her flinty brown eyes towards me.