Keepsake Christmas
Extract from A SEASON FOR SUITORS, Nicola's short story in the HQN
Anthology Keepsake Christmas
Seb Fleet
had broken both his resolutions for the evening within two minutes of
stepping inside Lady Cardace’s ballroom. His plan to tell Martin he had
changed his mind about being godfather to the twins fell at the first hurdle
when his friend greeted him with such delight that Fleet found himself
utterly unable to disappoint him. He might have despised himself for such
sentimental weakness – it was an affliction that he had not suffered
previously – but then he had caught sight of Clara and all other thoughts
fled his mind.
Clara had long ago ceased to wear the white muslin of
the very young debutante and tonight she was in a gown of delicate pale
green. It swathed her soft curves with the sort of cunning elegance that
accentuated rather than hid the body beneath. Her fine, blonde hair was
swept up to reveal the tender line of her neck. She was smiling at something
Juliana was saying. She looked radiant. Fleet felt it like a punch in the
stomach. He vaguely remembered that he had resolved to avoid Clara that
evening. The resolution felt irrelevant.
He had stopped, stared, and barely been able to conceal
from Martin the fact that he was profoundly, outrageously, attracted to his
little sister. Then he had seen Elton and Tarver heading in the same
direction with much the same thoughts as his own and had ruthlessly stepped
in to tell them that he was Miss Davencourt’s escort that night unless they
wished to challenge his right. Neither of them had done so. Instead they had
looked terrified.
He had half-expected Clara to rebuff him and the fact
that she had, had merely encouraged the reckless urge he felt to stake his
claim. He felt an almost uncontrollable compulsion to make his mark on her,
clear and undisputed, before the assembled company. The impulse appalled
and excited him more than any other emotion he had ever experienced. Only
the thinnest shred of self-control prevented him. For every action there
was a reaction and public response to such behaviour would be to hound him
into marriage or be cast out. So his desire for Miss Clara Davencourt would
remain unslaked. Except…
Except that he could not resist. Part of a successful
rake’s strategy, of course, was cold calculation. He needed to be in control
at all times. Seb Fleet had lost his control where Clara Davencourt was
concerned. And now he had her where he wanted her.
