Page 4 of The Notorious Lord Sin
He would not dare.
She clamped her mouth shut, staring across the ballroom floor, unable to comprehend what her eyes were seeing.
Bile rose in her throat, and she swallowed hard. How dare he show his face here? How dare he look at her after how he had played her wrong? Used her and gave her hope when she was never good enough for him and his lofty family.
"Lord Astoridge is here, Paris," Millie whispered. "I'm sorry."
Paris took a calming breath and glared at his lordship, who continued to watch her as if he expected some gift of a smile, a small wave, or some friendly gesture that would make all his awful, treacherous doings go away.
They would not.
She would never forgive him for his ungentlemanly act. No matter how many years passed, her heart still stung at the thought of that day.
She had been so full of hope, all but ready to order the carriage and travel down to her modiste and have her wedding gown fitted.
He was a waste of her emotions and time, just as he was a waste of effort even now.
His lips lifted into a small smile, and she narrowed her eyes.
Do not come my way, Lord Astoridge. You are not welcome here.
He mentioned something to Lord Lupton-Gage at his side and started toward her. Paris swore, steeling herself to speak to him again. For five years, her devastation and ire had bubbled away. Each time she looked at her daughter, she was reminded of everything she had lost. If he were hoping for a sweet reunion, he would be mistaken. She was unlikely to make that error a second time.
ChapterTwo
Dominic bowed before Paris and smiled, drinking in the sight of her after all the years he could not. She had barely changed and was as beautiful as he remembered her. A multitude of questions bounded about in his mind, and he needed to know all she had done. What path her life had traveled. From the look of her low-bodice, empire-cut gown of the finest silk, she had fared better than he.
"Good evening, Miss Smith." He stared at her, gathering his wits, sure they had fled him for a moment. The closer he was to her, the more he realized how very beautiful she had become.
More so than when he had first met her. He shook his head at the thought. She had turned into a woman in the five years since he had seen her last. A delicious, beautiful, worldly woman and the pit of his stomach clenched. "I'm so very happy to see you again," he admitted, the words as true as him standing before her.
"Lord Astoridge," she said, her words dripping with indifference. "I married the Earl of Hervey some years past. I'm the Countess of Hervey now, Lady Hervey to you," she corrected him, her eyes as cold as her words.
Dominic's stomach churned at the knowledge she had married. How had he not known? When he had traveled to France, he knew his mother would not have notified him. She never cared for Miss Smith, but for his friends not to inform him, well, he could not help but wonder why.
He glanced about the room, searching for Lord Hervey. "I hope to congratulate your husband and yourself on your nuptials. They are long overdue."
She raised her brow, staring down at him with annoyance. "You will have to contend with only offering me your congratulations, my lord. Lord Hervey sadly passed away early last year," she explained, sipping her wine and watching him over the rim of her glass.
Dominic ignored the shocking realization that ran through his mind at that moment. Paris was unmarried. A widow. He frowned and fought to compose appropriate words that sounded heartfelt.
They would not be.
He had never liked Lord Hervey, not when he had tried to court Paris while Dominic was making his own interest known. He could go to hell for thinking in such a way, being near her again, smelling the sweet scent of lilies that always accompanied her, and falling under the spell of her beauty. He did not care to think ill of the dead.
"I'm very sorry for your loss, my lady,” he lied. “I did not know."
"No, well, how could you? You were in Paris or somewhere abroad, I understand. We did not communicate, and I rarely came to Town these past two years due to my husband's health," she said, raising her brow as if she found his presence a bore. "Close friends and family were informed, of course, but no one else."
He ignored her barb and her aloofness toward him. Hell, he hoped she did not find him such a bore, a pain in her side that she could not remove. There had been a time when she had all but glowed at the sight of him. Such a long time ago now, but surely she was not still mad at him.
"Did you ever marry, my lord?" she asked him.
He glanced about the room. Several people watched them keenly. It was no secret that during the 1809 Season, he had courted Paris. Nothing ever came of it due to the familial duties that stopped him from marrying a woman of no fortune or influence. Harsh words he had long regretted, but they were done, and he could not take them back, no matter how much he wished he could.
He had broken her heart that afternoon, and from the cool reception he was receiving, Paris had not forgiven him.
Yet ...
