Chapter 6: Careful, Scholarship

The orchestra started a slow song, and Phillip did not let go of my hand.

"You said you'd leave my life alone," I said under my breath. "That was the deal."

"I did say that."

"You just told the whole room I was yours."

"I said you were with me. I never said you were mine." He turned me toward the dance floor. "Dance with me, Hallie."

"That's a technicality."

"Then it's a good one."

I let him lead me out, because two hundred people were watching and I would not run from them.

His right hand settled on my back, just above the waist, where the gold dress was cut away to bare skin.

His palm was hot and dry. It was the first place on my body he had touched that was not my hands.

I felt that touch all the way down my spine.

"Is that all right?" he asked, low.

"It's fine."

"You're stiff."

"I'm being watched."

"You're being looked at." His thumb moved a half inch along my back. "There's a difference, and you've never learned it."

I tried to look past his shoulder.

He had grown, over the years, into someone I could not see past. The suit fit his shoulders and his jaw was clean. His eyes were fixed on my mouth.

His heart was beating hard under my left hand. It had to be the rib. He had cracked it a week ago, and it must hurt him to dance.

"Does your side hurt?" I asked.

"Not at all."

"Your pulse is going crazy."

"That's not my side."

I looked up.

He bent until his mouth was against my ear, and I felt his breath on my neck.

"I've been hard since you opened that door," he said quietly. "I'd like you to know that, since you like true answers."

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