Page 96 of Claim Me

“It was…don’t worry about,” I said breathlessly.

“I was hoping you would dance with me,” he said.

“Is that…?”

“It’s your sister’s idea,” he said quickly. “I need to show that we all get along, so they don’t think that we hate each other.”

I wasn’t certain that dancing with Anderson was going to send that impression, and I doubted Lola had explicitly made that suggestion. But since my best friends had abandoned me, I couldn’t come up with a reasonable excuse.

Anderson and I walked to the dance floor and he put an arm around me.

“It’s a bit hard to take my waist at the moment,” I said apologetically.

“At my first primary school dance, the teachers went around pushing us apart so we weren’t too close,” he said. “This makes that a lot easier.”

I laughed along with him, wishing it could always be simple and easy between us. But until he’d figured out that I was off the market permanently, I worried that wouldn’t be the case. “You spoke to Lola?”

“Yes,” he said, taking a deep breath. “She’s a bit bossy.”

“She is a handful, but she knows how to run with this crowd.”

“Did she help you?” he asked.

“I sorta leapt into the deep end.” By the time, I’d realized that my relationship with Alexander was more than a fling, I’d already figured out how to tread water. “I should have asked for her help. She works with Belle on her business, and she’s always run interference for me when my mother gets too involved.”

“It sounds like you have an interesting family dynamic.” He smiled.

“And it’s still not as strange as my husband’s.”

“Tell me about it. A year ago it was me and my mum and now?” He looked around the room. “This isn’t my world.”

“I know how you feel,” I said, “but this isn’t their world, either. You’ll see. We’re actually terribly boring people…”

“With private jets, family estates, and Crown Jewels.” He lifted an eyebrow, calling my bluff.

I tilted my head. “Yes, but the rest of the time…”

“Thank you for the dance,” Anders said, releasing me and taking a step back, “but I think someone is cutting in.”

I didn’t have time to ask him who before he spun me into my husband’s waiting arms.

Chapter 28

Alexander

Clara’s breathless surprise matched how I felt every time I saw her. I nodded politely to Anders. It was the least I could do if he was going to show he’d learned his place. Not that I appreciated seeing my brother’s hands on my wife in any context, but as I’d was unavailable, I’m glad she wasn’t standing alone. She eyed me through her lashes apprehensively as I clasped her hand and we began to sway.

“Feeling guilty, Poppet?” I asked, relishing the palm she placed on my chest. Another woman might have wrapped it around my neck or touched my arm, but she kept it near my heart as if protecting it.

“Nervous,” she said.

I dipped her slightly, swiftly and discreetly running my mouth up her neck before turning us. “Why would that be?”

“I was dancing with your brother.”

I chuckled at her wise choice of words. She was becoming quite the politician. “And everyone saw.”

“Yes,” she said, sounding even more alarmed.