Hold You Against Me (Stripped 4)

“I wasn’t charming before?”

“Not like this. That was real. This is…something else.” This is the life, the life my father lived, the one he groomed Honor and me to live. The one I thought I had escaped.

He considers this as we take another turn around the ballroom. It’s not quite a waltz but not quite modern either. It’s more that he’s turning my body in time with the music. It’s innate, I realize. A deep and sensual connection to the music that he wouldn’t have learned in lessons.

I half expect him to ignore my question or pretend not to know what I mean. To turn away from the elephant in the room, that neither of us were meant to wear these invisible crowns. Instead he says, “I learned by necessity.”

That tells me nothing. “Someone must have helped you.”

“Ada taught me some of it,” he says finally. “About the parties. The social rules.”

“Then she supported you.” I’m moving dangerously close to the topic we haven’t yet touched—how he was able to take over after my father died. And what happened to him when I left.

He’s silent as we take another turn, the faces around us blurring together.

“She likes you,” he says.

“Did she know you were going to get me?”

“Yes.”

I shouldn’t feel betrayed by that. Ada has always been nice to me, but obviously she felt no loyalty for me if she supported Giovanni kidnapping me. “I see.”

“Clara.”

Tears sting my eyes, and I focus on the crisp white of his shirt. I wish he would go away. No, I want to be the one to go, for the smooth blonde floor to open wide and swallow me whole.

“Clara, look at me.”

He waits patiently while we dance until I gather myself and lift my chin. Don’t let them see you bleed. I realize then that she may not have only been talking about other people. Giovanni is coming for me like a bird of prey. I force the tears back.

“You asked why we couldn’t just leave. There are many reasons, but one of them is Honor.”

“What does she have to do with this?”

“I told you they would find you. Your sculpture at the Grand. Your art. It was only a matter of time.”

“You said that already. Except you could have warned me there. I would have run.”

“And your sister? Should she uproot her life? Her husband?”

I press my lips together, obstinate. I’m aware that it would have been awful for her, that whatever he does to me is probably worth sparing her, but I would have liked the choice.

“Her baby?”

I stumble at the word, only saved from tripping by his strong arms. “What?”

“She didn’t tell you?”

“No, I—” I had been distracted lately, though. Distancing myself so she wouldn’t find out about Shane and worry. “God, how do you know?”

He lifts a shoulder. “My people are thorough. Other people are thorough too. She wouldn’t have been safe there. Those people wouldn’t care that she’s married to someone else, not if they could use her.”

Panic claws at my throat. “Then she won’t be safe there now. You have to let me warn her.”

“You’re here now. We’ve announced our engagement in public. If anyone were to try anything, they’d go after you.”

I shiver at his words. “That’s not very reassuring.”