So, feeling a different relationship to those sensations was...
It was all very strange.
As was the embarrassment.
She looked at herself in the mirror one last time and found that she could not feel embarrassed when she remembered what she looked like. Not tonight.
For tonight, she looked like everything she could hope to be. Strong, a warrior. And beautiful besides. Like something that Maximus would have to notice. Though she should not care if he did.
She lifted her chin high and walked out into the corridor. And there he was. Looking resplendent in a perfectly fitted suit. He was clean-shaven, his dark hair looking disreputable. As if someone had just run their fingers through it.
No wonder the media wrote such things about him. He always looked like he was both perfectly put together and like he had just exited a lover’s bed.
Even she took in those undertones from his appearance, and she could not recall having ever seen a person who had recently left a lover’s bed. She had certainly never left one.
“What?” he asked, lifting a brow. “You look angry.”
“I’m not.”
She frowned even deeper.
“And beautiful.”
“Well, thank you,” she said, smiling in a way that bared her teeth. “I do not know what I should have done if you, the man who has rejected my advances, did not find me beautiful. I might curl in on myself and implode into a glorious ash pile of sadness.”
“That is quite acidic, even for you.”
“Perhaps I feel acidic. But here we are, ready to make our debut to the world as a couple. So I suppose we had better look as if you’re not disgusted by my touch.”
That flame flickered in his eyes, and she felt echoing tension inside her in response.
“Who said your touch disgusted me?” he asked.
“You recoiled from me quickly enough last week, and besides, you have avoided being alone with me ever since.”
“I’m not here to prop up your self-esteem.”
“No, indeed not.”
“Which means I should not answer your provocations,” he said.
“Why should you now?” she said darkly. “You haven’t before.”
He took hold of her wrist and turned her to face him. “You should thank God I have not answered your provocations,” he said. “And that I have kept barriers between us.”
“Right. Because you are protecting me? From the things that I want?”
“From distractions. From harm.”
“You forget,” she whispered. “You forget what I have been through.”
“I don’t forget. It’s why I won’t do anything.”
They quit speaking after that. Instead, they walked toward the ballroom, and when they arrived at the door, he took her arm. But no sooner.
Everything that happened after that was a blur. They and their engagement were announced by her right-hand woman, her adviser. And the ripple that went through the room was undeniable.
The stir that they created was unlike anything Annick had ever experienced before, and she found it difficult to separate her response to what was happening around them and to touching him.