Dare You to Run by Dawn Ryder Read Free Book Online

Vitus to surface.
    He would. She had no doubt. He wasn’t a man who knew how to shrink from duty. She didn’t care for how bitter it felt to know she was nothing more than a duty to him tonight. Her heart was accelerating, her skin hypersensitive as she waited for him.
    His hatred of her was the way it had to be, but that didn’t keep her from lamenting it.
    And she didn’t have time to dwell upon her feelings. She felt him come close, the damn hair on the back of her neck standing up. There was always a jolt of awareness that hit her when he touched her, and tonight was no different. She gasped as he claimed her hand and turned her neatly into position right as the music began.
    So very perfect.
    Yet it felt so very forbidden.
    â€œTry to play the part, Princess.”
    Vitus was just as she remembered him. He had her locked in his embrace, even though everyone around them wouldn’t have found a single thing to fault him over. His hands were properly placed, looking quite gentlemanly, but she could feel the strength in his grip. So controlled and yet so very inescapable. He was worried she’d bolt and making sure she knew he wasn’t going to allow it.
    â€œDon’t call me that.” She needed to keep her wits. “I’m not a little girl.”
    He turned her in time with the waltz. For a moment, she felt like she was moving without any effort on her part, being swept along by the sheer power of the man holding her. His eyes narrowed, his lips thinning as his gaze dropped to her lips.
    â€œYou weren’t a kid the last time we met either.”
    She’d been twenty-three and well past the age of not noticing how enticing Vitus was. Enticing was too tame a word. The moment he’d pulled the cover off the hole she’d been imprisoned in she’d felt like she’d been sucker punched. The memory was still vivid and haunted her dreams.
    â€œSo don’t call me by a child’s nickname.”
    He turned her again, controlling her body as the dance floor became crowded. Her heart was racing, the feeling of his arms around her making her breathless. The way he held her defied explanation. It touched off something deep inside her that bubbled up through the floorboards of what she thought was her composure. When it came to Vitus, there was no maintaining a grip on her reactions. She was the powder keg and he was the open flame. When they touched, the only outcome was an explosion. One that left her seeing stars.
    Something flickered in his eyes. “If you didn’t want me to think of you as a kid, you shouldn’t have run home crying to Daddy.”
    His voice was edged with anger. She shifted, but he held her against him. “I didn’t,” she hissed through her teeth.
    Surprise flickered in his eyes along with disbelief. That hurt her more than anything. He believed she was guilty of betraying him. For a man like him, that was unforgivable.
    â€œYour father sure knows more than he should.” The music climbed to its crescendo, the musicians finishing out the melody with a polished flourish.
    He turned her under his arm, making her gown swirl away from her ankles. Just a touch of cool air hit her calves, setting off another ripple of sensation. Damned if he wasn’t a master of keeping her on the edge.
    â€œThank you for the dance, Ms. Ryland.”
    She heard his boot heels snap together a moment before she was treated to the sight of his broad shoulders while he walked away from her. She was torn between the need to charge after him to make her case and behaving in a manner that wouldn’t betray just how much his opinion mattered to her.
    Her own private hell; it was a place she knew well.
    Congressman McKinnon’s son saved her by gliding up and offering her his hand. He was all of twenty-one years old but eager to please his family by making sure he performed well under the scrutiny of the Washington crowd.
    He was perfect