“Linus actually asked Bryn to dance first, but she declined,” Tilda told him, ratting on me even though I knew I’d done the right thing.
She had a mischievous glint in her eyes—parties like this always brought it out in her. While she hadn’t had anything to drink tonight, Tilda seemed to get drunk on good music and good dancing. Her relaxed elegance made me feel so rigid in comparison.
“You probably should’ve said yes. He could actually use a lesson in dance moves.” Ridley motioned to where Linus stumbled over Ember’s foot, but she helped him keep his balance.
“In private I’ll give him a few pointers,” I said. “But it wouldn’t be proper here. He’s my charge. I shouldn’t do anything that might blur the lines of professionalism.”
“I love it when you talk clean to me, quoting training manuals like sonnets,” Ridley teased, but I found his usual flirtation off-putting since I didn’t know how to respond.
Seeing him with Juni last night forced me to realize that I had some type of feelings for him. That left me unsure of how to act around him, so I’d rather be around him as little as I possibly could. At least until the feelings went away. And they had to eventually, right?
“There’s nothing wrong with being professional,” I told him coolly with eyes straight ahead, staring at the dance floor.
“There’s nothing wrong with dancing either.” Ridley moved so he was standing in front of me, forcing me to look at him. “Come on. Why don’t you dance with me?”
“We’re working,” I replied quickly, making him smirk.
“It’s a party, and everyone’s dancing. And as the Rektor, I am your boss.” He held out his hand to me.
“So this is an order?” I asked, eyeing his outstretched hand and hating how tempted I was to take it.
“If I say no, will you still dance with me?” he asked.
Tilda elbowed me gently in the side. “Just go dance, Bryn.”
Without thinking, I reached out and took his hand. His hand easily enveloped mine, and it sent flutters through my stomach, which I tried to suppress. His smile widened, and as he led me away, I glanced back over my shoulder at Tilda, who smiled reassuringly at me.
Once we’d lost ourselves in the sea of well-dressed trolls, Ridley stopped and I put my hand on his shoulder. I was careful to keep some distance between us, but when he put his hand on the small of my back, he pulled me closer to him.
“This isn’t so bad, right? Nobody’s gawking at us or chasing us with pitchforks,” Ridley said, smiling down at me as we danced in time with a dramatic cover of “Love Is Blindness.”
“Not yet, anyway,” I admitted.
I glanced around just to be sure we weren’t getting any dirty looks, but nobody really seemed to be paying us any mind. But I supposed that, based on the formal way both Ridley and I were dressed, and the fact that there were so many royals here from other kingdoms who didn’t know each other, they didn’t realize that we didn’t belong here, dancing alongside them.
Ember spotted us through a break in the crowd, and her jaw dropped. Instinctively, I tried to pull away from Ridley, but his hand was unyielding and warm on my back, holding me to him.
“So what’s going on with you?” Ridley asked, and when I looked up, his smile had fallen away and his dark eyes were strangely serious.
“Nothing’s going on.” I tried to brush him off with an uneasy smile.
“I feel like you’re mad at me.”
I hedged my answer and lowered my eyes. “Why would I be mad?”
“I don’t know. But you’ve been giving me the cold shoulder all night.” He paused. “You’ve barely even looked at me.”
“It’s not like I spend all my time staring at you,” I said, finding it hard to look up at him even now.
“Bryn. You know what I mean,” he insisted firmly, and I did.
I hadn’t meant to put a wall between us, but I really didn’t know how else to deal with things. He was apparently with Juni now, and even if he wasn’t, he was still my boss, and a tracker getting romantically involved with a Rektor was definitely a bad move, one that could cost us both our jobs. It opened up too many possibilities for corruption, manipulation, and nepotism.
So there was no way Ridley and I could ever be together, even if he wanted to. Or even if I wanted to, and I didn’t. Not really.
I finally willed myself to look at him, meeting his mahogany eyes, even though it made me flush with heat when I did. “I’m not mad at you. I promise.”
“If I did something to upset you, you can tell me,” he said in a low voice, distressed at the thought that he’d done something to hurt me. “That’s, like, the foundation of our friendship. We’re always honest with each other.”
“I am,” I lied as convincingly as I could.
“Good,” Ridley said, not because he believed me, but because he didn’t know how else to push me.
“Is this why you asked me to dance?” I asked, trying to lighten the mood. “So you could interrogate me?”
“No. I asked you to dance because I wanted to dance with you,” he said simply. “You’re a good dancer.”
With that, he extended his arm and I stepped back away from him. Then he pulled me close, twirling me as he did, and I stopped with my back pressed against his chest. His arms were wrapped around me, and his breath felt warm on my neck.
We stayed that way for only a second, our hips swaying slightly, and my heart pounded so loudly I was terrified he could feel it, but I didn’t want to pull away from him. I actually wanted to stay that way forever, with the orchestra swelling, and the singer reaching her crescendo as she warned about the blindness of love. Under the dim candlelight of a chandelier in a crowded ballroom, with Ridley’s arms strong as they crossed over me, my body bound to his, I closed my eyes, wishing the moment would last forever.
But it was only a split second, and then he had my hand, and he spun me around again. This time, when he pulled me back into his arms, I extended my leg, the way the dance required. He dipped me down so low, my hair brushed against the floor, and my eyes stayed locked on his as he pulled me back up.
I stayed in his arms, my body pressed against his, feeling breathless and dizzy, and I knew it wasn’t just from the dancing. I stared up at him, and I’d never wanted to kiss anybody as badly as I wanted to kiss him then.
But instead I found myself blurting out, “It’s too bad Juni couldn’t be here.”
“Yeah.” Ridley sounded out of breath himself, and he blinked, clearing his eyes of whatever had been darkening them. “Yeah, it is.”
The song ended, so I pulled away from him and smoothed out my dress. I wanted to rush off the dance floor, retreating back in the shadows to stand with Tilda, but Ridley hadn’t moved. He stood in front of me with a puzzled expression on his face.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing.” He tried to smile at me but it faltered. “Thanks for dancing with me.”
Ridley turned and walked away, leaving me alone in the middle of the dance floor.