Free A Deceptive Attraction: The Wilsons, Book 3 by Alicia Roberts Page B

supposed to drink while he was on the job.
    The catering staff served dinner, which was execrable, but he was hungry, and he wanted to make sure Violet didn’t go hungry either. Damn! He should have taken her out for dinner before the reception.
    As if on cue, the band started its first number, a hot salsa tune. Across the room, Leon spotted Hugh working the crowd, earnestly doing his job. Probably looking for me already, Leon thought.
    “Do you dance?” he asked Violet.
    “I thought you would never ask,” she replied.
    He led her to the dance floor, took her left hand in his right, and placed his other hand on her slender waist.
    She was a skilled dancer and followed his every move through the merengue. Leon stepped it up, spinning her forward and backward, bending her like a willow and straightening her up. She looked at him through languid, half-closed eyes, as if she was taking a nap in the sun instead of spinning like a fireball on her high heels.
    They were both breathing hard by the time the number had finished. Leon saw that Hugh had scoped out their table while they were dancing and had helped himself to Leon’s seat.
    The bastard, Leon thought.
    “Another dance, mademoiselle?” he asked her, catching his breath.
    “Of course,” Violet said.
    This song was even faster than the first. The band’s horn section was ramping up to full throttle and riffing off one another as Leon spun Violet through another merengue, admiring how she executed the steps in her high heels as if she had been born with them on her feet.
    The end of the song left a trickle of sweat making its way down Leon’s temple, and he discreetly wiped it away with his handkerchief. Violet looked as cool as she always did, but he knew she was tired.
    Over at their table, he saw that Hugh was still seated, looking for all the world like a vulture waiting for something to die. It was time to leave the dance floor and face a different kind of music.
    As Leon approached the table with Violet, he shot Hugh a warning glance to vacate his seat. True to form, Hugh ignored him and made a point of waiting to stand up until Leon had started his introductions.
    “Violet, please meet Hugh Steffans,” Leon said. Reluctantly, he added, “My partner.” It pained him to lend his credibility to a loser like Hugh. “Hugh, this is Violet Wilson.”
    Violet nodded cordially and extended her hand. Hugh shook hands with her. “Pleased to meet you, Ms. Wilson,” he said, emphasizing her last name.
    If Hugh had kissed her hand, Leon would have decked him.
    Leon seated Violet, made his way to the opposite side of the table, and took the seat that his partner had vacated. He left it up to Hugh to pull up his own chair.
     

Chapter 12
     
    Violet was enjoying the reception. Leon had been correct when he told her that there was no one there she had any interest in talking to, and the dinner had been unremarkable. But the salsa music had made her toes tingle as soon as the band started up. When Leon asked her to dance, she thought for a moment that she had died and gone to heaven.
    Growing up, Violet had been expected to learn to dance. She had taken ballet and tap starting at the age of five. By thirteen she had been taught the full gamut of ballroom dances, from the waltz to the jitterbug to the tango, but her favorite was the merengue. At the exclusive prep school for girls she had attended during her high school years, she had learned important subjects like math, science, figure drawing, and how to twirl on the dance floor at dizzying speed while wearing high heels.
    As Leon spun her expertly around the floor and executed impossibly intricate moves with their interlocked arms, she smiled inwardly. She should have guessed that Leon would be a good dancer. The French had their priorities straight.
    She was pleased when Leon asked her for a second dance, but by the end she noticed she had missed a few steps. She was getting tired. One more merengue would run the