I stared down at the game board, trying to figure out how Vlad had outsmarted me in a matter of minutes when his exclamation of 'wonderful!' startled me out of my reverie.

Vlad rose from his chair, arms outstretched towards Anya, who had put on the dress we got for her. I turned slowly and took in her appearance.

Gone was the oversized, ragged tunic that she had been wearing until now. The blue dress we had selected fit her perfectly, falling gently over womanly curves, and clinging to the slim span of her waist. I dragged my eyes up to her face and noticed she had even done her hair and applied a small amount of makeup.

She twirled around and the skirts of her dress flared out slightly with the movement.

I was enchanted. I couldn't look away. I slowly, stupidly rose from my chair, blinking a couple of times and trying to regain control of my heart, which had jumped into my throat and started beating a million miles an hour at the sight of her and didn't seem to want to go back down to where it belonged.

Good heavens I wasn't attracted to her was I?

I wasn't given much time to sort that thought out, as just then Vlad grabbed me by the elbow and dragged me over to her.

"You are dressed for a ball, and now you must learn to dance for one!" he was saying to Anya.

Me? Dance?

"I'm not very good at it," I said apologetically as I stood in front of Anya.

Surprisingly she didn't make a snarky comment or laugh at me, in fact, she looked just as nervous as I felt. I cleared my throat and took one of her hands in mine, placing my other at her waist. It was so soft and she felt so delicate in my arms that I didn't even notice we had started dancing already until Vlad's voice interrupted.

"No no no Anya, you don't lead, let him," he said, gesturing to me.

We had dropped our arms as he said this and so now, slowly took them up again. I took a deep breath and we started moving, my brain again fixated on how wonderful she felt to hold in my arms.

Concentrate! I chided myself, and thought to distract myself from the feel of her in my arms by conversation.

"That, uh, dress is really beautiful," I said the first thing that popped into my head.

Idiot! Complement her, not the dress! I thought to myself with an inward grimace.

She looked up at me in surprise

"You think so?" she asked. I smiled warmly.

''Yes, it was lovely on the hanger, but it looks even better on you,"

Nice save!

"You should wear it!"

Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!

"I am wearing it!" she said with a smile as she twirled out and then back into me.

"Right, of course, of course, I'm sorry, I'm just trying to give you a.."

Big blue eyes stared up at me expectantly and I lost my train of thought.

"Compliment?" she ventured when I trailed off.

"Right, of course, of course," I agreed. What were we talking about? I gave up on the idea of conversation and just concentrated on not stepping on her feet while gazing into her beautiful blue eyes.

I could hear Vlad singing to himself as we twirled around the deck, the sun setting and casting glorious colors through the sky, and I wondered to myself how I had not noticed before now how beautiful she was. True she had spent most of the trip in a dowdy, torn, oversized tunic and her hair up in a messy ponytail, but her eyes, her big blue eyes that were mesmerizing me had not changed. Nor had the gentle curve of her cheek, or the tantalizing redness of her lips. Why was I just now noticing these things?

I subconsciously tightened my grip on her waist as we twirled around the deck.

"I'm feeling a little… dizzy…" she said, tentatively, breaking the silence, but not breaking the eye contact we had been maintaining while dancing.

We slowed our movements to gentle swaying.

"Kind of lightheaded?" my voice came out low and husky. She stared up at me with wide, beguiling eyes and I inched ever so slightly closer to her.

"Probably from the spinning," I said as we stopped completely. I held her hands in my own for a moment, not willing to lose contact with her completely.

"Maybe we should stop," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"We have stopped," those wide eyes were drawing me in again and I was so close now I could feel her breath tickling my lips, but she didn't pull away.

"Anya, I-"

I closed my eyes and started to close the short distance between our lips when Pooka growled and barked, drawing me out of my haze long enough for me to remember our purpose, our plan, our con. Feelings for Anya would do nothing but cause confusion and heartache later. I took a deep breath and shook my head a little before clearing my throat.

"You are doing fine," I said lamely, already feeling like a coward and a cad as I patted her shoulder and rushed below deck to our room.

KC

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