Page 135 of A Curse of Hope and Shadows: Part I
“I must be growing up. I’ll catch up to you soon.”
Adeline nudged his side, his smile sliding into the pit of her stomach. She could still see the old, dull hurt inside his eyes, and she wished she had a way of blotting it out, stitching that wound as well as she had his others.
A kiss might work,said a voice inside her. It felt like such a simple, easy thing to do, to slip her lips to his and press out pain. His, hers, she wasn’t sure.
It hurts to watch you hurt.
“Dance with me,” she asked. If she couldn’t kiss him, this was the next best thing. Respectable. Warranted. Intimate but allowed.
Dimitri paused. He had not shown such reservation the night of the Autumn Festival, but this was a different night, a different dance. Everything was different now.
“All right,” he said, and his arm slipped around her waist.
Adeline melted into the dance, letting him guide her around the space, trying to concentrate on the music and not each perfect glint in his eye or the soft wave of his hair against his cheek. Her heart thumped wildly, like some separate, demented creature, threatening to tear out of her at any minute. His hands tightened around her, gathering her closer, until her head rested against his chest, inhaling the scent of his skin.
The music rose and fell behind them, compelling them to twirl and spin, falling in and out of each other’s arms like magnets, joining and repelling. It was dizzying, senseless. The air seemed alive, buzzing with silver and gold, heady as wine.
The music swelled, the pace picked up, and Dimitri lifted her clear off the floor and spun her until it stopped with a triumphant roar.
The ballroom clapped, but everything on the balcony was still and quiet, save the racing of her heart and the hitch of Dimitri’s breath.
Her name whispered through his lips, inches from her own.
Dimitri.
Their mouths slid together, flesh singing. Her arms circled round his neck, drawing him closer, strangling the air between them. His hands seemed everywhere at once, desperate and claiming, lips wide over hers, bruising, trembling.
Dimitri, Dimitri, Dimitri...
Tonight, she wasn’t a maid, she was a princess. She could kiss whoever she wanted. Love whoever she wanted. Each second took her closer to forgetting that there was anything between them at all. Thoughts blurred away with every touch of his lips. There was no reason not to do this. This was Dimitri, Dimitri. She was made to kiss him this way.
His hands fumbled at her waist, and they stumbled backwards towards the table—
Pain erupted along her calf, and she yelped, pulling away.
“Ow, ow,OW!”
Panic sprung across Dimitri’s face. “What’s wrong?”
“Cramp in my leg, cramp in my leg!”
Dimitri seized Adeline and deposited her in the nearby chair, hands fumbling under her skirts for the offending limb. Pain lanced through the muscle as she tried to stretch it back into place, Dimitri massaging her calf.
Slowly, the pain slid away, replaced by a dull ache.
“Over?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said. “Drat. I’ll be feeling that for days.” She flexed the limb back and forth, Dimitri still holding it, her scuffed boot looking very out of place next to the finery of the dress. She’d glanced at the shoes upstairs briefly, but they’d all been far too big.
“Do normal people feel cramps for days?”
“I do,” she groaned. “I… I don’t have a very high tolerance for pain.”
“I gathered, from the racket you were making.”
She tried to jerk her leg back in annoyance, wanting to wipe that silly grin off his face, but he held firm, fingers brushing against her thigh.
She should pull away. She knew she should.
