Page 42 of One Perfect Dance
Charles nodded and tiptoed to the decanter to pour two glasses of brandy, then tiptoed back across the room to place them on a side table next to Ash’s elbow, setting them down so carefully they did not clink.
Ash briefly wondered whether the young man wanted to save Regina the embarrassment of knowing her emotional collapse had been witnessed, or whether he feared she might expect him to do something about it if she knew he was there. Whichever it was, he faded back across the room and out of the door, pulling it shut behind him.
The footman was not important. Not when the lady he loved was in his arms, her soft curves molded to his body, the aroma of roses, honeysuckle, and something indefinably Regina filling his nostrils. He yearned to hold her closer still, to show her how much he desired her, though the way her lovely rear pressed into his groin, she would notice soon enough.
She was still crying, but the angry storm was gone, fading into heart-wrenching sobs that twisted Ash’s gut even more than the initial outburst. “There now, Ginny,” Ash soothed. “Let it out, dearest. You’re safe now, my love.”
She turned her face up at that, drawing back so that her tear-drenched eyes could meet his. “Am I, Elijah?”
“Yes, of course. He has gone, and I won’t let him near you again.”
She thumped his chest softly, an action so reminiscent of the child Ginny that he had to repress a smile. “Not that,” she scolded. “The other.”
He retraced his words in his mind. “My love?” At her tiny nod, he repeated, “My love.”
She raised her eyebrows in question, the imperious gesture only slightly marred by the shuddering breath of a leftover sob.
“I love you, Ginny. Did you not know?”
She thumped him again, another gentle reprimand. “You never said,” she grumbled. “You never even tried to kiss me.” The last two words were disrupted by a hiccup, but he understood them well enough.
“I am abjectly sorry, Ginny,” Ash told her, managing to keep his voice suitably solemn while his heart was attempting to break out of his chest and into hers.She has been waiting for my kisses! Missing them, even. “I have never courted anyone before. I am clearly not very good at it.”
She hiccupped again as she put up a hand to cradle Ash’s cheek. “I am sorry to be so cross, Elijah. I hate hiccups. I hate crying, and it always give me the hiccups.” She proved it with another shuddering hiccup.
“Have a sip of brandy, beloved,” he suggested, and he picked up one of the glasses and held it to her lips. “It might help. And if it doesn’t, perhaps a kiss will cure them.”
Ash was very aware that she had not returned his declaration of love. However, she wanted his kisses. He would start there and hope for the best.
Ginny took the glass from his hand and had another sip, followed by another hiccup.
“It will have to be the kiss, then,” he suggested. He lowered his head to hers, slowly, giving her plenty of time to turn him away. Instead, she lifted her face to bridge the gap, her mouth reaching inexpertly for his.
He pressed kisses to each corner of her mouth, then settled his mouth over hers, stroking her lips with his. She clutched him, some of the brandy spilling from the glass so she drew back, apologizing with another hiccup.
Ash put the glass out of harm’s way and drew Ginny to him again. This time, he ran his tongue across the seam of his lips, seeking entrance. She hummed but didn’t open. If he hadn’t known she’d been a wife for more than three years before her husband’s accident, he would have thought she’d never participated in a kiss.
“Open for me, sweetheart,” he suggested, his lips still touching hers as he spoke.
“Open what?” she asked, and he took the moment to slip his tongue inside, into the soft warm cave of her mouth, gently teasing the sensitive skin inside her lips and at the roof of her mouth. She tasted as wonderful as she felt: a deeper richer version of the Ginny element of her perfume.
She tensed at first, but as she relaxed into him, she opened wider, the hum becoming a moan of pleasure that sent a bolt of lust to his most irresponsible organ. She pressed her body to him, her breasts plastered against his chest, her hips rubbing against his groin as she moved in concert with his tongue as it slid in and out between her lips in a rhythm old as humankind.
When her tongue followed his as it moved away, darting out to touch his lips, he could feel the shy caress strike like lightning down through his body to his groin. Then she followed that up a moment or two later with a more daring foray, until their tongues danced, surging forward, and retreating, in a partnership that nearly consumed the world.
Nearly. Some part of him remained sensible enough to remind him not to rush her. She was, as unlikely as it seemed, an innocent. He kept his hands gentle, his touch forming soothing circles on her back. Over her clothes.Soon, he promised his baser self. Soon, he would have her naked on her back, and worship her as she deserved.I hope.
He drew back enough to place a reverent kiss on the corner of her mouth then follow with a row of kisses down her neck. She cast her head back and arched her neck for his ministrations. Perhaps a little farther? He was about to tug the bodice of her gown out of the way so he could kiss the tops of her breasts, and perhaps even lower, when he heard the head footman loudly and somewhat frantically say, “Wait a moment, Lord Kingsley! Let me announce you!”
“Thank you but I’m fine, my man.” The door opened with a rattle, and there was a masculine gasp. Ash looked up to see Ginny’s brother in the doorway, his mouth open, consternation in every line of his body.
He pulled himself together before Ash could speak. “I need to speak to you, Regina,” Lord Kingsley said. “I’ll just wait in the hall, shall I?”
*
Elijah was lookingworried, but he had not removed his arms from around Regina. She reached up and kissed the corner of his mouth. “I need to go and wash my face. I must look a mess.”
Either the kiss or her statement made him smile. “You look beautiful, as always,” he assured her. “Perhaps a little rumpled and tear stained. Should I expect your brother to challenge me to a duel or demand a quick wedding?” A grin then, a touch wistful. “A quick wedding would be nice, but I would rather court you properly and then propose in due form.”
