Page 16 of The Butterfly
“I like it,” she told him.
His tone grew teasing, his smile widening. “Do ye, now? I thought you didnae want me to be different?”
They laughed together, and the furrows marring his brow eased away. That the tension between them had abated a little gave her the courage to ask what had been on her mind for days.
“Are you angry with me?”
The tips of his ears reddened, and he looked away again, hugging his knees as if for dear life. “I’m not mad at ye, Livvie. I just …”
She leaned toward him when he trailed off, her lips parting in anticipation. Relief flooded her at the sound of her name from his lips for the first time in what felt like ages.
“What?”
He sighed and shook his head. “Nothing.”
Olivia gave a frustrated snort, not certain what to do as he retreated from her once again. Whatever bothered him, he did not seem to want to talk about it. So, she broached the one subject that had begun consuming her thoughts from the moment he had appeared on the bank.
“Niall, I want … I mean, I was wondering … would you kiss me?”
The words came tumbling out before she could stop them, falling with all the weight of a massive boulder. His head jerked toward her, eyes wide as their gazes met. Shock flickered across his face momentarily, to be followed by horror.
“Olivia!”
“The other girls at school talk about it all the time,” she said in a rush. “So many of them know what it is like, but I … no one has ever kissed me.”
Shaking his head, he watched her as if she had gone insane. “Livvie …”
“Just a little one,” she added. If she kept talking, he could not reject her. “No one has to know, and I would never tell. It is just … I am four-and-ten now, and I am one of the only girls my age in school who has never been kissed.”
She bit her lip, now out of words, her chest aching as if someone held her heart in a vise. She could hardly breathe for anticipating his answer, waiting for him to say something, to give her what she wanted, or dash her hopes.
He took a deep breath and released it on a long exhale, closing his eyes as if pained. God, she had never felt worse. Was she really so terrible that even the thought of kissing her disgusted him?
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, reaching for her gown. “I should not have asked.”
Before she could rise to get dressed, his arm shot out through the space between them, his hand clasping her wrist. She looked up to find his dark eyes boring into her, glittering and fathomless. She trembled.
“Stop,” he rasped, his voice low and rough. “Don’t go.”
She set her gown aside and stared back at him, the thrill of not knowing what might happen next causing her to shiver as if cold. However, she was not cold. She felt as if she were burning up from the inside, the heat in her belly nearly unbearable.
“Ye shouldn’t go askin’ men t’ kiss ye,” he admonished. “’Tis a good way to get yerself hurt, and then, me and Adam’ll have to murder someone.”
She shook her head. “I’ve never asked anyone. Only you.”
“And if I don’t kiss ye, ye’ll go ask someone else, is that it?”
The vehemence in his voice made her belly clench. She could not decide if he was angry at her for asking him, or furious over the prospect of her asking another young man.
“I-I don’t know.”
His hand tightened around her wrist, not so much that it hurt, but just enough that she knew he meant business when he spoke again.
“Promise me if I do it, ye willnae go pesterin’ anyone else about it. If I do it, ye willnae try this again. Say it, Livvie.”
“I … I won’t ask anyone else,” she murmured, her heart pounding with equal parts fear and excitement.
Niall was going to kiss her! She hadn’t even known she had wanted it until just a moment ago, and now, it seemed like the most important thing anyone could ever give her.
