Page 44 of If the Slipper Fits
This feeling—this bottomless yearning—wasfamiliar. Reminiscent of that summer. He’d been fourteen, edging into fifteen. Gloriana was slightly younger, even though she acted as if she were the older of the two.
For three long months, he avoided playing Prince-Charming-rescues-his-princess, mainly because he feared the effects of that perfunctory kiss when simply being in her vicinity tied him in knots—not that it stopped him from seeking her out.
She wasn’t like the other girls he knew. She was feisty and funny and didn’t melt at his smiles the way every other female, young and old, seemed to do.
That last day she seemed almost forlorn. If he was honest, he felt rather morose himself, knowing she would leave in a matter of days. To cheer her, or so he claimed, he offered to play her favorite game, rescuing her and carrying her to the riverbank, then kissing her.
That kiss had turned his insides to a tangled mass of wanting and agony, pleasure and torture, and he’d bolted like a scared rabbit.
Within days she was gone. His youthful heart had ached for months after she left. He missed how she made him feel—alive and challenged and completely off-kilter, like standing atop a precarious cliff, staring down at crashing waves. The way she made him feel seen, as ludicrous as that sounded to his own thoughts even now.
Then there had been that kiss.
How had he entertained the notion of a dalliance, withher? Then again, one second in her company, and how could he not?
“Caden?” A combination of vulnerability and concern shown in her eyes.
She likely wanted an explanation for why he’d jettisoned away from her as if she’d suddenly caught fire. Too bad he couldn’t offer her a reason that made any damned sense.
Sorry, love. Kissing you feels too damned good, makes me want too damned much, makes me ache in places I’d just as soon forget existed, and oh, by the way, you seem to have had this power over me since forever.
No. He could not explain his reaction to himself, much less her.
He waited to speak until he had his practiced mask of banal civility in place. “Anna,” he finally said in response. Not bad. He sounded normal, even to his own ears.
Her brows knitted. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it with a snap. Squaring her shoulders, she lifted her chin and smoothed her skirts. “I’ve never…that is, that was…”
“Quite a kiss, and more than proved mypoint, wouldn’t you say?”
She stilled. “Your point?”
He grinned like a cocksure ass and somehow resisted the compulsion to jam his hands through his hair. He needed to get them out of this room—for both their sakes.
He could make her want him, make her want to give herself to him. He knew he could like he knew his own name. Which should be fine. A lighthearted fling between like-minded adults, and old friends to boot.
Problem was, this—her and him—felt like more. Even now, he couldn’t make himself not want to reach for her and kiss her, touch her and whisper promises he’d never made to a woman in his life, promises he’d never wanted to make, promises he had no clue if he could keep if he did make them.
If they stayed in this room, they’d wind up making love, which should be fine. It was a house party.
And yet, a quick seduction in a back room in a stranger’s manse seemed beneath her.
As for him, he knew, to the core of his being, if he made love to her, she’d be his undoing.
It made no sense. He felt like a perfect idiot.
“Your point?” she repeated, sounding irritated now.
He paced toward the door, and freedom, then, helpless to resist, moved back in her direction. “You do like my kisses.”
Nothing like a dose of arrogance to force a wedge between them. It couldn’t be helped. Creating distance was his only possible recourse.
“I likeyourkisses?”
He chuckled at her offended tone and tugged at his too-tight cravat. “Oh, I like yours, too. Never doubt it.” Too damned much.
“Oh.” She sniffed and made an obvious effort to appear unfazed by his comment, but he saw the tell-tale tremor of her lips as she fought a pleased smile.
That damned smile threatened to overturn all his good intentions.
