Page 56 of The Girl Out of Time
He froze. Did she do it wrong? Trapped with this indecisive awkwardness, she stayed for a moment, embarrassment trickling into the initial pleasure at the contact.
And then he kissed her back.
He was tantalizingly gentle, kissing her upper lip first, and then the lower, and then teasingly pressing against her, a soft nudge to make her part her lips. She let him in; a light, honeyed taste that spun her head and set her fantasies aflame. A tiny moan came from somewhere—her, probably—as she leaned into him, absorbing his warmth through the nightgown. A string of sparks flew from her chest all the way down to her toes.
The previous kiss stood no chance of comparing. It couldn’t even be called a kiss—not whenthisexisted. She’d never read about anything like this in a book. She’d never felt this heavenly; like they were one, like he was giving her life and dreams and joy through the taking of her lips and the soft mingling of their tongues. And for once, it wasn’t all in her head. Her legs tingled; her belly fluttered; her entire body was abuzz with this entirely strange, and yet comfortingly familiar feeling.
This was it. This was … right.
His hand came up, thumb caressing her cheek.
“Daniel,” she whispered.
He stopped. His hand froze, and his breath tickled the corner of her mouth.
Without another word, he moved away and disappeared through the door.
Emmeline didn’t know how long she remained in the same pose, her fingers touching her lips as if that could preserve his touch. The warmth from his body slowly left hers. Her eyes adjusted, and gradually, the study was revealed in its dark blueish shades.
She shook her head, but it did very little to shake off her thoughts. Hadn’t he liked the kiss? It felt like he did. But then, what was wrong? And what was she even—oh, the pendant. She came to examine the pendant.
She moved to the shelves, straining her eyes. Books, the globe—there was the velvet box! She leaned in, doing a double take to make sure she saw right in the dark.
Starry Night was gone.
***
Theo sat on the storage box in the stables, the oil lamp next to him illuminating the midnight blue pendant in his hand. As he turned it in his fingers, tiny silver specks caught the light, shining like stars in the sky.
He checked Wescott’s letter again, even though he knew the words by heart.What you’re looking for is a necklace with a tear-shaped pendant. The material should be a dark blue mineral, shining silver. The pendant, or even the stone itself, might be separate from the necklace.
This was what Wescott wanted him to find.
Starry Night.
And he’d found it thanks to Emmeline’s wild story.
Well, he would’ve found it eventually. It wasn’t hidden at all, as if the duke didn’t think he’d committed a crime by obtaining the necklace. Had he? Theo didn’t know, and he didn’t know why Wescott wanted it, but here he was, doing the earl’s bidding because it was the right thing to do.
And maybe, if the duke was a storybook villain, it was the right thing to do beyond Theo owing a debt.
What absolutely was not the right thing to do, however, was that kiss.
Theo sighed, looking across at the stall where Lord Farenham’s champion stallion, Nero, calmly observed him.
“I’m an idiot, aren’t I?” he said to the horse.
Nero neighed.
“An absolute, utter nincompoop. Don’t say otherwise. I know it’s true.”
Nero shook his shiny black mane.
He didn’t need to wonder what he’d been thinking when, amidst his great robbery, Emmeline burst into the study and bumped into him beforehe could slip away. The answer was simple—hehadn’tbeen thinking. When she stood so close to him, it was like back at the castle, and when she suddenly kissed him …
He gave in.
And now he was damned. Damned for feeling her lips once, damned for remembering exactly how her body felt, pressed against his, damned because she was someone else’s fiancée—not just someone, a duke’s heir!—damned because it wasn’t as if he was free of obligations, either.
