No. Just . . . no.
“You don’t have to look so appalled. It’s not like I’m asking for a feckin’ ride. It’s a kiss.”
It may be just a kiss for him, but kisses weren’t coppers. I didn’t hand them out to people I knew, let alone perfect strangers. “Why?”
“That is none of your concern.”
None of my concern? He was talking about my bloody mouth. Still, what choice did I have? If he went to my sister for this sort of “favor,” she wouldn’t say no. “If I agree, you must swear to go away and leave my sister and I alone forever.”
He placed one hand over his heart and raised the other in the air. “I swear on my mother’s life that I will leave her alone.”
“Fine.” I screwed my eyes shut and pursed my lips, tapping my fingers against my thighs to the beat of my leaping heart.
Nothing happened.
My eyes snapped open to find his head tilted, a lock of mahogany hair falling across his furrowed brow. “Well? What are you waiting for?” I clipped.
“You look miserable.”
What did he expect? He had broken into my room, threatened my sister, and was blackmailing me for a bloody kiss. “Then tell me how I should look so that I may be rid of you. Should I smile?” I forced a brittle smile to my lips, grinding my teeth for good measure. “Should I swoon?” My hand flew to my forehead as I pretended to faint onto the chaise. “I have it now.” I shot to my feet and stalked forward, delighting in the way he retreated a step. “I should flutter my lashes and be grateful that someone so handsome would ask me for a kiss.”
The corner of his lips lifted. “So you do think I’m handsome.”
Just like a man, listening to only the words he wished to hear. “I think you’re irritating.”
He was full-on grinning, showing off those deep dimples. “Does that mean you’re going to kiss me or not?”
I stomped forward and pressed my lips against his. A shock exploded through my body. White light burst behind my eyes. When they flew open, they met a pair of stunned blue ones. I stumbled back, my hand flying to my mouth as my legs gave out and I collapsed onto the chaise.
“Shit.” He swore again, backing toward the bed. “I finally found you.”
Before I could catch my breath or ask what that meant, the stranger vanished.
4
When I inherited this house,the first things to go would be the hideous drapes. Burnished gold may have been in fashion in my grandfather’s time, but now they looked gaudy and garish. This was a respectable manor home, not some medieval castle.
The only redeeming part of this entire room was a large painting of the seaside done by one of my distant relatives. Turbulent waves crashed against the shore, spraying white foam into an angry gray sky. If the entire house were burning to the ground, and I could only grab one thing, it would be this painting.
My fingers found my lips as they’d done a thousand times today. I wasn’t the type of person who kissed strangers in her bedroom. That sort of recklessness got a woman into trouble. Now that I was to be married, I couldn’t afford to get swept away.
And yet I could think of nothing else.
Something nudged my foot. My sister glared at me, firelight dancing in her rich brown waves.
“You didn’t hear a word I said, did you?” Keelynn muttered, setting her embroidery on the empty cushion between us.
“Sorry. I don’t know where my mind is today.”
“Today? You’ve been away with the faeries all week.”
She would’ve been too if our roles were reversed. The kiss replayed over and over and over in my mind. If one could even call it a kiss. It had been a mere meeting of lips. What would have happened if he’d given me a proper kiss?
My toes curled inside my slippers.
Not that I’d ever know. The stranger had made good on his promise and hadn’t returned. And I’d been utterly useless since.
Knowing a sensation like that existed, and that I would never again experience it, felt like a tragedy.