Page 62 of All I Want for Christmas… Is You
Peering up at the ball of mistletoe, her heart beat frantically. Wrapped crudely with string, the berry laden boughs hung conspicuously from the ceiling above. As enormous as it was, how she could possibly have missed it coming into the room she didn’t know, but it was clearly the handiwork of her brother’s children. Although at that height only Andrew or Lucien could have hung it—perhaps both. She eyed the door, cursing her brother to Perdition. It would be the cruelest trick in the world if Lucien were simply toying with her heart.
Surely Andrew would not approve.
“And what are the terms of this wager, Your Grace?”
“Only one,” Lucien revealed when she peered up at him dubiously. “Simply put, if you are unmoved by my kiss, you will tell me to cease and desist.”
For the longest instant, he simply gazed at her, drinking in the sight of her standing before him. She was so lovely it made his heart ache. And then he grinned, for if everything went the way he intended tonight, tomorrow morning she would be his forevermore… not every part of his scheme had been sanctioned by her brother.
“What if you should win?”
“Then you must cease to call me, Your Grace, and you will share this holiday with me until we are old and gray.”
“As long as that?” she asked, considering with a smile.
He reached up and plucked a berry. “One berry for one kiss,” he proposed. “That’s the rule.”
“Very well,” she said, and puckered her mouth, demanding, “Go ahead and kiss me now.”
Chuckling, Lucien did as she bade him before she could change her mind.
Slowly, savoring the moment, he placed an arm about her waist, drawing her near. And then he bent forward, touching his lips to hers and heard her shocked intake of breath at the intimate contact. But she didn’t protest and he groaned in triumph.
“Emma,” he whispered, and cheated a little, placing a hand at her nape to keep her precisely where he wished her to remain. She didn’t seem to notice, and he moved closer yet, testing a deeper kiss. Tentatively, he offered his tongue, wetting her lips gently, teasing, until she opened to his coaxing.
It was the most heartfelt kiss he had ever shared—one that wrenched at his heart. Surely she was as moved by it as he was.
Sucking in a victorious breath when she offered him her tongue, he leaned more fully upon her, deepening the kiss, until his heart hammered like an anvil.
Lucien kissed her as though his life depended upon it—because it damned well did.
God help him, he wanted her.
He knew that now.
He wanted her desperately.
Forever and ever.
Emma couldn’t seem to recall exactly what it was she was supposed to do; only that it felt too sweet to be kissed this way… as though he truly cherished her. Not thinking, merely reacting, she locked her arms about his neck, afraid the kiss would end too soon.
He took a deep breath and withdrew, and Emma’s body followed him of its own accord.
His eyes glittered playfully. “I’m not quite sure who won,” he whispered, and Emma peered at him dreamily as he reached up to pick another berry. “Let’s try again.”
Emma nodded, her hands going about his nape, lifting herself on tippy toes, overeager to rejoin their lips. “Yes,” she consented.
Lucien chuckled deep in his throat, kissing her gently, and reached up to pluck another berry even before the kiss ended.
“Again?” she asked breathlessly. “What happens if we run out before we decide who wins?”
“We’ll go pick more berries,” he revealed, chuckling, and then embraced her one last time, kissing her from the bottom of his heart.
“Shhhh… they’re kissing,” a child’s voice whispered, and tittered softly.
Emma gave a little shriek of alarm and shrugged out of Lucien’s arms, dazed. The kids squealed and ran away.
Somewhere in the distance, perhaps at the end of the corridor, someone said as though in a dream, “Dinner is served!”
