Page 30 of The Scoundrel's Christmas Challenge
“I only brought two pistols,” said Lucius when she stood next to him.
“So, how is this contest different?” A kiss between each shot? She would agree to it, she thought with a grin.
“Only one shot and there will be diversions. We are allowed to do anything to distract one another except use our hands.” His green eyes smoldered when he said anything. But without touching? Interesting.
Christiana picked up her pistol and took her mark. A new wafer was tacked to the same tree. As she gripped the handle and held out her arm, his warm breath caressed her cheek. Her stomach tumbled.
“So this is how it’s going to be?” she asked.
“Indeed,” he whispered in her ear.
Once again, she took aim, and just as she squeezed the trigger, Lucius nibbled at her earlobe. The gun went off. She barely made the wafer yet found she wasn’t at all disappointed. For now, it was her turn.
Lucius took her place. Christiana fetched both pistol cases, stacked them on the ground, and used them as a step. Now she could reach above his shoulders. When he raised his arm, she tucked her nose under his thick brown curls and brushed her lips across his nape.
“I knew this was a good idea,” his voice low, husky.
He raised his arm again, and she trailed kisses across his jaw. When he pulled the trigger, she whispered in his ear, “I want you.” He froze, pistol still aimed at the wafer on the tree, jaw tense, his mouth a grim line. But the shot was dead center.
She had just given herself to him, and he seemed ready to explode. “Are you angry?”
***
Lucius couldn’t move. I want you. Not love, but want. He needed to make her understand there was no compromising on the issue of wedlock.
“I think you should know,” he said, studying her expression as he continued, “I decided this was the last year I would send you a token. It is time I marry, begin my own family, and produce a future heir.”
She blinked, her long blonde lashes covering the disappointment in her sky-blue eyes. The corners of her mouth tipped down slightly. Good, let her see my urgency.
“Then my brother arrived with his friend, holding an invitation, the key to my heart. I thought fate was sending me one last chance. I took it and ran, in the hope that the future—our future—might still be attainable.” He barked a hoarse laugh. “The golden ring, always just beyond my grasp.” He reached out, took an amber lock between his fingers, wishing he wasn’t wearing his gloves.
“You’ve always been a romantic,” she said, but a smile curved her lips now. “I loved that about you.”
His head jerked up at the word he’d been waiting to hear. Loved. As in the past? “And now? Do you still love that about me?”
She nodded, and her gloved fingers came up to touch his mouth, traced the creases framing each side. “And more.” Her lips followed her fingers, caressing, softly pulling, then coaxed them to open for her.
Heat roared through his body, pulsing low and erratically as he crushed her body to his, her curves fitting perfectly with his lean, hard length. She was heaven, what his mind and body yearned for to be complete. His hands slipped beneath her mantle, lingered on her hips, and she moved against him, stoking the fire inside him into an inferno. Heaven and hell, want and need, all battling desire and uncertainty, all fighting to win this tug of war.
Lucius lost his reserve and peppered kisses at her temple, along her cheek, down her jaw. Her head fell back, exposing the creamy skin of her long, slender neck. He was a man starved, a man held at bay too long, untying her cloak to expose her neck and holding the cape around her with one arm. He nipped and licked his way to her collarbone, kissed the line of her cleavage, then returned to her mouth. Her sweet, soft, tempting mouth. She shuddered beneath his hands.
“Say you love me. Not want, but love,” he rasped in her ear. “I need to hear you say it, even if you turn me away in the end. Tell me I didn’t waste all those years wondering, longing to see you, hold you, taste you.”
Christiana shook her head. “I love you, Lucius Page, but I don’t know if I’m ready to face life again on your terms.” Her breath warmed his own neck as she spoke against it. “Convince me.”
This time when their mouths clashed, it was Christiana who demanded, and Lucius gave in. He would do anything in his power to prove they were meant to be together, turn back time if he could.
Turn back time.
He smiled against her lips, the wheels already cranking to life as an idea began to form.
CHAPTER 13
29 December
Christiana called everyone to attention. “Today we shall play croquet.”
Lady Elwood pursed her lips. “But you said both of us could play, and it’s cold outside.” The viscountess brushed crumbs off her azure bodice, then finished her tea. “I’ll stay here and finish the biscuits.”
