Page 68 of A Midnight Kiss on Ever After Street
‘And go into direct competition against Ebony and Scarlett?’
He grimaces as though he hadn’t thought of that. ‘Well, maybe it could be more of a co-op, like another branch of The Cinderella Shop, maybe you could work with each other instead of against each other. You are family, after all, and I can’t imagine Ever After Street without you, Sade. And I want it to be here for many years to come.’
Tears fill my eyes as I realise what he means. He really must be intending to stay. ‘Oh, good lord… Wait, that was meant to be a figure of speech, but you’re not actually a lord, are you?’
He laughs so hard that we’re probably lucky we don’t both have a Humpty Dumpty moment and fall off the wall. ‘No. I’m not anything. I’m entitled to use “The Honourable” in front of my name, but I don’t, because it’s so pretentious and I don’t want any part in that kind of lifestyle. I’m just Witt. I don’t want to pretend to be something I’m not.’
I kiss him.
It’s just a brief press of lips, but the need to kiss him is too overwhelming to ignore, and he makes a noise of surprise before kissing me back, his fingers pressing into my body, making me feel more cherished than I’ve ever been. It’s not a long enough kiss and we both let out a shaky breath when we pull back.
‘Are you really going to stay?’ I let my fingers brush through the grey streak at his temple and grin down at him.
‘Move in with me. Oh hell.’ He pushes his glasses up and pinches the bridge of his nose. ‘That wasn’t meant to be as forward as it sounded. I’m not trying to push our relationship too fast. You can have your own room, your own living quarters, hell, you can have your own wing of the castle if you want. I just meant… You’ve barely got space to breathe in your flat, and the castle deserves to be surrounded by people who love it for a change, and no one loves it more than you. And I can’t imagine doing this without you by my side, and I just—’
I kiss him again. I always want to give Witt time to speak without interrupting, but sometimes there’s no option but to cut him off with a kiss, because I love the way he’s surprised for a moment before he kisses me back, and how so much can be conveyed through that noise he makes, the kind of muted growl that suggests he wants to rip my clothes off, but he’s too much of a gentleman to spoil such a nice dress, and we’re grinning against each other’s mouths, and it takes alotof willpower to pull away.
‘Can I just say, Ireallylike it when you do that?’ He speaks without opening his eyes and his voice sounds breathy and dazed.
I laugh and kiss him again for good measure, and he makes a noise of disappointment when I pull back, and it takes a good few seconds for him to blink himself back to reality.
‘What do you think? Can you put up with a stuttering fool whose sleeves will never be long enough and who’s guaranteed to talk to inanimate objects at every turn, and will always buy birthday cake even when it’s no one’s birthday?’
‘All things that make you the best human I’ve ever met.’
He’s laughing as I press my lips to his again. ‘I don’t have money. I don’t have a title. I don’t have any idea what I’m doing, but I want to make this castle the best it can be. I’m going to sell my grandma’s cottage in Scotland and the money from that will pay for essential repairs and whatever structural work it needs to make it safe to open to the public. There’s a branch of the estate agency I work for nearby, I’ll put in for a transfer and request to reduce my hours, so I’ve got more time to focus on the castle.’
‘You’ve thought this through.’
‘I’ve been doing nothing but thinking it through since I met you. Something so horrible happened in this castle that I’d blanked out the good memories that came before it, and you somehow unlocked those. You reminded me of the times before. That night at the ball… it was the first time I’d felt something good towards this castle in decades, and I wanted to hear more.Youmade me feel good. I’d been het-up and angry since I got here and you made me feel at peace. I’d forgotten how much I loved this place once, and now, I don’t want to be anywhere else. All those things you said the other day, all the suggestions, I want us to figure it out together, to give this castle the life it deserves… together.’
‘It sounds perfect. That last word in particular. I like the sound of that.’
‘Yeah?’
‘Yeah.’ I cup his face and rest my forehead against his, nodding so he can feel it, until he surges up to kiss me. One hand twists in my curls while the fingertips of his other hand skim the bare skin of my upper back, and mine clutch his suit jacket as we melt against each other. Goosebumps wash over me from the ends of my hair to the tips of my toes. The first time I kissed him, there was a buzz, but this time, it’s like static electricity has been humming around me for weeks, and kissing him is like finally touching something metal and discharging it. It’s the most perfect kiss, just like it was in this garden before. It’s the kind of kiss that you can’t imagine happening outside of film sets, and it leaves me feeling like all is right in the world and like a part of me that I never knew was missing has slotted back in.
The same aftershave he was wearing last time at the ball, dry wood and black chocolate, fills my senses, making me dizzy and lightheaded. He twitches his nose against mine when they rub together, making me giggle into the kiss and hold him tighter for being so adorable, and the kiss ends with us both dissolving into laughter at howgoodit feels to finally kiss each other with no pretences between us.
He lets out a happy sigh as we pull back and leans his head to the side to rest on my arm.
‘Before my brain is scrambled completely, can I ask you something very important?’ He holds his hand up, his palm open and inviting. ‘Would you do me the honour of dancing with me?’
‘It seems like you’ve asked me that before sometime…’
‘Once upon a dream.’ God, his smile. It’s so wide that it makes me feel fizzy inside and butterflies flitter all over me.
His hands hold onto my hips to steady me as I lever myself and the dress up off his lap, and he stands up too. As I walk over to the patio where we danced before, he jumps over the low wall and goes to the window above the ballroom as he did last time.
There’s a lull between songs at the moment, and he knocks on the glass before he opens it. ‘Could you do me a favour and make it “Waltz of the Flowers” next?’
The first piece of music we danced to all those weeks ago. He slips back over the wall as the first notes start filtering up. One hand folds over mine, and his other hand goes to my hip. Mine slides up to his shoulder and time loses all meaning as we waltz together.
When the singer downstairs joins the orchestra, the song fittingly changes to ‘So This is Love’ fromCinderella, and more songs follow. His eyes never leave mine, and if I hadn’t already fallen in love with him, I would have in this moment.
He makes me feel like a princess. The way he lifts me, twirls me, and spins us around. The way he bows at the end of every song. The way he looks at me, like he’s still expecting to wake up at any moment, until the dancing has faded into just swaying together, holding onto each other, our bodies pressed against each other, sneaking in a kiss here and there, dancing like we did before, except tonight there’s no midnight, and the fairy tale won’t end when the clock strikes. It feels like it won’t ever end this time.
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