Page 10 of All I Want for Christmas

Chapter Four

Perin was rarelyshocked.

In truth, he was never caught unprepared.

He eased his lips off Aurora’s supple mouth, no longer knowing which way was up and which was down.

One touch of his lips to hers, and the girl was battering the walls he had erected around his heart, smashing all his protective layers to bits. He had never experienced anything so exquisite as the feel of Aurora in his arms or the sweet taste of her on his tongue. “We had better return inside.”

Lord help him, even his voice was raspy.

Snow continued to fall in big, soft flakes that clung to her long, sooty lashes and glistened in her auburn hair. If they did not return to the ballroom now, he would never find the strength to let her go.

His heart would never let him.

“Perin, what is going on with us? Do you not feel it is something special?”

“No, Aurora.” He could not take his gaze off her big, brandy eyes. “You know nothing about me.”

She nibbled her luscious lower lip. “That is true. But my family does. Why should this not count?”

“Being accepted as a friend to your family is a far cry from being accepted as a husband for you. Put it out of your head. It is not going to happen.”

She stared at him for a long moment. “Oh, how stupid of me. You merely wanted to kiss me. And now that you have, you want nothing more to do with me. How are you any better than Fasswell or his oafish friends? I let down my guard around you because I trusted you and believed you. I am the fool for it.”

“Never say that, Aurora. Do you think I am not affected? I should not have come to the Snow Ball tonight. But I could not stay away. I knew you would be here, and I wanted to see you.”

“To what purpose? To steal your kiss and then go on your merry way? I congratulate you, for it was most convincing. You made me feel as though your soul would wither and die if you did not have me. But I suppose this is how you kiss all your conquests. That is all I am to you, is it not? Another victory? Was this your goal? To kiss an earl’s daughter and know she would let you?”

“I only wanted the dance. That is all I wished for, a sort of Christmas present to myself. To dance with Aurora, that is all I wanted for myself. I never expected…this. I should not have brought you out here. I am sorry I kissed you.”

He realized she was going to cry.

He had been a selfish oaf and made her feel awful.

“Aurora, do not spill tears over me. I am not worth it.” He took her shivering hand. “But know this…I kissed you because I have not survived a day without thinking of you and could not have survived another day without touching you. You are my dream.”

“Hah! That is a jolly jest.”

“I wish it were. I would not be in this agony now.” He caressed her cheek. “You have been in my heart since the moment your mother mentioned your name to me all those years ago.Aurora.That is all it took for you to embed yourself in my soul.”

She looked up at him in surprise.

“Aurora,” he repeated in a ragged whisper. “I kissed you tonight because everything I am, everything I’ve accomplished, I owe to you.”

“How is it possible?”

He wrapped her in his arms again and brought her up against the heat of his chest, his jacket around them to provide warmth for this achingly beautiful girl. “You became my inspiration. I was but an urchin scraping shillings together whenever I could. I wanted to be a better man for you. Do not scoff.You were my dream.”

“Oh, Perin.”

“In my darkest moments, the thought of you was the only thing that kept me going. When your mother invited me to tea yesterday, I had to go. I had to see you, touch you. Part of the reason was to get you out of my soul. I was hoping you would be a big brute of a girl with ugly hairs sticking out of your ears and nostrils and fists as big as ham hocks.”

She laughed and shook her head.

“Pathetic, isn’t it? To feel all this over someone I had never even met? To build an empire on a single name.Aurora. You filled my dreams. You filled my heart. You filled my soul. How else could I kiss you but in this scorching way?”

“Perin, is this true?” She searched his face, trying to read his expression. He’d learned never to reveal his thoughts, could hide them quite well.

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