Page 9 of Just Think of the Scandal (The Fairplace Family Novellas #2)

T heo resisted the urge to touch the lone curl falling from Eliska’s chignon. How he longed to wrap it around his finger. Like rose gold, it was something so valuable he’d be content with only a little. Just a strand or two.

She laughed with the group and his heart thumped.

He was bound to get married one day anyway. It happened to most people. Why not marry Eliska Czerninová? She was beautiful, intelligent, brave. He bet she’d be a good kisser, too. The length of her lavender skirts suggested she had long legs, and he wished he could see them.

But I will, he realized. I’ll see them tomorrow night. He grinned. Being married to her would be no hardship, he decided. Not at all.

One of the mothers stood. “It’s late. We should all find our beds. Our own beds.” She gave Theo a look.

Theo refused to be cowed. He merely smiled back as he touched Eliska’s elbow, a gesture of intimacy he could make now.

She glanced back at him in question. His smile grew. Why was she looking at him? Oh, right. Because he was touching her elbow. Quickly he tried to think up something not idiotic to say.

“So you take issue with the fact I’m unfamiliar with German philosophers?”

She flushed as the others milled about, delaying the retreat to bed as long as the matrons would allow.

He watched the pink color spread across her pale face, changing even the tips of her ears a shade or two. Tomorrow night he would lick them, he decided. He’d whisper all sorts of things in her ears to turn them bright red, and then he’d lick them.

“I, uh, I had to put something,” she said, drawing his attention back to the conversation. “Although you didn’t.” Her eyes grew large as she gazed up at him with gratitude. “Thank you. That was very kind of you, to play the man in love. It has salvaged my pride.” It made her an object of fascination among the other girls rather than an object of scorn or pity, he thought. She was ruined, but ruined because of passionate love, and therefore she still had some value, Theo decoded.

“This is not a Drury Lane drama up for public consumption,” he told her firmly. “This is our life. Of course I’ll always support you. It’s us together. That’s how I want my marriage to work.” Partners, companions. Perhaps they wouldn’t be the love of each other’s lives, but they’d build something solid and safe as an oak tree.

“Oh.” The sound escaped as a sigh. Eliska swayed closer, ignoring how her skirts warped from the pressure of his shins. “That…That’s lovely. We can make this marriage into a safe harbor for both of us. I love that.”

Theo looked up, realizing they were alone. Somehow everyone else had filed out. It was just them and the flickering gaslight. Even no servants could be found. He carefully, slowly, set his hands on her shoulders. She was the perfect height, really. How had he not noticed this earlier? Her lips looked so soft, so inviting. He had to kiss her. It was imperative.

“Miss Czerninová,” he rasped. “Eliska. I need to kiss you.”

∞∞∞

Eliska blinked. I need to kiss you. No one had ever said that to her before. Her toes curled in her slippers in anticipation. It was polite, after all, she reasoned. He needed it. Who was she to deny him? And he’d be kissing her a lot tomorrow. She should let him now, so she could get used to the sensation. Ease herself into married life, in a way. She gave a jerky nod, holding her breath. “Yes.” She’d never been so nervous about a first kiss.

His mouth curved into a smile, and then his face descended toward hers.

His lips touched hers gently, oh so gently, at first. A thrill went down Eliska’s spine. She let him mold his lips to hers, still so gently it felt like a butterfly’s touch. When Theo pulled away she felt the scrape of his five o’clock shadow on his jawline. The softness followed by roughness made her shiver.

“Eliska?” he whispered, eyes searching hers.

Oh, he needed to do that again. This was like smelling her favorite dessert and being told to wait until tomorrow for a taste. She did not like being teased.

She placed her hands on his chest for balance and stood on her tiptoes, lips parted and begging for more.

“I need more,” he uttered with a groan. His hands moved from her shoulders to her back. Theo gathered her in his arms, heedless of her skirts and crinolines, and kissed her again. This time he pressed harder, a true kiss.

His warm breath made her clutch him tighter, and she moved her lips under his. He took the lead, nibbling and licking the corners of her mouth. She gasped when his tongue flicked between her lips, and he took that as the invitation she intended.

Growing bolder, Eliska slid her hands inside his jacket and gripped the edges of his waistcoat. The bristles on his jaw scraped against her cheeks as she opened to him, reveling in the wet heat of his mouth.

He sucked her tongue into his mouth, drawing up a moan of delight out of her. She could feel his heart beating beneath her hands. The scent of him filled her nostrils, the hint of sweat from his travels and the whiff of cologne he’d put on hours ago.

Eliska had never been kissed so passionately before. She clung to him, awash in sensation as her body responded to the virile man touching her.

He pulled away from her mouth only to kiss the pulse in her neck. His hands roamed her back, smoothing out tense muscles and sending flutters down her spine and her stomach. Her core began to ache in time with his touches. She yearned to draw closer, to put her skin against his skin.

Theo licked up her neck, then kissed away the moisture left behind, until he made it to her ears. She rubbed her cheek against his stubble. The new, masculine sensation was erotic; Eliska had the sudden urge to rub her face against him like a cat, to mark him with her scent and take his scent as her own.

“These ears,” Theo murmured, and bit gently on her lobe. “I’ve been staring at them all night.”

Eliska almost pulled back to ask him to explain, but his tongue was doing things in her ear that made her belly swoop and her thighs clench. She panted, running her hands up and down his chest.

Theo’s hands drifted around her waist and then against her stomach. The heat bled through the layers of clothing between them. “You’re gorgeous,” he whispered before licking the shell of her ear again. One hand gripped her waist, a steady anchor as passion threatened to pull her away. The other slid up her abdomen to cup her right breast.

She gasped, aching for more of his touch. She’d been kissed before by several Habsburg courtiers, but none had ever made her physically hurt with longing. She rubbed her thighs together, the drawers damp between her legs.

His hand massaged her through the layers of silk bodice, corset, and chemise. Her nipple beaded up at his touch, but it wasn’t enough. She groaned in protest, and his hand moved up to the neckline of her gown. Theo’s fingers slipped below the ruffled edge, but couldn’t get farther. The wide boatneck of the bodice kept his hand from reaching her bosom.

Eliska opened her mouth to beg him to loosen her gown when a sound outside the door broke their tryst.

“Should find where Fairplace ran off to. We need one more for a proper game of billiards.” A male voice broke the stillness of the house.

Eliska gasped and jerked from Theo’s arms. He let her retreat and hastily smoothed his hair, then straightened his dinner jacket. She put the back of her hand to her mouth, hoping her lips weren’t as swollen and red as they felt.

Two of Evelyn’s friends rounded the corner and halted at the threshold. “Fairplace,” one of them said after a pause.

Eliska raised her chin and hoped she didn’t blush. “Thank you for your thoughts on Kant. I hope we may continue this intercourse tomorrow.” She straightened her skirts and headed for the door. “Gentlemen.” She nodded at them.

They parted, and she sailed between them, heading for the stairs as if she was Empress Sisi herself.

“Intercourse,” one repeated, and the other sniggered.

Eliska had no idea what was so funny. Social intercourse was conversation. Bah , she grew tired of these English never giving her any room for error. Once in the darkness of the stairs, however, she grabbed the banister and pressed a hand to her heart. It still pounded, as if it knew Theo was still nearby and she’d see him again tomorrow.

She put her hands to her cheeks and grinned. She could delay an expedite request attempt for now. Maybe marriage to Theo wouldn’t be so bad.