“Then you will have a glowing character from me. I can write one tonight if you like.”
“No, not now. Best to wait until you are safely married,” she said quickly. “If you are not happily wed, no one will believe its authenticity.”
“I’ll have it delivered to you on my wedding day then,” he promised, hand on his heart.
“I accept,” she promised, and named a substantial sum to be paid on his wedding day, too. He haggled, and enjoyed her rebuttals for a higher fee immensely. He reasoned that being the first client should have some privileges, while she leaned heavily on his already professed desperation in order to increase the cost.
They finally settled on a sum more easily borne for a first-time client and shook hands, each with a sigh of satisfaction.
He wet his lips, certain he was finally on the right path, now he had Aurora on his side again.
But there was still that troubling request he wished to ask of her. It was perhaps well beyond the purview of her services, but he needed confirmation.
He took a deep breath. Asking Aurora to be his first kiss since his wife might come as a surprise to her. But who else would forgive any mistakes he might make when their lips met?
He reached for her fingers and drew her toward him a little more. “Might I kiss you? For practice only. I haven’t done it in a while and I’m nervous.”
“Oh?” she squeaked, a little breathlessly to his ears.
He winced. “Only you would forgive me if I do it poorly the first time since Clare. Unless that is too much of an imposition or beyond the scope of your new service.”
Her silence indicated she definitely thought about refusing, and he waited with his heart in his throat for her eventual reply. He toyed with her fingers, changing his grip until it felt right.
Aurora exhaled slowly and finally squeezed his fingers back. “I…I suppose it couldn’t hurt just the once, if you think it might help you.”
“Thank you.” Drew twined their fingers together tightly, binding them together as the carriage swayed while it rounded a corner. His heart beating fast with anticipation and a little panic for what might happen next between them.
But he bent his head slowly and dropped a gentle kiss on her cheek first. Aurora uttered a little gasp, an encouraging sound to his ears. He dropped another kiss close to the first, and then more. He hoped he wasn’t going too fast. But he’d wasted so much time already that he couldn’t seem to stop.
Drew lifted his free hand and cradled her face in his palm, drawing her even closer.
Aurora shivered and leaned into his touch.
He took that as permission and continued dropping kisses toward her jaw. He let go of her hand and slid his arm around her body, drawing her into a loose embrace. Aurora was softer than he expected. Delicate and warm. He wanted more of that warmth pressed against his body.
As soon as he thought of it, with a quick lift, she was settled on his lap, her arms twining tightly about his neck. He found that slender column of her throat with his lips and worked his way up to her jaw again.
Aurora moaned and squirmed, seemly lost to passion in his arms. As his mouth wandered lower to rain kisses along her collarbone, Aurora leaned back in his arms to give him space.
He gripped her torso, holding her in place between his hands as they rounded yet another corner that might have unseated her from his lap.
But with the first brush of his thumbs against the underside of her breasts, she was jolted from the spell and struggled out of his reach to sit opposite him, gasping.
She was undoubtedly glaring at him now, and he was in the wrong again.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, his voice rough and vibrating with the need to have her back in his arms. That fierce impulse shocked him.
“You should not have done that,” she warned, her voice shaky and raw.
He’d gone too far without realizing he was doing it with her. His matchmaker, rather than his match. He steadied his racing heart. “I did warn you, I was only pretending to be good,” he said, and then raked a hand through his hair.
“So you did,” she whispered. “You were supposed to kiss me.”
“I did kiss you,” he murmured. “About two dozen of them, actually, not that I could have kept count.” He’d been too swept up, knocked off his foundations by a passion he’d planned but not expected.
“On the lips,” she complained. “That is where I expected yours to go and stay.”
“I got carried away.” They both had, though he said nothing of that realization immediately. It had been a very long time since a woman had been so near, or so desirable to him. This particular one he might like to kiss again, too. “I apologize again. I have no excuse for my lapse of control other than I thoroughly enjoyed kissing you.”