For with that memory, would come others.
“I never meant to steal your first kiss. My apologies.”
“Oh, lord, please don’t apologize for kissing me on my birthday. That will only make me feel wretched.”
Oliver forced the tension from his body, settling back into the seat. “And we can’t have you feel wretched on the last second of your birthday.” He pulled out his pocket watch, only to catch the hand tick past midnight. “It’s officially over.”
She chuckled. “You know, fleeting as the moment was, this might be the best birthday I have spent in ten years.”
Oliver glanced at her. “Surely not.”
A bittersweet smile formed on her lips. “No, it’s true. Not many people know this, but ten years ago today, or I should say yesterday, I was taken and held captive, spending my birthday in darkness. Ever since then, I have spent it alone. Even my family knows to leave me be on this day. This is the first year I not only went on a bit of an adventure, but I retrieved an important book, and I also claimed my first kiss.”
All the tension rushed back to his body. He was aware it had been ten years, but he hadn’t realized it had fallen on this very night. Herbirthday.
He cursed his father all over again.
Ah, Louisa, Louisa.
You did well today.
“Well,” he answered softly, hoping to provide some form of comfort even though it might fall short. “In that case, may all your birthdays from now on be as eventful and filled with all you wish and desire.”
“Most people would gasp in horror at my story of being kidnapped.”
He nodded slowly, attempting to mirror the curve of her lips but failing. “That is horrifying, Louisa.”
“You didn’t gasp, though,” she teased.
“I inwardly gasped.”
“Lord, you are such an arrogant rogue, you know that?”
Perhaps arrogant, but rogue? A newly minted one, perhaps. Otherwise, would he ever have kissed her? And yet, he couldn’t help but be glad that he had. The twist of contradiction lashed at him. “I am extremely grateful you are here alive and well.”
The quirk of her lips never faltered. “You are right. That is the best gift, is it not? That I can be here, alive and well on my birthday. It could have been worse, correct?”
“I’ve found that it’s better not to dwell on those it could-have-been sorts of questions,” Oliver said steadily. He had no desire to revisit the past, nor could he imagine she did either. Yet, she seemed far stronger than he, confronting the recollections, the remembrance, with a calmness, even some humor, that he could not fathom.
A small chuckle. “Right again.”
Silence settled between them.
The clatter of the carriage wheels on the uneven road, accompanied by the occasional jolt as they hit a particularly deep rut, slowly soothed the discomfort that had settled deep in his limbs. But it couldn’t erase it all.
Yes, I’m glad you are here alive and well.
Chapter Thirteen
Akiss byany other name would still be a kiss.
Whether it be a peck, a brush of lips, or a scorching kiss as Oliver, the Duke of Mortimer had delivered. The beat of her heart had yet to settle, and the echo of his lips remained. Her fingers itched to press against them and calm the prickles that still lingered. Even the tremor of the touch of his hands on her had yet to fade. And she couldn’t seem to shake the scent of sandalwood that clung in her nose.
The kiss had left a mark.
An indelible one.
Lord, oh, Lord! I want another.
