[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.It’s not special or private.I wanted to have you all to myself.”Ren captured my hand and kissed it.“It’s my first Valentine’s date with the girl I love.I wanted to see you sparkle in the candlelight.Speaking of which.” He pulled a sheet of paper from the lapel of his jacket and handed it to me.“What’s this?” I opened it and recognized his handwriting.“You wrote me a poem?”He grinned.“I did.”“Will you read it to me?”He nodded and took the page.He began speaking, and the timbre of his voice warmed me.He read.I lit a candle and watched the flame.It danced and twistedWild and unfettered.It captured me and flickered in my eyes.When I passed my hand over itIt stirred.The flame rose higher, burned hotter.When I pulled my hand away the heat diminished,grew fainter, and extinguished.I stretched out my hand again to savor the burn.Would it singe and scald? Blister and blaze?No! It tingled and warmed,Smoldered and glowed,Setting me ablaze, body and soul.It was glimmering, luminous, radiantThe fiery blush of her cheek.—RenHe ducked his head as if embarrassed at the beautiful words.I stood up and walked around to his side of the table.I twisted my way onto his lap and put my arms around his neck.“It’s beautiful.”“You’re beautiful.”“I’d kiss you, but I’d get lipstick all over you and then what would the waitress say?”“She can say whatever she wants.”“I’m fighting a losing battle, aren’t I?”“Yes.I plan on kissing you.a lot, before this night is over.”“I see.So I might as well get on with it then.Wouldn’t you say?”“I would definitely say you should.”We kissed, and I became so oblivious to everything except Ren that I didn’t hear the waitress come back in.My face burned bright red.Ren laughed quietly.“Don’t worry.I’ll leave her a big tip.”The waitress approached our table as I awkwardly removed myself from Ren’s lap.To my horror, the bottom half of his face was smeared with red lipstick.I could only imagine what my face looked like.Ren didn’t care at all.I sped off to fix my face and asked him to order dinner.By the time I returned, the food was waiting.Ren rose to hold out my chair as I sat and leaned over to press his cheek against mine.I played with my new earrings distractedly.Ren noticed.“You don’t like them?”“I think they’re lovely, but I feel really guilty about you spending this kind of money on me.I think you should take them back to the store tomorrow.Maybe they’ll let you just pay a rental fee.”“We’ll talk about it later.For now, I just want to enjoy seeing you wear them.”After dinner, we drove to the dance.Ren swept me out on the floor and twirled me around.Holding me close, he never took his eyes off me as he spun me to the music.He was so distractingly handsome that I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him either.He hummed along to a song called “My Confession.”Smiling, I admitted, “This song describes how I feel about you.It took a long time for me to confess how I feel about you, even to myself.”He listened more carefully to the words then smiled.“I’ve known how you felt about me since that kiss before we left Kishkindha.The one you got really mad about.”“Oh, the one you thought was enlightening?”“It was enlightening because that’s when I knew.I knew that you felt as strongly about me as I did about you.You can’t kiss a man like that and not be in love with him, Kells.”I reached up to play with the hair at the nape of his neck.“So that’s why you were so cocky and self-assured after that.”“Yes.But all that bluster went away after you left.”His expression became serious.He kissed my fingers, pressed my hand to his chest, and said intently, “Promise me you’ll never leave me like that again, Kelsey.”I looked up into his cobalt blue eyes and said, “I promise.I’ll never leave you again.”His lips brushed against mine lightly.Suddenly, he smiled mischievously, twirled me away, and then yanked me tightly against his chest.He slid his arm behind my back and lowered me slowly in a circular dip.Snapping me up quickly, we began moving to the tango music, and Ren maneuvered me smoothly along with the Latin rhythm of the song.I knew people were probably watching us, but at that point, I didn’t care.He was able to sweep through the moves expertly, even though I didn’t know what I was doing.The dance was fiery and passionate, and I was quickly overwhelmed by him and the cadence of the melody.He wrapped me up in a blanket of mental and physical sensations, orchestrating the perfect seduction.When the song was over, he had to hold me up because my legs had turned to gelatin.He laughed and nuzzled my neck, happy with my reaction.The song changed back to a normal, slow one.After I had recovered enough from his tantalizing onslaught against my senses to speak, I said, “I thought that kind of dancing only happened in the movies [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]