For Sparkling Regency Romance...

Ben was looking off down the path, after the retreating man, his fists still clenched and his muscles flexing under the tight wool of his coat, as though ready to fight for her again.  “There.  That has settled him.  He will not be bothering you again, I am sure.”

Felicity tried to restrain the sense of relief she felt to be free of the stranger’s attentions, because it had taken only a moment to remember how thoroughly she had been duped by the man who remained.  “I do not recall requesting your assistance, Lieutenant Ranworth,” she said coldly back to him. 

And for a moment, Ben looked just as he had when the stranger had struck him, dazed with sudden shock.  To hide his confusion, he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, and wiped his face, and stared down in disgust at the traces of blood and grime from the fight.  “I assumed you were in need, since no decent young lady would allow herself to be mauled by a stranger, in a public park.”

“What you saw was a kiss.  Nothing more,” she said.  “And less then you attempted yesterday, I am sure.”

His head snapped up, his eyes bored into hers.  “That is not the same at all,” he argued.  “I never would have gone farther than a few dances, if I hadn’t thought…”

And now, the brave young dragoon looked quite uncomfortable, and seemed overly preoccupied with seeing that his handkerchief was returned to the correct pocket.  “…that what I was doing was in your best interest.”

“You thought it was in my best interests to lead me away from propriety?”  And now, she turned away from him so that he couldn’t see her flush of excitement when she thought of it.  “The gentleman today at least had the decency to proclaim his love for me before taking such liberties.” 

“He declared his love?”  Now Ben looked properly stricken again.  “Felicity,” swallowed hard, and then corrected himself.  “Miss Morville, when Carlow expressed his concern that you were forming an unwise attachment, I agreed to help prevent it.  But I had no idea that it had developed to such an extent.” 

“So you admit that you attempted to trick me into losing interest in the gentleman.”

“That was no gentleman,” Ben blurted, and then struggled to contain himself.  “But neither was I.  I had no idea of the depth of feeling involved. I thought it to be much less than it actually was.  And so I sought to insinuate myself into this assumed gap to separate you.”

“You felt, on the basis of a very limited acquaintance, that you could pretend affection…”

“It was not pretend,” he blurted again, and then started down at the toes of his brightly polished boots.   “When Hal set me to this task… which is not to say he is in any way to blame.  If you have been hurt, I take the whole fault upon myself.  I should have had the sense to stop before I’d begun.”  And he looked up at her, into her eyes.  And as he gazed deep, he seemed to lose his way, and his eyes wandered to her lips, staring with such intensity that she could feel them starting to tingle as though they had just been kissed. 

He looked away suddenly, back at the ground, and found his voice again.  “I had no idea that the job of distracting you was likely to be distracting to me as well.”

“You find me distracting?” she said, not quite sure what to make of the admission.

“Or that I would find myself quite so thoroughly in the thrall of someone whose heart might be otherwise engaged.”

“In thrall.”  And now, she had to struggle to stifle her smile.

He looked at her with all seriousness, his deep brown eyes locking to hers, after only the briefest fortifying glance at her mouth.  “I regret that I was not honest with you, from the very first.  Then I could have put you on your guard against the man you have been meeting.  No matter how he treats you, or how sincere his feelings might be, I fear that he is up to no good.”  He glanced down the path that the dark stranger had taken, and muttered, almost to himself, “And if he means to make trouble for the Carlows, then I had best warn Hal.”

In thrall.  While the rest of his speech sounded very much like an apology, she could not seem to get her mind past those words.  “But if you had been honest, and I had listened to your advice, then you would have had no need to kiss me,” she said, thinking that they both could have escaped this embarrassing misalliance.  And suddenly finding that she was very glad that he’d tricked her.

He was looking at her lips again.  “Oh, I suspect the need to kiss you would still have been there.  But I would not have been able to lie to myself about the meaning of it.”

She shivered as she thought of the delicious moments they had already shared.  And then again as she thought of how different it had been to be kissed by the other man, and the strange and frightening things he had said before leaving.  “If that is how you feel, then it might interest you to know that, while gentleman who left here claimed to feel strongly for me, my opinion of him was not nearly so pleasant.” 

And now the other man was forgotten.  For she was looking at Ben’s lips as well, and remembering how they tasted when they touched hers.  And hoping that she would know their flavor again, very soon.

“Then it is not too late for me?”  He wasted no more time, and placed his hands upon her shoulders, pulling her close.  His kiss was as she remembered it, hot and demanding, stealing her breath and then giving it back again, infusing her with the desire he felt for her.  His tongue touched hers, stroking with increasing force until she clung to the facings of his coat, too weak to stand without him.

Sensing her submission, he seemed happy to be her support.  His hands moved from their innocent positions until one pressed against her breast and the other rested on her hips, pulling them gently against his to show her how right it would be when they were joined.

And today, instead of gasping, she sighed in delight, and broke the kiss so she could whisper, “Lieutenant Ranworth, have a care for my reputation.  If we are discovered, you will be forced to offer for me.”

His next kiss was like a smile upon her cheek.  “I am afraid I shall have to do that in any case, darling.  For I mean to do things much more scandalous than this before I am finished with you.  If you value your honor, we had best get the banns read quickly.”  He was nuzzling her ear now, making her giggle.  And then, the feeling changed, moving deep into her body. 

And it did not make her feel like laughing at all.  Instead, she was imagining the feel of his hands on her skin, and the way his bottomless dark eyes would look when they were alone in candlelight.  “Before you came,” she whispered, “an old Gypsy woman told me my fortune.”

He laughed, and kissed her again, this time on the side of her throat.  “You do not believe such nonsense, do you?”

“But I think she was trying to tell me that you are my future.”

And Ben did not hesitate in the least at the thought.  Instead, he said, “Then I was wrong, and she was very wise, and you should most certainly listen to her.”  And then he stopped his progress down her throat, and smiled up into her eyes in a way that she was sure was a challenge.  “But enough talk of our future.  This morning, I will make it so you cannot think further than the present.” 

And he took her by the hand and led off the path to a place where they could be delightfully alone.