Loving Lucianna

Chapter 9

 CHAPTER 9

            Lucianna slid her arms around Sir Balduin’s neck just in time to prevent her knees from succumbing to the pleasure that threatened to buckle them. How long had it been since she had allowed him to kiss her? Weeks only, yet it had begun to seem like a distant dream that he had ever held her thus. This was why she had fought so hard to evade him, fear that her body would betray her in his embrace, just as she felt it doing now. The urgent twining of her arms, her ardent return of his kiss, the way her heart thudded so fervently he must surely feel its driving beat against his breast—she knew she must stop herself somehow, but all her traitorous soul did was melt her deeper into the flame of his love.

            She resisted a moment when his hands moved to her cheeks. If he broke the kiss, he would break the spell that she wanted to lose herself in forever. Reality would rush back in, and she did not know if she could claw back the strength that had brought her to this chamber, a strength that had flowed away like water in his caress. It did not bolster her to see the exultant curve of his lips as they pulled away from hers.

            “Lucianna! I thought I had lost you forever with that clumsy song of mine, but that was no kiss of farewell you just dealt me. That you should come seeking me thus, that you should forgive me— Oh, my angel!”

            Her lungs constricted painfully. How could she find the will to do what she must do when he gazed at her with so much adoration in his eyes? She struggled to find breath to check him, to strike away his illusions, no matter how she shrank from shattering that glow, but a voice rapped first from the doorway.

            “Your angel. My sister. I am shocked, signore, truly. I presumed you a man of honor, but I see that I mistook your character.”

            Lucianna tore herself from Sir Balduin’s clasp and stared in horror at Serafino standing on the threshold. It took a moment through her dismay to realize he was not alone. Siri’s diminutive frame stood at his side.

            Siri jerked at Serafino’s sleeve. “Come away. They are not children. Let them be.”

            “I am afraid I cannot oblige you, signora. My sister may be, shall we say, a little beyond the bloom of youth, but she is still a maiden whose virtue I consider myself honor bound to defend.”

            Lucianna saw Sir Balduin’s face redden even as she felt her own grow cold.

            “This is not what it appears, sir,” Sir Balduin said stiffly. “I did not lure your sister to my chamber. I had no notion I would find her here. Why, you saw me yourself come from below stairs. I passed you and Lady Siri on the steps—”

            “Si, quite cheerily, if I recall, and in such a hurry that you scarce paused to say buongiorno. Which only makes your villainy more audacious, knowing you were on your way to seduce my sister right under my very nose.”

            Despite his words, Lucianna observed that Serafino looked more smug than outraged. Sir Balduin fell into a spluttering defense, but before he could organize it into any coherence, Serafino added, “There is, of course, only one way to make this right. I trust I need not speak more plainly, signore?”

            Sir Balduin’s gray brows plunged down at the implied ultimatum. “You have completely mistaken matters, sir. I would never insult your sister’s virtue. But if you mean you expect me to marry her, then you may put your mind to rest. That has been the greatest desire of my heart for months. Now that she has forgiven me—”