Bride Behind the Mask

Chapter 6: Two Steps Back

Dedicated to a random commenter: Thank you for your continued support  Obsidian_November :)

Chapter 6: Two Steps Back

"I won't leave," he whispered, the heat of his breath a mere inch from her skin.

She was acutely aware of the large hands at the back of her neck and back, his firm caresses sending a ripple of tingles down her spine. She weakened at his touch, her neck falling back on its own accord.

He pressed the gentlest of kisses on her lips; a teaser that had her yearning for more. Then he flicked his tongue across her lips and snaked between them, probing them open, and she complied willingly, parting her lips on a soft moan.

His kisses grew feverish, burning, until she was melting in his embrace. Her fingers explored the muscled plane of his chest, slowly tracing upwards to his shoulders and neck, until they found their way into his dark hair and she tugged him ever closer, eager to return his hungry kisses with a need of her own.

"I won't leave," he whispered against her lips in the briefest of pauses. Again and again he promised.

'Twas all but a dream, for only in dreams would he make such reassurances to her. And only in dreams would her heart and body warm with such a vow.

She could no longer remember what had saddened her. He had brought her out of a dark place and the one thing that dominated her thoughts was her want for more. More...

"Sir!" an unwelcome voice shouted with loud raps on the door.

She squeezed her eyes tight, desperately resisting being awakened to reality as she clung ever tighter—

"Sir!"

Were the Gods giving her a taste of her own medicine after all her screaming every morning? Still, the persistent nibbling at her lips momentarily distracted her from any negative thoughts.

Heavy doors opened with a thundering 'BANG!'

Her eyes flicked open in rage, only to find the close-up of a man at her nose. Wh-what?

His eyes were closed, but the deep furrow of his brow conveyed the intensity of his expression, and... and... his lips were moving against her own. She stilled. D-D-Drake?

She must still be dreaming! In disbelief, she whipped the image away—

"Ow!" Amelia cried as a plum fell on her head. Blinking her eyes open to look into the intertwining branches and leaves of a plum tree overhead, she realised she had—for the fifth time—fallen asleep replaying the events of that afternoon in her head.

How she remembered that audible slap and the sting in her palm. Followed by the horrified gasp from the man who had barged into the library. Followed by Drake's darkest of dark glares, transfixing her in place as her mind remained clogged in fog.

Above that, she remembered the warmth of his lips and the protectiveness of his embrace. And above all that, it was his promises that her mind resolutely obsessed upon.

Arrrgh! She slammed her fists into the soil and pouted up at a red plum in the foliage above. All the womanly gossips in court were true: men could never be trusted!

Her father used to say that he'd have her by his side for as long as she would stay, yet he had forced her to marry. Drake had promised he wouldn't leave, only to leave Steersberg that same evening.