“Lucky then that you are such a fine actor.”
“Am I?”
She looked at him flatly. “From what I have seen, you might have missed your calling.” She indicated to the stage. “Since the moment this all began, you have played your part to perfection. A little too well…” Her heart started to race. “Why, you almost fooled me.”
“Is that what you think I was doing?”
“We – were you not?”
He did not speak right away, but she felt him watching her. Through the darkness, the music from below sweeping over them, she sensed his thoughts as if they were his own. Just as she sensed his struggle.
“I was, for the most part,” he said carefully. “In those earlier days, especially. But Celestine…” His hand moved from his lap and rested on her thigh; she caught her breath and her heart leapt through her throat. “It was not all an act.”
“Wh – what do you mean?” she asked, not daring to look at him.
“There are some moments that I regret,” he said. “Just as there are moments that I will miss.”
“Such as?”
His hand squeezed her thigh gently. Her body turned stiff. In ordinary circumstances, she might have asked him to remove his hand, even warning him off it. But there was nothing ordinary about this circumstance…
“In truth, many things,” he said. “You were not what I expected, Celestine, and I enjoyed my time with you far more than I thought possible.”
“Oh…”
“As to what I regret...” He squeezed her thigh again and then started to slide his hand upwards. She gasped and looked at him, and her eyes widened when she saw the look in his eyes. It was not one that she had seen before, but she knew what it meant.
Celestine’s heart raced. Her body grew hot. And her mouth turned moist as her mind returned to that single kiss they had once shared. It had been so random, she had wondered at the time if he was just teasing her, but now she suspected there was more to it than that.
His blue eyes shone in the dark as they flicked to her mouth. She knew without having to ask what he wanted. Common sense told her to turn away, to deny him before things went too far. But now was not the time for common sense, nor was it the time for behaving.
“And what do you regret,” she asked as she held his eyes.
“Oh, you might laugh at me if I tell you.”
“Tell me anyway.”
Slowly, he turned his body and his other hand moved to her face. He cupped the side of her face, his thumb stoking gently under her chin. It sent a pulse through her body, and she flushed from head to toe.
This is wrong… so wrong…
“You know what I regret, Celestine,” he whispered as his hand squeezed and his thumb stroked. “And while this engagement must end, I cannot help but wonder if we should not…” A smile then, his eyes flicking once more to her lips. “If we should make this last moment between us count.”
“I do not… count how?”
“Do not ask questions to which you know the answer,” he breathed as he gently guided her face forward, just as he leaned in. “And for once, do not pretend that you do not want this. You forget how well I know you.”
“You don’t know me at all…”
“Well, you know me,” he whispered as they came close. “So, try not to act too surprised.”
Celestine closed her eyes just as Edward guided her lips to his own. They met, the music below reached a crescendo, the crowd clapped and cheered in ecstasy, and Celestine and Edward shared their second and their last kiss.
It was a kiss that Celestine felt not just on her lips but in her chest. It swept through her entire body, in fact, silencing the world so that she and Edward were alone and lost completely in one another. Their mouths parted, his tongue licked and lapped the inside of her mouth, and she moaned and trembled as she gave herself to him fully.
How long did that kiss last for? She could not say. Sitting together in that private booth, nobody to see them, to judge them, they kissed as if the world was about to end and this was their last chance to share in something that both wanted more than life itself.
As they kissed, as wonderful as it was, Celestine felt a pang of regret. For something that was so perfect, that felt so right, she knew that it would never lead anywhere. This was it, nothing else would come, so she best enjoy it as much as she could.
