“And I would very much like to,” she said innocently. “But forgive me for saying…” She grimaced.
“Say it,” he growled.
“With your reputation, you might understand why I wonder at why you are behaving so secretively.”
“I am not –” Edward caught his tongue and glanced about the lounge as if only just not noticing the people watching them. He winced and lowered his voice. “We will not have this discussion here, Celestine.”
“Why? Do you have something to hide?”
He scoffed. “Very well, if that is how you wish to be.” With that, he turned and strode from the lounge.
“Edward, please!” Celestine hurried after him.
As she raced across the lounge, she heard the whispers follow her. A few gasps. Many rolled eyes. A few people even nodded along as if this was expected.
Edward waited for her in the hallway. When he saw her coming, he chuckled and shook his head. “Well, how did we do?”
“It went exactly as you said it would,” she said softly, unable to summon any enthusiasm whatsoever.
“I knew it would,” he sighed. “These people, they are so predictable. It is like throwing meat to wolves.”
“Yes…” She bowed her head, not wanting Edward to see how upset she was. Indeed, things had gone as he said, and she had no doubt that by tomorrow word would spread of this fight. But was that such a good thing? “You were right.”
“Shall we?” He exhaled and indicated down the hallway with a flick of his head. “Let us hurry home before anyone else sees us. Better that way as it allows for their imaginations to run rampant.”
Edward turned and strode quickly down the hallway, leaving Celestine to follow him. Their plan had worked, tomorrow they would announce an end to their engagement, and not a soul would be surprised to hear it.
Finally, things would be back to normal. Only, as Celestine was now forced to concede, there would be nothing normal about her life from this day on, and nothing would ever be the same again.
Chapter Eleven
Celestine’s lips were all over Edward’s body. She attacked his neck, his chest, his mouth with a hunger that was insatiable. And between each kiss, she moaned Edward’s name in a way that made his legs tremble as his blood turned so hot that he felt the fire consume them both.
His hands were everywhere. He gripped her waist. He squeezed her thighs. He pulled her hair. They wrapped her bosom, still above her dress, and she moaned harder. His lips then found her neck, he licked and he sucked, she ran her hands through his hair and started to grind her hips.
Between his thighs, Edward hardened so that it hurt him. His manhood pressed against his pants, and surely she felt it? In fact, he knew that she did, because she started to grind her hips faster as her lips found his mouth once more.
He moved his hands to her buttocks. He pulled her into him. He held her so that he might never let her go.
“What are we doing?” he asked between kisses.
“Exactly what you’ve always wanted,” she said. “What we both want.”
She pulled back and there was a wicked and knowing smile on her face. Her eyes lit up so that he did not have to ask what was on her mind. And then, as she looked down at him, she slipped her hands to his breeches and began to undo them…
That was when Edward started awake.
He was covered in a warm layer of sweat, the type that drenched through his clothes and left a puddle in his bed. His sheets were soaked too. His breathing was so heavy that his chest hurt. Most of all, that which he noticed first, was the painful throb between his thighs.
“What on earth…”
Edward looked to the window. The curtains were drawn but a thin slither of light pushed through the gap, telling him that morning had arrived.
He sat there alone for a few minutes, trying to clear his head and forget the dream that had woken him. Of course, the more he tried to forget the dream, the more vivid it became. Even now, he could still feel Celestine’s body on his. He could still feel her hands attacking him. And he could still taste her lips, as well as her skin, as she hurriedly undid his breeches…
No!
Edward threw back the soaked bed sheets and climbed to his feet. Then he raced across the bedroom and opened the curtains, letting the morning sun blind him as if it might burn away his thoughts and his pesky desires.
