Page 11 of To Steal a Kiss

“Why?” she forced the word out, determined to know.

“Because it’s exciting, that you don’t know who I am.” The words were breathed rather than spoken, a soft susurration at the nape of her neck, standing all the tiny hairs on end. “You have no idea if we’re acquainted, or if I’m a stranger.”

“Oh, you’re a stranger,” she said with a huff of laughter, her words not nearly as steady as before.

“Oh?”

He moved closer, not that she saw him, not that he touched her, but she could feel him all the same, feel the heat of him at her back. It burned through her dress, warming her. The flush of it bloomed over her skin. “How can you be certain?”

Alice almost rolled her eyes. “Because I don’t know any men like you.”

That chuckle again, shivering over her skin, doing odd things to her already erratic heartbeat.

“We’re here to complete a dare.” He spoke close to her ear, softly, yet in the heightened atmosphere it felt as dramatic as if he’d put his hands on her.

Alice nodded. The dizzy sensation had returned, and she felt lightheaded with it. Was this how it felt to be inebriated: a dreamlike sense of unreality, the desire to take a foolish risk? To do something one would never normally do.

“I didn’t hear your answer.”

Mortified, she realised he would not allow her to hide behind passivity and nods of acknowledgement. Well, she’d wanted to prove her own courage.

“Yes,” she said, wishing it had sounded a little less anxious but relieved it had been audible at least.

There was a low sound of approval and he shifted a little closer. “Tell me what it was. Tell me what dare you accepted.”

Drat. He just had to ask.

“You know what it is,” she said with more defiance than she’d thought she had, but rather that than say it out loud.

“I do,” he agreed, sounding a little smug and pleased, though not in an unpleasant way, gently teasing her. “But I want to be certain you do. I need to be sure I keep my end of the bargain.” His words were so intimate, suggestive in a manner that made anxiety and excitement shiver together. “I should hate to disappoint you.”

Alice clutched at the railing in front of her a little harder. Why did his words sound so… so…? She didn’t have a name for it, but she felt it in her toes, in the strange heat that seemed to unfurl deep in her belly with every word he spoke.

“Do you make a habit of disappointing women?” she asked lightly, trying to sound sophisticated, and then blushed scarlet as she realised that might not have been the kind of question she ought to ask.

“No,” he said, with just a trace of arrogant amusement. “Which is why you’ll tell me what the dare was, so I can be certain to complete it with the proper degree of diligence.”

Alice’s mouth fell open. It was the hardest thing not to turn and stare at him, but her cheeks were flaming now… and perhaps it was best to keep staring at the moon. The great white orb shone down on them, pristine and unblinking, unsurprised and certainly not shocked. Nothing Alice could do would shock it; the moon had seen it all before and still stared down, unchanged. Somehow that was comforting.

“To kiss a man in the moonlight,” she said in a rush, the words tumbling out, each one tripping over the next.

“Ah, yes,” he said, and she felt rather than saw his nod of agreement. “Well, then, you have the moonlight, and the man. What will you do with them?”

“Me?” Alice squeaked.

She almost turned around then, but stilled as his arms bracketed hers, his large hands dwarfing hers as they grasped the railings on either side. Yet, still he didn’t touch her, keeping a distance between them which was at once both a relief and desperately frustrating.

“Who else is here, if not you?”

“You!” she exclaimed, rattled now. “You’re here, that’s the whole point.”

“Ah, but it isn’t. The dare is to kiss a man in the moonlight. Not… be kissed. This is all on you, Alice.”

Alice’s breathing hitched, but she wasn’t sure if it was the realisation he was right or the sound of her name spoken by that wicked voice. What kind of man had a voice like that? It conjured up dark nights, and sin, and… and things she had absolutely no idea about, past the urgent desire to find out.

“Are you sure it’s what you want?” he asked, gentler now, that caressing voice soothing her prickling nerves. “I can leave if it isn’t.”

“Is that what you want?” she blurted out, the sudden realisation that he might pray for her to give him a way out made her stomach twist with humiliation.