AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Richard grunted noisily as he laid himself down on the floor. He fidgeted with his blanket for a moment, tossing from one side to the other. “You mock what you do not understand.”
“How would you know what I have experienced? How can you even guess as to what I might already comprehend?”
CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN
“Ibeg your pardon,” Richard said as he abandoned the blanket that felt as though it would never fit over his frame quite right. He brought himself up to a sitting position, so he could gaze properly at Leticia. “Do you have some prior experience you have heretofore been concealing?”
“Do you?” she challenged as she flopped onto the bed. He shifted his weight so that he came off his bottom and onto his knees. Now, he could look squarely in her face. While the chamber was void of light, he had been in it long enough that he could see her adequately well.
“I think you know enough about the world to understand that most gentlemen, myself included, find it useful if we learn how to—”
“Oh,” Leticia groaned. “Please try to desist with all the formalities. You may have been with many women because that is part of the young gentlemen’s rule book or something, but I doubt you’ve ever done anything truly high-spirited.” She paused, and he saw a playful glint in her eyes. “Shall we see just how far you are willing to go?” Again, she paused as if she were giving him time to interrupt, but he did not. “I challenge you to a game of truth or dare.”
“Truth or dare?” he scoffed. “What would you know of the game?”
“Ask me a question, and I suppose you’ll find out,” Leticia jested.
“Fine,” Richard said as he stood and then dropped right on the bed next to her. “Truth or dare?”
“Truth,” Leticia said. She shifted the way she was sitting on the bed as she contorted her frame into a cross-legged position. As she moved, Richard caught a whiff of her hair, and that gave him an idea.
“Why do you always wear bluebells in your hair?”
She frowned. “I’m sure you already know the answer to that question. Go on and ask another.”
“No,” he persisted. “If I do know the reason, I cannot recall it now. Why do you put bluebells in your hair?”
Her fingers floated to the crown of her head as if she were remembering the way she had decorated her hairline with the flowers earlier that evening. “My mother always used to wear bluebells in her hair. They grow plentifully around here in the spring and early summer, and she said they represented constancy. When I wear them now, I think of how she loved my father from the very beginning, and until her dying breath, she held him in her heart.”
“Oh,” Richard whispered. “I didn’t know that…or maybe I did, but I never put two and two together.”
“Yes,” Leticia shrugged. Then, after giving a half-hearted sigh, she said, “It’s your turn. Truth or dare?”
Seeing as how she had just revealed something rather private with him, he felt compelled to lighten the mood. “Dare…I suppose.”
The smile once more returned to Leticia’s face, and she said, “I dare you to dance for me.”
“Here? Without music or a partner?”
“Yes,” Leticia teased. “If you are truly as fancy-free as you would like me to believe, you must be able to do a little jig. I know, I know, being an accomplished dancer was not one of the items on your list, but still…I’ve seen you dance. I know what you are capable of.”
Her words hung heavy in the air, and while Richard wanted to stay rooted to the bed, he judged that it would be best to complete his dare as assigned. He stood and walked just far enough away from the bed so that he wouldn’t nudge it then he began to dance. At once, Leticia erupted in a burst of laughter. Richard continued stepping lively adding in a few high steps as he thought it might entertain her further. She responded by giggling so uncontrollably, she began to rock backward and forward on the bed.
“Stop,” she commanded as she clutched at her stomach. “I beg you. It’s too funny.”
“I cannot stop just like that,” Richard replied with his own laugh. “I have to go until the end of the dance number.”
Leticia leaped from the bed then and rushed toward him. She threw her arms around him. “I did not think you had it in you. I was sure you would deny me the pleasure of seeing you dance.”
Richard quit moving then. He breathed heavily from the exertion. “I would not wish to deny any pleasure of yours.” Her eyes widened as their breath mingled. “Truth or dare?” he whispered, and then he felt the way her body bucked against him, but he held tight to her.
“Dare,” she said as her eyes darted back and forth, undoubtedly trying to determine what he would ask of her.
“I dare you to tell me to stop.”
“Hmm?” she murmured, but before she could ask for clarification, he bent his head forward and kissed her passionately. Her words escaped her then as when she opened her mouth, he plunged his tongue inside and swirled it around, tasting her. Slowly, he slithered his hand down the length of her silk robe and undid the sash. Then, with only the thin, satiny material of her nightgown separating them, he pressed his fingers to the center of her womanhood. She gasped.
As she did, he pulled his mouth away from hers but kept his fingers in place. “Are you all right?” he whispered, looking up into her face so he could gauge her reaction.
