Free How to Impress a Gentleman by Allie Borne

strolled off, heading for the path near the back of the clearing.
    After a short, stunned silence, Charles looked down at Charlotte, who shrugged her shoulders innocently and bit into a sugared crepe’. Charles then met Aiden’s puzzled gaze and said, “I suppose I must follow her, to insure her safety.”
    “I suppose you must,” Charlotte grinned, cheekily. Ignoring her, Charles stalked off, toward the path.
    How could she have allowed herself to let Charles under her skin? She wasn’t an emotionally turbulent child. She was a mature, levelheaded, and imminently practical eighteen year old woman. Charles was sullen and domineering. He treated her like a wayward child. And he had proved himself untrustworthy.
    His weathered good looks should have no affect upon her, but the juncture between her legs ached just from thinking of him. She couldn’t maintain decorum around this man. He just wouldn’t do! So, why was she again, no, to be honest, why had she always longed for him? It was lowering and humiliating to be in love with a superfluous, irritating, and mysterious traitor.
    In spite of herself, when he looked at her, with his whiskey eyes, she felt intoxicated. She felt warm and full, she felt safe and whole, as if she belonged to something bigger than herself. She was a moth, drawn to his flame. Beyond his hard-edged proportions, Charles had a certain mouthwatering, animalistic allure that drew her. It troubled her that she was so susceptible to his charms. She should know better.
    “Sometimes I just hate myself!” Lindsay chided, walking faster and squeezing her fists to her sides until her nails bit into the soft flesh of her palms.
    “And why would you do that?” came Charles’ rich baritone behind her.
    “Uhhh!” she groaned, spinning to glare at him with unrestrained anger and frustration. “Why can I not rid myself of you?”
    “And when not two hours hence you were plotting our clandestine meeting?,” he shook his head in mock remonstration. Resorting to the cold shoulder, Lindsay spun back around and resumed her pace.
    “Lindsay, wait! Stop and tell me what ails you. Did Charlotte lower your guard and upset you? I can have Aiden reign her in...Lindsay? Enough!”
    Shortening her stride, Lindsay took a deep breath and allowed Charles to walk astride. After a few moments of silence, Lindsay spoke. “Tis not that. Charlotte is surprisingly kind, Charles. I honestly hope to be her friend. It’s just, well...she assumed that you and I had an understanding. It seems many people are under that belief, and we haven’t done anything to encourage such talk! I fear we’ll damage our reputations if we are seen in one another’s company. Let us just put some distance between us, shall we?”
    Lindsay turned to Charles, a mixture of dread and longing in her dark, blue gaze. Her eyes grew round as they gazed into his intensity, her eyelashes clumping with unshed tears.
    Before Charles realized what he was doing, he had leaned in and touched his mouth to hers. He felt her soft gasp, through her slightly parted lips, and sighed as he wrapped her in light embrace. It felt so natural, it felt, he realized, startled, like coming home. He had ached for this soft embrace for four long years. Her familiar scent of lemons and sugar made him want to nuzzle her neck. As if reliving a dream, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her gently to him.
    Lindsay shivered as Charles pressed his lips to the wisps of curls that lay against the curve of her neck. His head pounded as he trailed kisses up her ear and across her cheek. At Lindsay’s moan, he plundered her mouth. Pressing her up against a tree; Charles grasped her breast and squeezed it, sending Lindsay into another moan of ecstasy.
    They were lost in a passion of caresses, Charles’ hand entangled in her silken locks, his only thought that he wished this moment would never end. He drank from her lips as if her very essence offered the balm his soul so