Happy Wednesday! Time flies when you're having fun. And why am I having fun, you're wondering? Well, I started my driving lessons (which weren't really that much fun and which I found I'm not very good at, but yeah, *facepalm*), I am almost done with my current WIP (a dark erotic urban fantasy which started out as a brief) and I made it just in time to participate in today's Brief!
This is the last chapter of December Tingles.As a matter a fact, and I apologize in advance, I've gone 100 words over the limit because I just didn't know where to cut from anymore. (It didn't help that I started writing the brief and forgot to actually include a prompt in the story *facepalm*).
I might expand it some day, but right now with Christmas officially over I want to start something new.
I might expand it some day, but right now with Christmas officially over I want to start something new.
If you haven't read chapters 1 to 3, you can either click here or on the tab above that says "Wednesday Briefs". You'll be redirect to my Wednesday Brief page where you can find the links to the chapters (titled December Tingles 1, 2 and 3).
I hope you enjoy Anne and Daniel's final chapter! Have a great day and do visit the other Briefers, they've got some awesome stories going on!
December Tingles 4
“Please pass me the chocolate,
Anne dear.”
Anne stood and handed her mother
the porcelain pitcher, then returned to her corner near the window. Chocolate,
the seventh gift. Her cheeks warmed and she furtively leaned into the cool
windowpane.
“Like you, this is not any kind of sweet, my dearest Anne. This piece was
made in Switzerland
and it has to be eaten in a certain way. Close your eyes.”
Anne hesitated, glimpsing at the bonbon wrapped in bright green paper.
Apprehension coursed through her and she looked over at the ballroom where
couples danced to a gay tune, people chatted and drunk, oblivious to the two
lovers on the terrace. Her mother was nowhere to be seen.
Her gaze focused on Daniel. He regarded her quietly, his silver eyes dark,
by the shadows in the balcony or something else, she could not say. Anne closed
her eyes. The sound of crinkling paper reached her ears and her mouth parted
slightly, expectantly. Daniel moved closer, the heat of his body surrounding
her and making her pulse go wild.
Daniel’s silken locks grazed her cheeks and she shut her eyes tighter. Tension
seeped out of her as Daniel’s warm lips touched hers. The tip of his tongue
skimmed over her bottom bow and she gasped, surprised. A moan lodged in her
throat as his tongue swept inside her and entwined with hers, leaving in its
wake the pleasant flavor of chocolate and liquor.
Anne tightened her hold on the
book. Her eyes flew to her mother’s still figure on the armchair near the fire.
She sat knitting, oblivious to her thoughts. Oh, the reprimand she’d received
that night after returning from her “dance” with Daniel.
“You will not leave this house without my permission. You will not have
visitors. You will never, ever see that man again.”
“Why?”
“Because I know the likes of him! They
are good for nothing men that will shower you with gifts, take your virtue and
kick you out on the curb when the next young maiden appears.”
It wasn’t like her mother could stop Daniel. She smirked. For
the past five days gifts kept coming in the most secretive and imaginative
ways. Sticking her hand in her pocket, Anne traced the key she kept there. The
11th gift. She’d received it the night before, tied with a red ribbon and waiting for her on her windowsill. Had
Daniel put it there? Biting back a sigh, she shifted in her seat. With every
gift, there had been a cryptic note except with the key.
Shaking her head, Anne returned to her book. Perhaps, tonight all would be
cleared.
Anne danced with all the
suitors her mother threw at her. Waltz after waltz, she forced a smile on her
face and politeness into her tone. It was Colonel Dermouth’s birthday, all his friends should be there, but Daniel was not. Her heart
constricted painfully. Could her mother have been right? Had he tired of her and
left to court another? Then why the 11th gift? Why the key? Her mind
churned with unanswered questions as her gaze travelled around the room,
searching for grey eyes.
They were one of the last to
leave. Her feet ached but it was nothing compared to the pain in her chest. Why
hadn’t he come? She clambered onto the coach, her mother a step behind, when
the Colonel called her.
“I’ll be but a moment.” Anne
nodded, her gaze on her lap, afraid to look her mother in the eye and see the I told you so look.
Abruptly, the carriage moved.
Anne lifted her gaze, shocked as the Brougham sped away from the house, leaving her screaming mother behind.
“Sir, sir,” Anne shouted to
the driver to stop, but to no avail. Stunned she watched the figure of her
frantically waving mother disappear as they reached a bend.
They didn’t travel far. About
fifteen minutes later, the couch drove up a paved pathway and stopped in front
of a large manor house she had never seen before.
“We’re here, miss.”
“Where?”
The driver said nothing as he
opened the door and helped her out. Pointing to the front door, he climbed back
aboard and left her, trembling slightly at the foot of an uknown house.
Nervously, Anne palmed the key
in her pocket. She shook her head, thinking the idea that crossed her mind way
too far-fetched.
“Crazy ideas are the best
ideas, Anne.”
She gasped loudly, her hand
coming to her throat as she spun to find Daniel leaning against a column,
smiling at her.
“Daniel!”
He moved. His presence as commanding
as usual, sending her heart on overdrive as it always did when he was near.
Reaching for a lose tendril of her hair, he leaned into her.
“Aren’t you going to open the
door?”
Pulling out the bronze key,
she stared at it for an instance before inserting it into the lock. There was a
satisfying click as the bolt released. However, she did not open the door.
Instead, she faced Daniel.
“What’s inside?”
“What do you want there to
be?” he asked, grinning cheekily.
“You.”
Daniel wrapped his hands on
her waist and pulled her roughly against him. Victoria breathed heavily, her corset dug
into her ribs and she thought she’d faint at any moment at his proximity and
the intensity of his gaze. Somehow, she managed to keep her composure as he
bent to whisper in her hear.
“Are you insinuating that you
will not accept my twelfth gift of Christmas?”
“Not if you’re not inside,”
she said boldly.
Daniel chuckled. “Then I’ll
just have to go inside with you, no?”
Anne hesitated. “And stay?”
Daniel paused.
“There’s a lot of things you
don’t know about me.”
Anne shrugged.
“I was hoping you’d say that.”
With a broad smile, he unexpectedly picked her up. Anne let out a startled
squeal. “I’ll stay as long as you want
me.”
“Forever.”
“I was hoping you’d say that too,”
he murmured, stepping over the threshold and brushing his lips over hers, sending
delicious shivers down her spine. “Your mother will have a fit.”
“Let her.”
Daniel laughed. “Forever it is
then. I’ll admit I was secretly hoping you’d accept my 13th
Christmas Gift.”
“13?” she asked, blinking up at grey eyes she
knew she’d never get tired of seeing.
“You’ll see.”
The End
More Briefs?
Chris T. Kat m/m
MA Church m/m
Tali
Spencer m/m
Victoria Adams m/f
Nephylim m/m
Julie Lynn Hayes m/m
Awww, I love the end! It made me smile and left me with a real good feeling. Thank you for sharing your story!
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading it, Chris! :D I'm happy you enjoyed it!
DeleteThe ending was very sweet, and very well done, even if you had to go over. Great job with this story; it was a lovely romance. My only quibble is the 'kick you out on the curb' line, since they didn't use language like that. I would have expected something like 'Toss you out on the rubbish heap' or something more to the time.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy you liked it, Cia! You're totally right about the "kick on the curb" line, they probably would have used something else (that's what I get for writing in a hurry the day before :p).
DeleteI wonder what the thirteenth gift might be *whistle*
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed that story and ending was just right. Way to go Anne to choose Daniel. Her mother will probably disown her but who cares. She has her own home now.
LOL Yeah, I don't think her mother will be too happy xD The 13th gift is open to the imagination :p
Delete