Wednesday Brief: Your Hump Day Dose of Flash Fiction

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.

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.”

Anne gave her mother another glance. Had her father been like that? She didn’t remember much about him and her mother as a couple, but the times she’d seen them together she’d always been laughing, her eyes dancing with emotion.

 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 11^th 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 11^th 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 13^th 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