~Genesee goes moonlight walking with the charming Alex Dunbar~
Next,
they had gone into the set of a country dance. To take three dances in a row
with the same partner was a breach of propriety that had set fans fluttering on
every side.
They flaunted convention still further, and
walked the circular path that ran around Aunt Kitty's garden. A yellow moon,
past full, was clearing the woods on the crest of the eastern shore.
Their pace was a little fast, for the night
was chilly and they were both, in spite of the dancing, full of nervous energy.
Jenny felt ready to jump out of her skin. Alexander seemed to be in the same
condition.
In the darkness, here and there, they'd
catch sight of other couples, sitting upon garden benches, leaning against each
other or unabashedly embracing. It was cold, early in the year for strolls in
the moonlight, but there were a lot of blue and buff uniforms here, young men
who were soon leaving to fight.
"I don't know what to say to you,
sir," she finally said, ignoring the polite gambit he'd made about the
beauty of the scene.
Alexander halted. She gazed up at him, at
his thin handsome face in the moonlight, wondering what he would do.
In the next moment he'd clasped her in his
arms, swept her close and kissed her. In the chilly darkness his mouth was warm
and eager.
What temptation, the wanting to let her
arms go around his shoulders, the wanting to let him kiss and taste, do what
he'd done at her grandparent's house! Instead, she kept her palms against the
rough wool of that uniform jacket, held him in check.
Feeling her reticence, he ended the kiss,
although he kept his arms around her slender waist. "What's the
matter?" he breathed.
"You mustn't just – just – kiss me
like that," she protested.
His strong arms held her close. "Why
not?" he murmured, his lips grazing her cheek. "Don't you like me
to?"
"Liking's not the point."
"Since when is liking not the point of
kissing?"
"Do let me go," she whispered,
trembling. "I can't think of what I mean to say."
She saw him smile. He did, however,
obediently relinquish the embrace, although not his hold upon her hands.
From another pair of lovers, hidden
somewhere nearby, came a gasp. Below, fine golden scales of moonshine shimmered
upon the bosom of the river.
"All right, Miss," he said.
"Out with what you mean to say."
"That– I don't generally ... I mean –
I haven't ever – I mean that no one..." Jenny stammered. "Ah – that
you may not just – "
He pulled her close again.
"Even," he whispered, "even if you haven't ever – even if no one
has had the sense – even if I must not assume – I believe that a girl as
beautiful as you must be kissed and kissed very often and very thoroughly. I
look upon it as a duty."
"Rubbish," she gasped, attempting
severity, though it wasn't easy with that hard young body pressed so ardently
against hers. "Stop teasing!"
~Juliet Waldron
In e and print
`Action, Adventure and Romance during the Revolution~
https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-genesee-481068-158.html
Hop on to the other snippets from talented Books We Love Authors:
http://mizging.blogspot.com (Ginger Simpson)
http://authorjamiehill.blogspot.com/ (Jamie Hill)
http://romancingscifi.blogspot.com/ (Vijaya Schartz)
