The Five Second Rule for Kissing by Dayna Quince

Author:Dayna Quince
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2019-05-17T21:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

Josie waited on the chaise lounge in the library in her favorite corner, but today she did not find comfort there. The afternoon had left her feeling…shaken, as if she didn't recognize the world she was living in anymore. Her whole life, her older sister Jeanie had always been the calm one, never wild, never impetuous, like she or Bernie or Georgie. But she would have been an idiot to assume that meant Jeanie couldn’t be swept away by desire just as easy as Josie had. Her perceptions about her own goals for this experiment had been altered. She’d embarked on this journey to understand desire, passion, and pleasure but without the protection of marriage.

If Jeanie had been caught by anyone else, would she truly marry Lord Luckfeld after so little acquaintance? Could a person fall in love so easily? Josie didn't know and that uncertainty frightened her, as did the notion of love. She felt like she was spinning, her thoughts spiraling the way a hawk dives toward the ground before snatching up a mouse. For that brief moment, the hawk is moving so fast, a blur through the sky, and one wonders how can it possibly stop in time. The hawk defies what she knows of physics, and yet the hawk does it every day.

And people fall in love every day.

She needed stability and for her that meant a space she could control—this chair in a room that gave her comfort, the library. But now she waited for Patrick because for some reason, he also made the world stand still. He made it smaller with just his presence and quieter, driving out all distraction. As much as it frightened her to need him like this—as vulnerable as it made her feel—she couldn't stop it.

So now she waited, unsure if he would come. His mood on the way back to the castle after discovering Lord Luckfeld and Jeanie had been difficult to decipher. Would he go back on his word now? Was he spooked? He couldn't be. He’d made his position on marriage clear.

She hugged herself, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them as if she could contain all these feelings inside her if only she squeezed herself a little harder. The click of the door below was so loud and sharp she jerked in surprise. She leapt off the chair and peered over the railing, her heart skipping at the site of his ruby head. He closed the door and locked it. He didn't look up, but he climbed the spiral stairs. Josie stepped away from the railing, waiting for him by her chair, too anxious to sit or prevaricate that she wasn't as nervous about this afternoon as a cornered rabbit. His gaze met hers as he reached the upper floor and held it until he stopped right before her.

“I wasn't sure you'd come,” she said.

“I wasn't sure I should,” he replied coolly.

“Then why did you?”

“I can’t stay away.”

She took a deep breath.

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