Snowflakes and Scandals

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The evening of the ball came quicker than Olivia could’ve guessed. Between their hosts, her aunt, and Hugh, numerous activities had been arranged to keep everyone entertained.

The younger members of the house party had ventured into the woods the previous afternoon to find a Yule log. Olivia couldn’t remember the last time she laughed so much. Though others had been with them, including Lady Ellen, she and Hugh had shared another deep kiss while hidden behind a large spruce tree.

All the guests had played charades last evening. Even Lord Ballard participated, leading to hilarity as the straitlaced lord acted out a joust.

They’d gathered greenery, as well, and helped decorate the ballroom with garlands and kissing boughs. Hugh had wiggled his eyebrows at her as he’d hung one, causing her cheeks to heat along with her entire body.

Olivia had collected more memories in the past few days than she thought possible yet still hoped for more.

“Such a beautiful gown, miss.” The maid’s voice held a note of awe as she fastened the back. “You look like a princess.”

Olivia glanced in the full-length looking glass, her reflection a surprise. The white gown with its high waist and straight lines made her look tall and elegant. The fitted bodice with a daring neckline was sewn with swirls of seed pearls. The sleeves were merely puffs of fabric. She silently thanked her mother for the gift. “It is a lovely gown.”

“ You look lovely in it,” the maid suggested with a gentle smile. “Now for your hair.”

Olivia had worn it simply thus far during her stay, but perhaps a different one for the evening would be appropriate.

She sat at the dressing table as Susan tried several styles before declaring one perfect. The maid even found a few seed pearls on a thin wire to wind through Olivia’s dark hair, almost in a tiara. Several long strands were curled and left to drape over one shoulder.

“Beautiful, Miss Downing, don’t you think?” the maid asked.

Olivia caught her breath as she took another look in the glass, hardly able to recognize herself. “You are talented, Susan. Thank you.”

“The pleasure is mine, miss.” The maid helped her to put on the long white gloves Aunt Ester had loaned her just as a knock sounded at the door.

“Enter.”

Aunt Ester peeked in and gasped in delight, eyes filling with tears. “Olivia, you look so pretty.”

“Thank you.” Nerves took hold, causing a flurry in her middle that brought to mind the recent snowstorm. She pressed a hand to it, wondering if her stays were too tight. “I find I am quite anxious for the evening.”

“No need to be.” Aunt Ester came forward to take her hand, looking regal in a mauve gown with a wide hem embroidered in gold and navy thread. “We shall go down together. The ball is going to be wonderful.”

“Yes, it is.” Olivia adored her aunt’s positive outlook.

After thanking the maid and advising her not to wait up to help her prepare for bed, Olivia followed Aunt Ester out the door. Several other guests joined them, all chatting with excitement.

Lord and Lady Ballard greeted guests near the ballroom, who were steadily streaming in from the neighboring countryside.

“Miss Downing, you look lovely.” Lady Ballard studied her with a nod of approval. “As do you, Ester.”

“Thank you.” Her aunt returned the compliment then took Olivia’s elbow to enter the ballroom. “We did a fine job with the decorations, don’t you think?”

The candles had been lit and their flames were reflected in the numerous mirrors and gold trays. The chandeliers shimmered with light and the entire room looked elegant and inviting. A fire burned cheerfully in the hearth, lending warmth. Garlands of greenery were draped over the top of the windows and around the columns and smelled heavenly. The kissing boughs added the perfect touch.

Guests already mingled with glasses of champagne in hand. The musicians were warming up at the top of the room.

“Lovely,” Olivia breathed as she looked around. “I feel like I’m inside a fairytale.”

Aunt Ester chuckled. “By the end of the evening, your back will hurt and your toes will pinch, bringing you back to reality.”

“I find that impossible to believe,” Olivia said with a smile. Her gaze landed on Hugh, who looked especially handsome in his evening attire as he spoke to another gentleman across the room. “This night is magical.” She could feel it in the pulse thrumming through her.

Then his gaze met hers. The man he spoke with said something, but Hugh paid no attention. Instead, he walked directly toward her, oblivious to all else.

Her heart somersaulted in her chest at his approach even as she noted a few stares.

“Olivia.” He blinked. “You look so beautiful.” Only after he whispered the words did he glance at her aunt as if realizing he shouldn’t have offered the compliment.

Olivia couldn’t bring herself to care, especially when her aunt only chuckled. “How kind. May I say you look handsome as well?”

“Thank you.” Was that a blush darkening his golden skin? Olivia thought it adorable. “Will you save me a dance?”

“I will,” she readily agreed.

“This is a small gathering, so normal rules don’t apply. Ask for a second,” Aunt Ester suggested, eliciting a lop-sided grin from him.

“Yes, please,” he quickly amended. “Two would be thrice as nice.”

Olivia laughed. “Of course.”

“Just be sure to dance with other ladies twice as well,” Aunt Ester advised. “We wouldn’t want any gossip.”

He nodded then gestured toward a nearby footman who carried a tray of champagne flutes. “Allow us to toast to a wonderful party,” he suggested, handing them drinks.

“Here, here.” Aunt Ester raised her glass as she looked between them.

Olivia wondered what she saw. Whatever it was, she clearly approved based upon her smile and the warmth in her eyes.

Olivia lifted her glass, and they all took a sip. The bubbles on her tongue added to the magical feel of the evening, along with the admiring gleam in Hugh’s blue eyes.

“Is that Lady Ellen?” Aunt Ester tipped her head in the direction of a lady wearing a bright red gown a short distance away.

“It is.” Olivia’s high spirits dipped at the sight of her watching them, eyes narrowed. But Olivia refused to allow her to ruin the evening.

The conversation continued as they enjoyed their champagne, admiring the guests’ attire as more entered the ballroom, all in fine spirits. Within a quarter of an hour, Lady Ballard nodded for the first dance, a minuet, to begin.

When Hugh reached for her hand, Aunt Ester lifted a finger. “Not the first dance.”

Olivia swallowed hurt at the unwelcome reminder that she and Hugh had no future together. She pushed aside her upset, pleased to take his hand for the next dance, a quadrille.

The intricate foot movement and lively music made the dance a joy. Hugh performed the steps effortlessly. She felt as if she were gliding on air, not so different from ice skating.

The dance ended, and too quickly, Hugh was escorting her to her aunt.

“Olivia?” he whispered.

“Yes?”

“I want more time with you. I have no right to ask, but I can’t help myself. Will you meet me at midnight?”

Her heart squeezed, his words another painful reminder of their separate futures. The house party was nearly over, and everyone would soon be leaving. They might never see each other again. She wasn’t prepared to say goodbye until she had a chance for more. “Where?”

“There is a sitting room at the end of the corridor near the bedchambers.”

“I know it.” It was a cozy room but rarely used because of its out-of-the-way location.

“Good.” He smiled. “We will dance again before then, but I look forward to having you to myself.”

“As do I.” She was beside herself with impatience. Midnight couldn’t come quickly enough.

Hugh paced the small sitting room, cursing himself for asking Olivia to meet him. What had he been thinking? Perhaps she would be wise enough to realize this was a poor idea and not come.

He ran a hand through his hair, tugging at his cravat. With a sigh, he closed his eyes, unable to deny that he wanted her to arrive with every inch of his being.

The house party was nearly at end. Then what?

While he’d had time with Lady Ellen, he wasn’t prepared to ask for her hand. Would he ever be? Somehow, he couldn’t quite imagine it. She was rarely kind, often fickle, and seemed to go out of her way to make others aware of her by refusing to do as expected. He found her behavior tiring. Marrying her would mean being burdened with it for the rest of their lives as a marriage of convenience wasn’t for him.

He had little experience with Society. Were all ladies of the ton like her? The lords similar to her father who seemed to think himself better than others? If so, he had little desire to insert himself among them.

He’d been so certain of what he wanted and how to get it but all that had changed—because of Olivia.

A sound had him turning to see the door push open to reveal her. She looked like a snow princess from a distant land in her beautiful white gown with pearls in her hair.

She blinked as if having difficulty believing he was there. Or perhaps that she was.

His worries washed away as he came forward to take her gloved hands in his. “You came,” he whispered, touched by her faith in him. To know she trusted him made him feel like the most powerful man in the world.

“You asked me.” She smiled. “And I confess that I want more time with you, too.”

He released her hands to close the door and lock it. At her raised brow, he said, “We don’t want to be discovered.”

“No.” She glanced around the room, and he followed her gaze to where a settee, along with two wingback chairs, sat before a fire where coals still glowed in the hearth.

Hugh moved to add a small chunk of wood then turned to see her on the settee, just as he’d hoped.

He sank beside her, placing his arm along the back of it. “It has been a lovely ball.” At least, it was when he was with her.

“Indeed.” She reached for his hand. “Especially our dances together.”

“You danced almost every dance, and I wanted to throttle every man who took you into his arms. There’s no denying you were the belle of the ball.”

“Hardly. Lady Ellen was. She looked beautiful this evening.”

“Did she?” He hadn’t noticed. In his eyes, she hadn’t compared to Olivia.

Olivia grinned. “You are too kind.”

“I can’t lay claim to that title.” If so, he wouldn’t be here with Olivia when he didn’t see how he could make her part of his life.

“You can.” The light gleaming in her golden eyes made him long to be whoever she believed him to be.

He wanted to move mountains and slay dragons for her. His heart squeezed, a reminder of how much she had come to mean to him in a short time. “You are so special, Olivia.”

Unable to resist, he claimed her mouth, wishing he could claim the whole of her. He pressed his tongue along the seam of her lips, hoping she would open for him.

She did and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, her desire seeming to match his own. Their tongues danced in a rhythm as old as time, passion flaring more quickly than he expected.

He broke the kiss to press his lips to her cheek, then just below her ear, along her neck, and finally to the pulse fluttering at the base of her throat.

“So beautiful,” he murmured as he took her mouth again.

To his dismay, Olivia eased back, making him realize he was pushing for too much. But to his delight, she pulled off the long white gloves and set them aside.

With a shy smile, she said, “I want to touch you.”

“Yes, please.” He sighed as she cupped his cheeks, her gentle touch stirring his senses.

They kissed again until they were both breathless.

His gaze dropped to her tantalizing neckline which showed the swell of her breasts to perfection. “You are so tempting.”

Her eyes widened as if she couldn’t believe it to be true. “Show me.”

“Olivia.” He hardly knew what to say. To think she’d allow him such liberties was yet another unexpected gift.

He trailed a finger along her chest, then to the curve of her breast above her gown. Her head tipped back, and her eyes drifted closed at his touch.

Unable to deny either of them the pleasure, he reached lower to find the tip of her breast. Her eyes popped open as she gasped. “Hugh! That feels...amazing.”

“If so, allow me this.” He bent his head as he freed her breast from the gown, kissing around the nipple before at last taking it into his mouth.

She moaned as she arched into him. He repeated the same tender care on her other breast. Her hands ran through his hair, along his neck, and beneath his suit jacket to roam over his chest.

“More,” she whispered.

He gulped in air, wondering how far he could go and still be able to halt before he made her his. Yet it would take a stronger man than he to refuse her.

With trembling fingers, he found the ribbon that tied her gown and pulled, loosening the neckline so the fabric fell around her shoulders. The sight of her full breasts in the fire’s glow caught his breath. “Beautiful.” He reached out a hand to caress her and kissed her again, thrusting his tongue into her mouth as he longed to do with other parts.

He paused to remove his jacket, waistcoat, and cravat, anxious to have fewer layers between them, then eased her back, lifting the hem of her gown upward as they kissed. Her silk stockings felt erotic as did the narrow garter above her knee.

But it was the soft, bare skin that he continued toward. He told himself to move slowly, to enjoy each step, certain she would call a halt soon. He brushed the top of her thighs, thrilled when she still didn’t protest.

“I want to touch you, Olivia,” he murmured. “I need to touch you.”

“Please.” Her breath quickened, and she shifted on the settee as if as eager as him.

Though unsure if she understood precisely what he wanted, he reached for the apex of her thighs, loving her reaction when he found her soft curls. “Do you like this?”

“Yes. Oh, yes.”

Her words were an answer to a prayer, and he quickly found her slick folds, caressing them as her hips moved.

His manhood strained against his trousers, eager for more. He slowed the pace, knowing this had to be the end of it. He would help her find release, and then this madness had to stop.

“Hugh?”

“Yes.” He braced himself, already moving his hand from the warmth of her center and from beneath her gown.

“I want to touch you as well.”

His breath caught as she reached behind her to loosen her stays. He assisted her and, after a fumble or two, she was soon free of her garments, leaving only her stockings and garters remaining.

He’d never seen anyone more beautiful. “You are a siren.” He trailed a finger from her shoulder down to the tip of her breast, to her stomach, and onto her hip, those dark curls between her legs beckoning him to finish what he’d started.

“Now you,” she demanded, her golden eyes holding steady on him.

“Olivia,” he began, trying to find the words to explain that he couldn’t resist her if they went further. Not without the needed barrier of his clothes.

She reached to lift his shirt, and he complied, helpless to refuse her wishes. Then she reached for the fall of his trousers, her fingers proving nimbler than his.

The coolness of her fingers on his staff had him moaning.

“Do you like this?” she asked, using his words against him. So clever.

“Yes,” he muttered. He endured her sweet caresses for only a minute or two before removing her hand. “You’ll have me undone before...”

Before what? He couldn’t take her though he desperately wanted to.

Instead of finishing the sentence, he kissed her again, pressing her back into the corner of the settee before finding her center once again. His fingers set a steady rhythm that had her writhing beneath him.

“Yes, my sweet.” He murmured encouragement until she flew apart in his arms, her body arching against him.

“Hugh.” Breathless, she looked at him as if uncertain what had happened. Her hand brushed against his manhood, and he flinched then moaned as she took a firmer hold. “What of you?”

He clenched his jaw as he placed his hand over hers and helped her finish him, using his handkerchief to contain the mess.

“Olivia.” He reached to hold her, never wanting to let her go. Life without her felt impossible.

How was it that he wanted her now more than ever? And how was he going to be able to say goodbye in the coming days?