Cynders & Ashe by Elizabeth Boyle Read Free Book Online

her blue eyes twinkling behind her mask. “No, I believe I found you.”
    “It doesn’t matter how you’ve come back,” he told her, catching her by the hand and drawing her into his arms. “I won’t lose you again.” Then, to seal his vow, his head dipped down and his lips captured hers.
    The night from five years ago came back to him in rich clarity. It was her, the same sweet response, the same curves, the same soft sigh as he deepened his kiss and plundered her lips without any thought of propriety. And when he pulled back and held her at arm’s length, he could only exclaim, “Devil take me, my love, I cannot believe I have found you.”
    “Believe again,” she whispered, raising her lips to his and again, they kissed, much to the shocked gasps of the company around them.
    “I have imagined this so many times,” he whispered in her ear.
    “You have?” She sounded surprised.
    “Yes, of course,” he told her. “You left me bewitched and lost that night.”
    “I did?” Truly, how could she be so surprised? Hadn’t that night meant as much to her?
    “Yes, you did,” he told her with every bit of his heart, and an unabashed grin from ear to ear.
    Her eyes sparkled beneath her mask. “And now?”
    He grinned even more if that was possible. “I am still yours, my fey sweet love, if you will have me.”
    “I . . .” she stammered, much as she had years before, and he realized he had to tread carefully lest he frighten her off yet again. He hadn’t another five years to wait.
    The musicians struck up their instruments and Ashe smiled at her, holding her slim hand in his. “Come, you owe me this dance. One of many, I might add. I’ve been waiting all these years for your return.”
    He unmasked himself then led her out to the dance floor, to the amazed and scandalized stares of his guests. For it appeared to one and all that the Ashe legend was about to come true and the viscount had found his bride.
    More than one matron with an unmarried daughter in tow and her hopes now dashed for an advantageous marriage, cursed this interloper, this princess from out of nowhere.
    Ashe led her out to where the couples were lining up for the first set and, when the music began, it was as if time had not moved a tick since the ball five years earlier.
    “Your hair is red,” he teased as they came together.
    “Are you disappointed?”
    “No, enchanted. It is glorious,” he whispered. He knew what it felt like, but now he could see the ginger strands and honeyed colours. He imagined what those silken tresses would look like spread out over his sheets, unbound and cascading all over her naked shoulders. “The colour matches your unmanageable temperament, as I recall.”
    She laughed. “You remember!”
    “There is nothing I have forgotten,” he told her.
    They turned and moved down a long line of dancers before being reunited at the end of the floor.
    “I see you found new wings,” he commented. “Did you lose your other ones when you took flight last time?”
    She shook her head at him. “I outgrew them. Besides, they were never mine to wear.”
    “So I discovered when I went looking for you.”
    Beneath her mask, her eyes widened. “You looked for me?”
    “How could you imagine that I would not?”
    Once again they made their way down the line of dancers and when they got to the end, she turned to him. “Do you know who I am?”
    He grinned and shook his head. “And I’m not the only one curious to discover the truth, my fairy princess.” Ashe nodded to the circle of guests around the ballroom, all gazes fixed on the two of them. “I believe you’ve created a sensation, Your Highness.”
    She leaned in a bit. “There was a mistake in the retiring room – a suggestion that I am a princess.”
    “Are you?”
    His lady love laughed, this time heartily. “Oh, good heavens, no!”
    “I am glad of that.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I suspect there would be all manners of protocol and such to