Burning for Love by Evangeline Anderson
43
“Good evening, Princess. You look even more radiantly beautiful in person than you do in your pictures.” Lord Shammington bowed gracefully over Rissa’s hand and gave her a gleaming smile. “Would you favor me with a dance?”
Dutifully, Rissa bowed and smiled and allowed him to lead her onto the dance floor.
On the outside, her new suitor truly did seem perfect, she admitted to herself as they spun about the room. He had a handsome face, a gleaming, youthful smile, thick, dark hair, and a trim, athletic figure. He also had the pearly Sheen to his skin which announced that he had Royal blood in his veins.
The only negative things Rissa could find about her new suitor—other than the fact that he was not James—was that he was a bit short and that he wore rather a lot of some very strong, spicy cologne. But she was short herself, so his height didn’t really matter and she supposed that sooner or later the scent would fade.
If the Steward had chosen him as her suitor before she met James, she would probably have fallen in love with him.
But as it was, Rissa found she couldn’t get over her longing for the big Kindred, who stood at the side of the room and watched as she danced with her soon-to-be husband. Her eyes kept returning to him again and again and her answers to Lord Shammington’s polite questions about her life were vague and distracted.
Her apparent lack of interest didn’t appear to bother her new suitor at all, however. He kept chatting away happily as he spun her around and around the ballroom, claiming her for dance after dance so that no other partner even had a chance.
The only good thing, as far as Rissa could see, was that Lady Mildew had consented to let her take off the awful new Chastity Device so that she was able to dance.
“But it’s going right back in tonight after your bath,” she’d said, glaring warningly at Rissa. “And I’ll give the key remote only to your new husband. So don’t get any ideas about running away with that Kindred guard, girl—he wouldn’t be able to get to you even if he tried!”
So for one evening only, she was free of the shield that rubbed so painfully against her outer mons and the plug which dug into her tender inner channel. Rissa couldn’t help wondering how in the world she could bear to let her new husband slake her Heat after wearing the awful device all through the lengthy wedding ceremony. Even now, with the plug out of her, she felt so raw inside that dancing gracefully was an effort. She supposed she would just have to bear it.
But no—she could not stand to think of doing such intimate things with the man who was holding her in his arms. She wanted only James to make love to her and slake her Heat! The thought of letting the powdered and perfumed dandy who was spinning her around the ballroom do that to her made Rissa cringe inside.
At that moment, the dance ended and she hoped, briefly, that he might let her dance with someone else. Perhaps even James…
“We must dance the next together as well,” Lord Shammington said, interrupting her thoughts as they waited for the music to begin again. “I want you entirely to myself, so we can get to know each other,” he added, smiling brightly with his gleaming white teeth. “After all, we shall be spending the rest of our lives together, shall we not?”
“I suppose,” Rissa said and made herself smile politely, though she felt sure the smile didn’t reach her eyes. “It is…quite a long time,” she added. “The rest of our lives, I mean.”
“Indeed! Though it is longer for some than others. Which is why it is so very important to get to know each other as soon as possible,” Lord Shammington returned brightly. “So tell me, Princess—what is your favorite color?”
And so it went, endlessly on and on, and all Rissa could think was,
Is this really how I shall spend the rest of my life?
