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She pulled away and his hands fell back from her waist. He searched her gaze for affirmation that her world had equally shifted with their kiss.
Rupert leaned in slowly to steal another taste but Taggie retreated farther, her back brushing against the counter cluttered with mismatched pots and pans. The wariness in her expression made his stomach drop.
“Are you going to ignore me tomorrow?” She implored, eyes digging in to him. “Blame drinking or Mummy leaving for London? Are you going call me a mistake or a stupid little girl like everyone does?”
He knew, if he had any shred of honor left, he should claim one of her excuses and run for the hills no matter how much it would hurt her in the short term. It would surely be better for her in the end... right? Everything in the last month he had done was for her, including avoiding moments like this.
But, that was before her confession. With one sentence, she had cracked his soul open. With her kiss, she had irrevocably shifted his gravity. Everything was different now.
“Your kiss is not something I would ever take back, angel, ” he whispered. “It’s mine now.”
Honor be damned. Rupert lifted an arm as if to pull her back to him, wanting nothing more than to quell her fears of rejection.
She considered his outstretched hand with such trepidation he felt the urge to rip out his heart and serve it to her the same platter she used to serve roasts to his fickle friends and brash ex-lovers.
“Rupert,” she looked up at him, so unsure.
“Taggie.”
He flexed his hand and she cautiously stepped toward him. He swore his heart literally stopped when she slowly placed her warm hand in his. He could feel her nerves in the racing pulse of her palm.
“I know, Tag.” He squeezed her hand and finally pulled her back to his chest.
Taggie startled at the sudden proximity but when his arms folded around her, she leaned in.
“It will be alright,” he muttered into her hair, not certain it would be.
Taggie closed her eyes on a slow exhale, tension seeping out of her frame.
Rupert peered down at her, hoping to find something that wouldn’t scare him to death or result in him losing a friend in Declan forever. No such luck. He was a horrible, horrible man. Maybe a horrible man in love, but that was hardly the point.
His hands shifted up her back to cradle her neck, then head. She was so impossibly beautiful. He gently tilted her chin up, still searching for that affirmation in her stunning eyes.
Her lips were turned up in a slight smile, eyes shut. He chuckled at the way she melted for him.
When he began to sway them in a slow, lazy dance to an imaginary song, Taggie cracked a full grin. He smiled so widely in return, his cheeks stung.
“Angel, there’s much to figure out but I will make certain that-”
A loud crash and follow-up scream from the party suddenly plunged them both back into reality. Rupert dropped Taggie’s face and her eyes blinked open. They both looked toward the commotion but they didn’t drift apart.
While Rupert assessed the risk of a partygoer intruding upon their moment, Taggie took advantage of the distraction and snaked her arms around his waist. She quickly re-memorized his strong and expressive brow and his handsome clenched jaw. His face was so gorgeously sculpted it was surely carved by a God whose mission was to design most beautiful man on earth. Her man. She wanted to jump him and live inside his arms forever.
After a few moments of waiting for the worst, Rupert looked back to her when the music and laughter resumed.
“There you are.” Rupert soaked Taggie in with a tender smirk. He reveled in the feeling of her hands on his waist.
“Here I am.”
They were, at last, so close after weeks of standing on opposite ends of rooms or sitting separated by the center console of a car.
Rupert frowned at the worry he saw stirring between Taggie's brows. He knew what was creeping in to her thoughts. This was how Taggie’s brain worked; she conjured up the millions of ways things could go wrong in an instant. He couldn't blame her. She wasn’t wrong to worry about their joint fate and he despised that there wasn't much he could do to assuage her fears. If they were to become anything, it would not be without great challenges.
He cupped Taggie's face again and stretched out the growing line of worry across her forehead with the pads of his thumbs.
“As much as I try to disavow it, everything about you consumes me, Taggie O’Hara.”
“Please stop trying,” Taggie pleaded, her hands migrating up his chest.
Finally, she leaned in for another kiss.
His heart ached and -
“Taggie, it is absolutely feral out there.” A lilting voice crashed into the kitchen. Caitlin appeared in the doorway with a scowl and a slice of chocolate cake in hand.
Rupert abruptly leapt back from Taggie, putting a good distance between them this time.
“Daddy threw a full bottle of brandy through a window and a shard of glass went flying into some random nan’s shin. Blood is spraying everywhere. Kind of wicked.”
Caitin yammered on, oblivious to what she had barged in on. Rupert folded his arms, adopting his usual half-amused smirk while the punkish O’Hara girl reported details of the crime scene. Taggie was trying to focus on Caitlin, but she felt herself drifting back to admiring Rupert and his strong and sure hands, thinking of what their next kiss would lead to. She couldn't calm the flush that had bloomed on her cheeks.
“You should see it, completely gnarly. Do you think they’ll have to amputate her leg, Rupert? Seb said it hit an artery. I didn’t know shins had arteries. And Tags, I am very worried about the rug because you know it was a gift to Mummy from that fancy actor friend. Mummy is going to be livid about the stain. It will be murderous to scrub out. See what I did there?" She paused a millisecond for a laugh that Taggie and Rupert would not provide before barreling on. "Oh, and not to mention Daddy is hanging from the top railing like a lunatic and everyone is screaming that he’s going to snap his neck.”
Unfortunately, mention of Declan and his imminent danger instantly doused Taggie's blush.
“I need to go help Daddy.” She bolted out of the room without a backward glance.
Caitlin rolled her eyes at Taggie’s predictable heroics and scooped up a spoonful of cake.
“Are you alright, Caitlin?” Rupert warily approached the wily teenager.
“Spiffy.” Caitlin waved her fork around. “Do you think Daddy will be charged with murder if the old lady croaks?’
“I am no lawyer,” Rupert said, haphazardly brushing a hand through his hair. He wanted to follow Taggie and help with corralling the drunken Declan, but he couldn’t just yet.
Caitlin nodded with a mouthful of cake. She turned as if to leave but lingered a moment, assessing the obviously frazzled Rupert.
“You know my sister is obsessed with you, yeah?" Caitlin chewed her words through Venturer blue buttercream icing.
Rupert didn’t know how to respond. That he was just as obsessed with Taggie, if not more so? No, that would be inappropriate. He gulped and tried to regain composure.
“Taggie is a spectacular person with a bright future ahead. You are lucky to have her as a sister,” Rupert asserted in his best impression of one of his old schoolmasters at graduation.
It was an idiotic tone to take because before he could stop himself he was imagining Taggie in a short plaid skirt, sitting on his desk, legs open...His brain nearly short circuited.
Oblivious to the braindead man in front of her, Caitlin sniffed at the stilted compliment.
“Okay well, whatever. Just don’t be mean to her or I will slit your throat with a shard of glass.”
Caitlin flounced away and Rupert nearly collapsed against the kitchen table. He downed what was left of his drink. A few more seconds and he could rush in to save the day as if he had been out having a smoke and not snogging the sweet Taggie O’Hara in the Priory kitchen. His angel…
He was far too old to be made so adrift by a kiss from a gorgeous woman. And yet, there he was, completely oreless.