Page 41 of For the Love of the Quest

Edith’s smile somehow grew even brighter.

Then, Thomasin kissed her.

Chapter Seventeen

Edith had put a lot of thought into her first kiss. When one made it all the way to the ripe age of twenty-seven without ever kissing anyone, it was only natural to spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about it, fantasizing really. Edith had dreamed up a thousand perfect scenarios. Dashing rogues, perfect gentlemen, demure ladies, bold, mystical women like Morgan le Fay. She had pictured them all. Sometimes they kissed her in the rain, or on a beach. On a nighttime stroll under the full moon, or under the cover of candlelight in her bedchamber.

In her lack of actual experience, she had drowned herself in imagined fairy-tale romances. She believed there was true love for everyone, but the ticking clock of her life had begun slowly convincing her that there was no romance out there for her. As her prospects grew more grim, her fantasies grew more wild, more perfect.

But nothing, not one single idealistic, desperate imagining she had ever conjured up, could compare to this moment.

Thomasin Shaw was kissing her.

In a torchlit, underground chamber, where King Arthur’s Round Table had waited to be found for centuries, Thomasin Shaw was kissing Edith Darling.

Thomasin’s hands held Edith’s face, tilting her head just slightly upward. Her lips touched Edith’s with the most delicate pressure. Edith couldn’t wrap her mind around the feeling of Thomasin’s lips against hers. They were soft and hard. Insistent and patient.

She wasn’t sure what to do with her hands, so she did the only thing that she wanted to do. She slid her hands up to grip Thomasin’s shoulders and pulled her in closer.

Thomasin obliged, stepping further into Edith’s space, lips beginning to gently move against hers. It wasn’t scorching hot or mindless with lust like Edith might have imagined. But Edith didn’t need that yet, wouldn’t quite know what to do with it, and perhaps Thomasin knew that, because the way Thomasin kissed her was sweet and soft, and all the things Edith had ever wanted someone to feel for her. There was a restraint in every brush of her lips, in the flex of her hand against Edith’s cheek.

She could feel Thomasin’s yearning as if it were her own. Which, of course, it was.

Thomasin pulled back just enough for their eyes to lock. Edith’s heart dropped at the baffled look on Thomasin’s face. She should’ve known such an innocent kiss would not have pleased Thomasin in the way that it pleased Edith. But Edith’s heart started beating again when Thomasin licked her lips and said, “You’re the most incredible woman I’ve ever known.”

“So that was good for you too, then?” Edith whispered into the space where their breath mingled.

Thomasin gave a short laugh. “You’re kidding, right?”

When Edith just searched her eyes, with a little furrow of insecurity between her brows, Thomasin leaned down and kissed Edithonce again. Harder this time, her tongue brushing across Edith’s lower lip.

“I didn’t know it was supposed to feel like this,” Thomasin said.

“Like what?” Edith asked, still expecting the worst.

“Like magic.”

Edith smiled, and Thomasin’s eyes sparkled down at her. “You’re magic to me too,” she told Thomasin.

Thomasin kissed her once, twice, three times. Each one longer, more languid, like she couldn’t help herself. Edith had never felt so wanted before.

After the fourth, or maybe hundredth kiss, Thomasin twirled a loose strand of Edith’s hair around her finger, studying it like it was the most fascinating thing she had ever seen.

“Before,” Edith said, and Thomasin dragged her gaze back up to Edith’s. “You saidourquest …”

“I meant it.” Thomasin trailed her hands down the sides of Edith’s neck, down her arms, then interlaced their fingers together. She brought their clasped hands up between them and landed a kiss on Edith’s knuckles. “I believe you. I believe in Excalibur, the treasure, all of it. And I want to be the one to find them with you.”

“Really?”

“I mean, we’re standing next to the bloody Round Table, it’s kind of hardnotto believe.”

“We’ll find it. I promise you, we will.” Edith looked over at the Round Table, and her smile stretched impossibly wide. But then, something terrible occurred to her. She drew her lower lip between her teeth and faced Thomasin again. The other woman’s brow lowered, dimples disappearing as she took in the grim set of Edith’s mouth.

“What?” Thomasin said in a low voice.

“There’s something we’ll have to do first.” Edith grimaced. Thomasin made a face as if to say,Go on. Squeezing Thomasin’s hands tight and scrunching up her nose, Edith said, “If we want to get out of here, we’ll have to go back through the spider room.”

“Fuck.”