I studied the pole without realizing how often I was weaving in and out of my neighbors and dancing partners. I didn’t even make an extra effort to meet William’s eyes each time we passed each other. I kept my eyes on that pole until I realized that my ribbon was growing very short.
And as the person with the shortest ribbon, I was the one who got tied to the pole by everyone else’s ribbons, which made me the official May Queen. It wasn’t long before my fellow dancers pressed me up against the pole, using their extra length of ribbon to tie me there, as was custom.
As the first to run out of my ribbon, Fate had chosen me to be the May Queen. My friends circled closer, offering me congratulations with huge grins on their faces. Eventually, when they reached the ends of their ribbons, they pressed kisses on my cheek.
For a quick, stressful moment, I thought Doug would be the last man standing. But when he faced me with his ribbon, instead of bending to kiss me, he grimaced and walked away, leaving the person behind him in plain view to me. The last man holding a ribbon end was now the May King.
William stood soberly in front of me as people whooped and hollered their congratulations. When my gaze met his, I blushed to the roots of my hair as everyone around us clapped their hands in time to the music and chanted, “Kiss her! Kiss her!”
He smiled down at me, clearly pleased, and I, equally pleased, grinned back at him. Finally, after a few more seconds of goading, he bent his head just as I tilted my head back, more than ready to meet his mouth.
When at last he kissed me, it was delicious. The moment my lips parted, his tongue was there, tasting me, and I felt it flash like lightning through my body. His hands rested on my hips, and gently he tried to tug me toward him. Though, tied down as I was by the ribbons on the pole, I couldn’t go to him.
“Huzzah!” called our baron, Lord de Bricasse. “The Fates have now chosen our May Queen and King. All hail! Let us open these Beltane festivities with their coronation!”
I was released by Caitlyn, who hugged me while whispering in my ear that the group of ladies had rigged the dance to work out the way it had by ensuring that I started with the shortest ribbon, and William, the longest. I gave her a stern look, suddenly understanding their snickering and cheeky looks. But then my face melted into a grin, which she quickly returned. I thanked her, and in the next second, I had a crown of beautiful wildflowers placed on my head with ribbons streaming down the back.
I turned to watch as they crowned the May King, taking a moment to marvel that the crowd during the dance had hardly appeared to faze him. William’s crown was much more Spartan, made of laurel and ivy vines woven together in a masculine style.
At the crowd’s request—and much less required this time than before—we kissed again as they sang and cheered. I murmured against his mouth, “I have to get dressed for the feast and dancing.”
His hold only tightened and his mouth continued to move over mine, claiming it again and again, leaving me breathless.
“C’mon, Wil, you have to let me go.” I reluctantly pulled back from him.
“I’m the king. I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do,” he responded, kissing me again, even as the crowd started to dissipate in preparation for the evening celebration.
Thrill surged through me and my eyes fluttered closed. I’d wondered if he still wanted me like I now knew I wanted him. I guess I had my answer.
Intense joy crackled within, hot as sunlight. The only thing that could make this more perfect was…“But I want to wear that gorgeous new dress you bought for me.”
He froze and slowly, ever so slowly, pulled away. “Even though I’ve pictured it clearly, I’d love to see you wearing it.”
“Thank you. You shouldn’t have done it.”
“But I did. And I’m the king, so I can do whatever I want.”
I laughed. “You’re really loving that new title, aren’t you?”
He smiled, lifting a hand to brush his thumb across my cheek. “It’s good to be the king.”
“Maybe tonight you’ll get to see me…not wearing the dress, too.”
His brows pinched and his eyes grew intense. “I don’t have to imagine that, because I’ve already seen it. I just have to remember it.”
And maybe look forward to it. If I was very, very lucky.
“Wil, there’s something I need to tell you—”
He kissed me again. We were now alone in the empty clearing, as everyone else had gone back to their tents or to circulate amongst the booths.
“Tell me in between kisses,” he said, his voice raspy with a harsh edge to it. That edge dragged across my senses, the scratch made by a lover during a passionate moment. I swallowed my thready heartbeat and suppressed the vertigo of someone about to step off a precipice into the unknown below.