Rapunzelle: an Everland Ever After Tale by Caroline Lee Page A

draw the fingers of his other hand down her now-pink cheek. She didn’t stiffen or edge away, but instead continued to watch him. “I’m glad that I get to spend some more time with you, to experience that zeal.”
    She shrugged, then, and pulled back, looking towards the water. “I don’t do it on purpose, you know. I just… I just want to see everything. Do everything.”
    “Is that why you let me kiss you?”
    Had he thought that she’d blushed, before? Now the dark pink climbed up her neck, and colored even her delicate ears with the blonde wisps tucked behind them. He hadn’t intended to ask the question, but judging from the way she loosed his hand and twined her own fingers together in her lap, it was an enlightening question to ask.
    Finally, she took a deep breath, and he didn’t bother pretending that he wasn’t watching the pale purple material of her bodice stretch across her breasts. Breasts that he’d been lucky enough to stroke—at least the tops—not too long ago. Breasts he was suddenly aching to touch again. “I’d never been kissed. I wanted to try it. I didn’t know you, but…”
    But he was there, and he was ready to be kissed. He was ready to be kissed again, in fact. Pulling one booted foot up, he rested his elbow on his knee, and realized that for the first time in a long time, he wasn’t thinking about what others thought of him. He was thinking about how nice it was to be enjoying the grass, the shade, the breeze, the pretty girl.
    With a grin, he picked up her braid—lying across her shoulder and pooling in her lap—and circled it with his fingers. She stiffened slightly, but didn't look his way. Not yet, anyway. Dmitri ran his hand down her braid until he reached the tip, and took a moment to thoughtfully brush the bundled end of her hair against his thigh. She was holding her breath, he could tell, and he hoped it was in anticipation. Because it felt nice, he brushed her hair across his leg again, and then lifted it to brush against his other palm.
    “The first time I saw you, I thought you were a shlyukha . A woman who sleeps with men for money.” Her eyes cut towards him, and her mouth made the most tempting oh of surprise, and he knew that he’d gotten the response he wanted. “You were painted and plumped, and oh-so-touchable.” A flush had risen up her neck, and she sucked in a breath at his words. “I’d decided right then and there that Everland did have something to offer me, and I wanted to take you upstairs with me. Ah , I see I’ve shocked you.”
    “No, I…” Those breasts—tucked away primly behind purple cotton—were heaving with her deep breaths, and he smiled wickedly again, knowing that she was so close to being his again.
    “Oh yes, I thought you a whore… But in truth, you were a tempting innocent, and all you wanted was a kiss. Any man would do, I suppose? But it was me that you… used .”
    “What?” Her voice was a mere squeak.
    “I said…” Dmitri tightened his grip on the tail of the braid, and twisted his hand once so that the hair was wrapped around his fist. “That you used me.”
    That got her attention. Still pink-cheeked, she whipped back to face him, her mouth already opened to defend herself. Maybe it was his grin—knowing, and probably as wolfish as his name—that stopped her. Another twist, another wrap of the braid. “You wanted a kiss, and I was a convenient kisser. You didn’t know me. You just…used me.”
    Another twist. Her hair really was long, wasn’t it? She hadn’t seemed to notice yet. “I didn’t mean…” Her whisper was as breathless as the rest of her. “I wanted…”
    “Oh, I know what you wanted.” Green eyes widened in a delicious sort of adventurous innocence that he couldn’t resist. Two more twists; two more layers of braid wrapped around his fist, and he was finally to her shoulder. Her eyes flickered from the hair to his face. “But I think that you owe me something. To