In Bloom
an excerpt

Charles smiled as he thought of seducing the perpetually blushing Widow Middleton. The smile stayed with him until he walked into the dining room and saw the very subject of this thoughts sitting alone at the table, her back to him. His smile widened as he watched her as she bent over a book, nibbling quietly on a piece of bread. What luck, he thought to himself, I think it and it happens.
The morning sun trickled into the lavishly decorated dining room, making the impeccably polished and arranged silverware on the table shine and cast white reflections on the walls. Charles watched the way the bleached sunlight played with the light brown highlights in her hair, which today was pulled back into a simple bun at the base of her neck. A curly strand of hair rested against the downy hairs on the back of her neck and, unable to stop himself, Charles reached out to caress the errant lock.
The moment his skin came into contact with hers, Aggie jumped out of her seat, startled, sending her book flying across the dining table. She turned quickly to see who it was and the moment their eyes locked, Charles felt a strange tug in his chest followed by a sigh of relief. From the look on her face, he would not have to try very hard to seduce her.
Of course, she was blushing, which he found charming, but there was something besides embarrassment behind her eyes. A yearning that he knew matched his own.
He walked to the chair opposite hers and sat down, picking up the book that had traveled across the table in her frightened ascent. Green’s Guide to Greenery, it read and Charles had to stifled a laugh.
“Catchy title,” he said and handed the book back to her. He noticed a piece of bread on her lower lip right before she reached out and caught it with her little pink tongue. He remembered that sweet tongue and started to wonder about all of the ways he would like to occupy it when she spoke.
“It’s silly, I know,” Aggie said and placed the book on her lap, “but Mortimer Green is one of Britain’s keenest gardening minds.” She was looking down at her book, but Charles noticed that her mouth had turned up ever so slightly. He realized with even greater relief that she was making a joke. Surely she wasn’t too scandalized if she was joking.
In all earnestness, Charles replied, “ I found his treatise on the plight of the common squash absolutely illuminating.”
She responded with the same earnestness, “Well then you really should read his dialogue on the illogical tomato. It was absolutely life changing.”
Without warning, he found a bubble of laughter rise in his throat. Aggie’s blush deepened, but she began to laugh too, a sweet but womanly laugh that made him want to throw her over his shoulder and march her up to his bedchamber. The mirth faded from his eyes, replaced with something much more primal and he reached across the table to grasp her soft hand in his.
“Do you have it with you, in your bedchamber, perhaps?” he asked, his eyes searching her face, “maybe I can come and get it, tonight?”