Cast in Ice by Laura Landon Page A

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    Words like desperation. Or hunger. Or intimacy came to mind. Even passionate, searing, and intense. But not anger.
    Except, when the kiss ended, he’d pulled away from her as if touching her burned him, repulsed him. As if he regretted what he’d done. As if what he’d experienced kissing her wasn’t anywhere near what she’d felt.
    Her cheeks burned. She wanted to say she regretted their kiss, but she didn’t. It was an experience she’d remember her whole life. If she had the memory of only one kiss to cherish for the rest if her life, she wanted this special kiss to be it. She’d want Nick Stillman to be the man who’d given her that experience.
    She lifted her fingers to her lips and touched them as if she could still recall the feel of his mouth against hers. As if she could still feel the pressure of his—
    “Winnie,” Anne said in a loud voice.
    “I’m sorry, Anne,” Winnie said, realizing Anne had probably called out to her several times. “I was woolgathering.”
    “You were more than woolgathering. You’ve been staring out the window forever, yet I’ll wager you haven’t noticed that it’s stopped raining and now the sun is shining.”
    “It is?” Winnie said, glancing back out the window. The sun was indeed shining and it had turned into a beautiful day.
    “Yes, it is. And Lord Montroy has offered to accompany us on a walk. Please say you’ll go with us so we don’t have to ask Ruby or Tilly.”
    Winnie wanted to decline, but the pleading expression on Anne’s face made refusing impossible. Besides, getting out might be exactly what she needed. Clearing her head of Nick Stillman and the kiss they’d shared was something she had to do.
    “Of course, I’ll accompany you. The rain has kept us indoors for three days. It’s time we took some air.”
    “Oh, thank you, Winnie,” Anne said, rising to her feet. “We’ll get our wraps and meet you in the foyer,” she said to Lord Montroy, then she and Winnie left to get their cloaks.
    They returned a few minutes later and the three of them left Townsend House and headed for Hyde Park, which was only a few blocks away.
    Winnie let Anne and Lord Montroy lead the way and she followed a discreet distance behind. Her role was as chaperone, not as a conversational companion. She was hardly needed for that. Anne and her beau were capable of carrying on a conversation without any help from her. This gave her time to consider what, if anything, Nick Stillman meant to her.
    Of course he meant nothing, she told herself. She couldn’t allow him to. And the kiss they’d shared meant nothing. If not for the fact that it was her first kiss, she probably wouldn’t give it another thought. Just as Nick Stillman hadn’t. No doubt he’d kissed so many females in his life, this kiss was insignificant compared to the ones before this kiss. And the ones that would come after. She for sure wasn’t the most skilled female he’d ever kissed. That was probably why he’d turned from her as abruptly as he had. He’d been repulsed by her inexperience.
    Now that she thought on it, she realized she’d probably over-exaggerated everything about the kiss. Her heart had no doubt pounded in her chest because she’d never been kissed before and being kissed was a new experience. Her body no doubt reacted to Nick Stillman only because he’d been the first man who’d ever kissed her. Now that she’d experienced her first kiss, she doubted she’d react at all the next time she saw him. Of course not. Why ever would she?
    Except when she looked ahead of her to make certain Anne and Lord Montroy were within sight, the person she saw approaching them was the person who’d haunted her every thought, day and night, since the last time she’d seen him.
    Her heart thundered in her breast, then pounded at the base of her throat. Her flesh prickled. The blood roared in her head, and her lips, the lips he’d kissed last night, tingled. She didn’t want to have