An excerpt:
Darla has come out of the bathing chambers as she was wiping her hands against her handkerchief. James was leaning against the walls of the hallway before she was focusing on him. Her amber eyes were focusing on him before they narrowed to slit.
Yup, she was wary of him alright.
"What are you doing here?" she hissed at him, so much unladylike in the polite company. And James has the nerve to chuckle at her expression. Well, he was not going to be the one that succumbed to this game of theirs that they have been playing when they were little.
"I was waiting for you to be done. Apparently, a lady can be having difficulties in the bathing chambers and I thought perhaps I would look out for you,"
Darla grimaced at him, "And since when did you think I would ever need help from someone like you?" she said before she was about to leave. James blocked her.
"Why are you being difficult?" James asked her, stepping in her way to block her exit.
"Why are you being incorrigible?" she asked before James smirked.
"If I don't know any better, you sound like you are irritated that you are not the one that I would use my charms on,"
"As if I would need such thing," Darla hissed before James tilted his head. Then, he smiled wickedly as an idea was forming inside his head.
"Shall we test that idea? If you think you are immune to my charms, perhaps I would not bother to use them at all," he said before Darla was snorting at him.
Yup, she did not consider him as a polite company alright if she was snorting away.
"And what do you suggest we do?" she asked before James shrugged.
"I don't know. Something that all the ladies would like from me. A hug...a perk on the hand...a kiss," he said before he noticed that Darla's eyes were widened.
He hit his mark.
"Don't tell me that you never been kissed before. It would not be a surprise if no one did for you are an ugly lady,"
Hurt was in her eyes before she blinked and they were vacant. Darla kept her chin up before she smirked. He blinked at the sudden change.
"If you think that you can melt my heart by your kiss, then I have no objection for I can assure you that my heart will not be swayed by you, my lord. So you might as well do it quickly before Madam Flemington was looking for me," she said as she was tilting her head as well. That action alone made her almost hypnotic to resist.
Comport yourself, man, James said before he smiled as he was moving his hand to take Darla's nape and pulled her closer.
"Challenge accepted," he said and kissed her delectable lips as it has been too long when they last met. And James was dying to know what it felt like against his own.
The first thing that came to mind when James pulled her down to kiss on her lips; insane. She must be insane to be allowing this man—this rake—to take her first kiss as if it was his to be owned. And right now, Darla was stunned to do anything as James was kissing her lips.
They were soft, so soft and smooth that Darla found herself closing her eyes as she was leaning forward and brought her hands onto his chest. James groaned before he was pushing her back to hit the floor.
He groaned before Darla gasped and she sensed the tongue was entering her mouth. He tasted of chocolate and lemon. She gripped his shirt before James was breaking the kiss before his mouth was trailing hot kisses on her jaws and throat. She gasped before James was sucking on her skin.
"Your skin...how soft," he mumbled before James was pulling her by the nape and kissed her again. She did not know what possessed her to be allowing James—her mortal enemy—to be kissing her with wanton.
And the worst part was she wanted him to.
Then, all revelry broke when she remembered that this man in front of her was a rake. A rake that will take any opportunity to get inside someone's skirts no matter if he liked her or not. And Darla was on the 'not' list.
She pushed him away, breathing hard as some of her hair was escaping in tendrils down her face. She was taking a deep breath before she was composing herself before she was glaring at him.
"I still don't have any feeling or regard even after you kissed me, my lord. So perhaps you are wrong. Your charms don't work on me and they will never be. So, if you excuse me, I have a lesson to attend to," Darla said before she took a step forward as she was trying to gain and hoping that her knees will not be giving up now.
Not in front of her mortal enemy who kissed her and stole her first kiss.
Darla hurried to the room where Madam Flemington was waiting for her, she arched her eyebrows before Darla was clearing her throat and tried to be indifferent.
"Shall we continue, my lady? I wish to be back at the academy as soon as possible, please," she said before Lady Ashley just nodded and Darla cannot focus for one bit on how to make a gentleman kneel to his knee and worship a lady like her as if she was a goddess.
Darla thought she was going to puke but with a chance of meeting James again, she held it in until the end of her lesson and went back to the academy to scrub his taste on her lips forever.
Even when it was ingrained to torture her for eternity.
*~*~*~*~*
Tale as Old as Time, one will discover something older than Time itself
*****
WHEN YOU'RE A RAKE, ALWAYS A RAKE
James Flemington was known to be a rake among his mates. He was the one person that likely to be in trouble even when he did not start it all. And it was too soon for him to be caught in trouble that he cannot escape from.
A LADY THAT WAS CAUGHT IN A TROUBLED
Darla Lockwood has always despised the way of James Flemington-who was unfortunately her childhood friend-and his way of living. He was always skipping his education and the academy and now graduated, he still hasn't changed his way of life. For Darla wished that he would see her the way that he saw other women. But surely, he would never consider her as his potential bride.
WHEN FATE BRINGS THEM TOGETHERWhen something goes wrong and Darla was trapped with James in his arms, the old dowager asked them to tie the knot. James protested but it was the right thing for a gentleman that ruined a lady's reputation to do. But will Darla ever tame the rake when he did not even think of her as nothing else other than a thorn in his ass?
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This is the retelling of Florence Nightingale with a little twist of its own!