His confusion struck her as at once terribly sad and completely adorable. How could he have imagined she wouldn't get him a gift to mark the occasion, especially when it was the first they'd shared together? On the other hand, surprising him, making him smile with just that look of wonder and delight filled her to brimming with a light, effervescent happiness, like champagne expanding in a glass.
It was actually...really nice to be exceeding expectations for once instead of just barely meeting them, if at all.
Which translated, when he took the box from her, to her giving him a soft look and a tender caress of her fingers along his hand first and then his face. Of course, when he kissed her, she poured that tenderness into that kiss with a lingering sweetness that she knew she would revisit throughout the day. (SOP for any long, lingering kiss between them, since each one healed just a tiny bit of that aching loneliness and humiliation of her life with Leopold.)
"You're welcome, my heart," she murmured when he withdrew, and smoothed the hair from his face and out of his eyes. "Open it. I want you to have it before we bury the box."
Re: 11/1 - an hour before dawn
It was actually...really nice to be exceeding expectations for once instead of just barely meeting them, if at all.
Which translated, when he took the box from her, to her giving him a soft look and a tender caress of her fingers along his hand first and then his face. Of course, when he kissed her, she poured that tenderness into that kiss with a lingering sweetness that she knew she would revisit throughout the day. (SOP for any long, lingering kiss between them, since each one healed just a tiny bit of that aching loneliness and humiliation of her life with Leopold.)
"You're welcome, my heart," she murmured when he withdrew, and smoothed the hair from his face and out of his eyes. "Open it. I want you to have it before we bury the box."
[ gift ]