"I can't tell you how bewitchingly beautiful you're looking this evening."
Candlelight glinted on the silver bucket that stood on the polished table. Kendall's lips felt so moist as he spoke, he licked them.
"Why, thank you, Kendall. I knew you were bound to come to your senses eventually."
He had. It had only been a matter of time. Time to draw his nose out of the exotically scented shoulder beneath it. Time to set the champagne bottle back in the bucket with a deliberate clink. Time to pad around the table on the plush oriental rug. Time to ease down onto the richly tapestried upholstery of the seat. He'd have known how much time, exactly, if he'd still had his father's damned pocket watch. Or rather, had the one he'd bought to replace it, worked. But time? He had all the time in the world, now.