Page 33 of Irish Rose
“I want to show you something else.”
Erin told herself to relax as she walked with him. “If you’d told me we were going tramping around the yard, I’d have worn boots.”
He glanced down but kept walking. “You could use some new shoes anyway.”
“Thank you very much.”
“I’d have thought you’d have gone shopping by now with a couple of paychecks under your belt.”
“I’m thinking about it.” They passed the stables, where the scent of horses and wet grass was strong. She could hear men talking inside. Erin braced herself, but he continued to walk. Then she saw the paddock where the mare was standing nursing a fawn-colored foal.
“That’s one of the newest residents of Three Aces.”
Cautiously Erin approached the fence. “They’re sweet when they’re little, aren’t they?” She relaxed enough to curl her hands over the top rail and lean a little closer. The air was mild, with just a hint of spring. It wasn’t the green or the scent of Ireland, but she found herself suddenly content. “We never had much time to think of an animal as any more than a means to an end.” She smiled as the foal burrowed deeper and sucked. “Joe was always the one for animals, cooing at them and stroking. He’d love to see this.”
“You miss your family.”
“It’s strange not seeing them every day. I hadn’t realized... ” She let the words trail off. “Word from home is everyone’s fine. Cullen’s back in Dublin playing at one of the clubs, and Brian’s taken a fancy to Mary Margaret Shannesy. Ma says he’s making a fool of himself, but that’s to be expected.”
The foal, having had his fill, began to scamper around the paddock. Erin watched him absently, thinking of home. “Frank’s wife’s nearly ready to have the baby. I could be an aunt already. It’s funny, most mornings when I wake up I think it’s time to go down to the henhouse. But there’s no henhouse here.”
The foal came over to the fence to sniff at her. Without thinking, Erin reached out a hand and rubbed between his ears.
“Do you wish there were?”
“I suppose I could live my life happily enough without gathering eggs again.” She glanced down and, focusing on the foal, started to draw her hand back automatically. Burke set his on top of hers and rested it on the foal’s head.
“Trusting little soul, isn’t he?”
“Aye, but his mother—”
“Is probably relieved that he’s distracted, for a few minutes. Sometimes if you’re afraid it’s best to face it in small doses.”
“I suppose.” The foal was soft as butter and nuzzled its nose between the rails to nip at her coat. “Find something else to chew on,” she said laughing. “It’s all I brought with me.” Finding nothing of interest, the foal scampered away to race around his mother. “Will he be a champion?”
“If it’s in the cards.”
Erin stepped away from the fence and, dipping her hands in her coat pockets, looked at him. “Why did you bring me out here?”
“I don’t know.” He didn’t think about the men walking around the yard and going in and out of the stables. He thought only of her as he lifted a hand to her cheek. “Why should it matter?”
Had it come so far, so fast, that it only took the touch of his fingers on her skin to send her heart racing? Inside her pockets, the palms of her hands grew damp. “I think it does, and I think I should go back in.”
“You’ve faced one fear today, why not face another?”
“I’m not afraid of you.” That was true, and she felt a surge of relief that it was. Her heart might not be steady, but it wasn’t in fear that it raced.
“Maybe not.” He slid his hand from her cheek to the back of her neck as he drew her closer. He was afraid, afraid of what she was doing to him without his planning, without his calculations.
She yearned toward him. She strained away. “I don’t think it’s wise for you to kiss me that way again.”
“All right. We’ll try another way.”
So he nibbled, teasing, tempting, tormenting. She felt the scrape of his teeth, then the moist trace of his tongue. Her hand went to his cheek and rested there as she opened herself for an emotional assault like nothing she’d ever experienced.
So he could be sweet and patient and alluring. She hadn’t known. Her fingers crept into his hair as her lips parted and invited. No, she wasn’t afraid, not of him. If what he brought to her was more than she’d ever imagined, then she was willing, even eager to accept it. With a sigh she tilted her head back and let him take.
He held himself back. The more generosity she showed him, the more wary he became of accepting. Burning inside him was a desire to sweep her away to some dim, private place where they could both take their fill. To touch her. He pressed his lips over hers and imagined how it would be to fill his hands with her. No barriers. While her teeth nipped gently, he imagined what it would feel like to have her flesh slide warm over his.
