Page 50 of A Virgin for the Icy Highlander
He was still sorry that he hadn’t paused to do so, so he might have experienced the full glory of her. Still, his mind had filled in most of the gaps, creating a picture of her with his touch.
There’ll be plenty of time for me to see her in daylight.
After all, he couldn’t very well pretend that nothing had happened. The kiss in the study could have been skimmed over if necessity had called for it, but they had stepped over a linetogether tonight, and there was no retreating now. The rules had shifted slightly, opening up to the possibility of pleasure—hers, without doubt—but that didn’t mean his opinion about expectations had changed.
He could keep her happy with everythingbutsex. But if they did happen to ignore that line, too, there were ways to ensure that no children came from their union.
I could be content with that.
He cast her a sideways glance, subtly turning the glow of the lantern toward her. She looked even more beautiful, more radiant somehow. Though as he continued to admire her, he noticed a smirk lifting the corner of her lips.
“What?” he asked while squeezing her hand.
He hadn’t let go of it since they’d left the meadow, reminding her of how uneven and dangerous the terrain had been on the way down.
She laughed softly before turning to him. “It’s nothing.”
“It has ye smirkin’, so it canne be nothin’,” he insisted.
Her laughter faded into a sweet smile. “Well, if you must know, I was just thinking that, ever since I arrived here, you’ve shown three emotions to me. And that is three more than I hoped for when I agreed to stay a week with you.”
He’d forgotten about the game he’d uncovered—the one that had inadvertently led to their first kiss in the study. It should have annoyed him. Instead, he was rather pleased that she had decided to play the game with him, considering where it had led them.
“Ah, the wee game ye and yer friends have been playin’,” he said, nodding. “Is that what it entailed, then? Seein’ how many emotions ye could coax out of me?”
He’d already guessed as much but just hadn’t had the opportunity to see if he was right.
She blushed, as if remembering that she hadn’t given him the details of the game. “It wasn’t a game exactly,” she said in earnest. “It was a way of getting to know you, because you are so very hard to understand. Youwere, at least.”
“If we had a list each, I’d say mine would be longer after tonight,” he said, a smirk dancing on his lips. “But I’d say I’ve shown four emotions to ye.”
She frowned, cooling her flushed cheeks with the back of her hand. “Oh? Which one did I miss?”
“Which ones do ye think I’ve shown?” he replied above the sound of fallen leaves crunching under their feet.
Her throat bobbed. “Disgust was the first.”
“Disgust?” It didn’t seem like an obvious choice, and he couldn’t remember showing it.
She chuckled. “Your now-famous revulsion for English gowns. Why, they disgust you so much that you like to cut them into pieces.” She shrugged. “English dancing, too.”
“I didnae dislike English dancing,” he corrected. “I just prefer the Scottish kind with ye.” He withdrew his hand from hers, then slipped his arm around her waist. “It means we can get so muchcloser.”
She peered up at him, raising an eyebrow. “Yes, well, I might agree with you on that one. But the second was surprise.”
“The… interesting portrait?”
Grace nodded, and that blush returned to her cheeks with a vengeance. “You also seemed somewhat surprised when you kissed me the first time.”
“Aye, that’s fair,” he conceded. “The third?”
“Anger.”
His brow creased, and his grip on her tightened. “I havenae shown ye anger. Nae of the kind whereI’dconsider meself to be angry.”
“It was a… um… specific kind of anger,” she explained hesitantly. “Jealousy, in truth. I didn’t think it would be possible, and I actually didn’t realize that you had shown me that emotion until we came to the meadow. I had no notion you were jealous, though I do wonder if that is even the right word.Protectivemight be more fitting.”
Though he hadn’t thought it was in his nature to be jealous, he couldn’t deny what she had plainly seen and heard. He could have protested, of course, but he knew that would only make him appear weak. A man accepted the truth, even if it didn’t sit comfortably with who he thought he was.
