He finished turning around, lifting his eyebrows.
“I’d like to think I’m hardly so shallow as to be turned by a pretty face,” she said dryly.
“Hah! I knew ye found me handsome!”
Eilidh lost the battle with propriety and snatched up a chisel, tossing it at him.
He caught it easily—of course, he did—his laughter bouncing off the courtyard walls.
The man was her nemesis.
“Ye aren’t answering my question.” She folded her arms.
He sobered, his eyes turning soft and thoughtful . . . which was, again, somehow even worse.
She was rapidly realizing that underneath the charm and flirtation rested a sincere and earnest heart.
Her pulse beat a frantic tattoo in her chest.
He stepped toward her.
Eilidh instantly backed up, not because she abhorred the thought of his touch, but because she feared she might invite it.
He paused, hands up as if petitioning for peace.
“Why did ye love me, lass?” he repeated her question. “I think ye loved me because we are kindred souls, yourself and me. I admired your spirit and fire—your courage and kindness even in the direst of circumstances. Ye appreciated my candor and fierce devotion tae those I count as mine. And you, lovely lass, ye are without question . . .mine.”
Mine.
The word landed with ruthless brutality.
That she had been so beloved, so prized.
That this man—who commanded men and conquered oceans—had been and would continue to be so devoted to her.
He extended a hand to her, a wordless invitation.
Take it. Remember me.
She swallowed, staring at his outstretched fingers.
It was a well-worn hand, long-fingered with callouses along the pads of his palm, but not . . .unattractive.
A hand that had held her, embraced her, pulled her to him with fingers pressing dimpled indents into her hips—
Her own hands clenched into fists.
She tore her eyes away from his hand, unequal to the torrent offeelingwhich scoured her.
It was too much.
She would not rise to his bait.
She would not touch him.
And yet . . . her skin burned, as if singed by the buried weight of it, by caresses she could not remember.
“I do not recognize myself in the woman you describe.” She turned her back to him, staring across the forecourt to the blue sky beyond. “I simply cannot fathom that I evolved into such a different person aboard the ship.”
