“Did you enjoy your conversation with Lady Isolde yesterday?” she finally asked.
Ethan rocked back on his heels. “Pardon?”
“Lady Isolde,” she repeated, tone crackling with fire. “You know, the tall, beautiful woman that everyone assumes you have a tendre for. The one I expect you will marry and make beautiful Scottish babies with.”
Surprise jolted Ethan.
“Ye be jealous, too,” he said on a laugh.
She glared and closed the steps between them, as if to pass him.
Ethan would have none of it.
He blocked her path, forcing her to a halt on the step beneath his own.
“Ye be jealous,” he repeated. “Like the proper green-eyed-monster variety.”
“Good day, Mr. Penn-Leith,” she said stiffly, rising onto his step and bumping his shoulder with hers in an attempt to move around him.
Ethan held his ground.
Allie, of course, refused to back down.
They stood shoulder to shoulder, her forehead nearly touching his cheek.
Ethan would only have to bend down a few inches to capture her mouth with his.
“Lady Isolde is nothing more than a mere friend. Not a true friend,” he breathed. “Ye have nothing tae fear there.”
Allie swallowed, drawing Ethan’s eyes to the smooth column of her throat.
“I’m not going tae renege on our friendship,” he continued. “And I hope ye won’t either.”
“Our friendship is futile. Wantingmorethan mere friendship is particularly pointless.”
“Och, so pessimistic. That’s not the woman I know.”
“I am a realist, Ethan.Thisis our reality,” she shot back. “Are you so sure you know me?”
“Aye, Allegra, I ken who ye are. Ye let me in, remember?” He tapped his breastbone to emphasize his meaning. “That night at the inn.”
“When you were drunk?”
“Aye.”
“I thought the whisky had drowned your memory of that.”
Ethan couldn’t hide the heat that flared in his gaze. “Nae, lass. I think I could reach a hundred years and never forget that night.”
A dusky blush rose in her cheeks.
A beat of silence.
Ethan leaned even closer, daring to push her.
“Fight, lass,” he whispered. “Reach for what ye want.”
“Yourself, you mean? I should fight foryou.” Her words were a puff of air against his lips.
