This conversation wasn’t proceeding in any way that was orderly.
Orderly?
The word implied reason and propriety.
When had reason and propriety ever played a role in her dealings with this man?
Certainly neither reason nor propriety had any say in her standing before him on this stretch of beach at dawn.
She’d not only known he would be here—she’d come expressly for that reason.
She’d wanted to see what he did out here in the mornings.
She’d wanted to know something of the life he lived now.
Sure, she had known he was a guest of Sir Abstrupus at the Roost and he was training Radish, but it hadn’t been enough to know those things. They were lodging and occupation, but nothing of the man himself.
Other facts, however, did speak to who he was now. The fact that he no longer rode. That he swam at dawn every morning.
For some reason, she’d wanted evidence.
Want.
There it was—want—the enemy of reason and propriety.
It led one down dark and treacherous paths to isolated beaches at dawn.
These swims at dawn had to do with what the injury had wrought in his body—and in his mind.
And he looked so attractive—his white shirt clinging to his muscled chest, hair tousled and curling at the ends, golden eyes reflecting the rising sun.
So very attractive that she hadn’t been able to stop herself from offering him a hand.
But it hadn’t been only to help him. She understood this about herself.
Want.
She’d wanted an excuse to touch him—to feel, once again, his strong hand wrapped around hers.
Addiction was a trickster.
For his part, Bran watched her, closely … expectantly.
Right.
She didn’t owe him a completion of that sentence—or anything else, for that matter. “I suppose we won’t see each other again until the St. Leger.”
Oh, why had she said that? And what was that note in her voice? Was it disappointment?
He didn’t appear to notice. “You’ll be attending?”
“I shall.”
The intensity within his golden gaze didn’t recede. “You don’t have to, you know.” His voice had gone low so it was crushed velvet brushing across his throat.
Something slid through her.
Something she didn’t want to feel.
