“Others?What others do ye speak of?”He glared down at her, ready for an immediate explanation.
“Women sometimes go out with several men before settling down,” she explained.
“Go out with?”
Jessa shook her head.“Never mind.I’ll explain later.Or Mairwen can explain it after she and I have had a nice long chat.”
“Come then,” Mairwen said in acceptance of the unspoken dare.“Walk with me.I feel sure Lord Suddie will not mind entertaining yer Emily.”
“Who is Lord Suddie?”Emily wrinkled her nose as if the name had an odor to it.
“I am, but it is not the title I prefer, and the witch knows it.Call me Grant, the MacAlester, laird, or arsehole, if ye wish, but dinna call me the feckin’ Earl of Suddie.”
Jessa and Emily snorted in unison, then clapped their hands over their mouths, failing to hide their merriment.
Mairwen rolled her eyes, shook her head, and took off across the courtyard, pausing only long enough for Jessa to catch up with her.
“So, why do you hate that name so?”Emily asked once they were alone.
“I feel it, but one more way for the English to distance me from the blood of my ancestors.”
“It is important to remember your ancestors.It took my parents a while to retrace our lineage because it hit so many places: the Caribbean, India, Spain, and South America, to name a few.But now that we know it, we feel we’re richer for it.”The way her dark eyes narrowed made him brace himself for whatever she was about to say.“So, do you believe in this fated mate stuff Mairwen is trying to sell us?”
“I canna say that I did at first.”
“But now?”
He would not lie to Mistress Emily.He owed Jessa that much.“Never have I felt what I feel with Jessa.”
“WithJessa,” Emily said, “notforher.”
“I shall describe it to ye the same as I told her.’Tis as though I have been adrift all my life, lost and searching.When I am with Jessa, I feel as though I have finally found home.”He slowly shook his head.“It defies everything I ever believed myself capable of—an insatiable hunger I never knew I could possess.”
Emily fixed him with an unblinking stare.“You told her that.In those words?”
“Aye.”
The lass shook her head as though reeling.“Damn.And she hasn’t jumped at the chance to marry you?”
He clenched his teeth, sucked in a deep breath, and refrained from reminding the woman that he’d already told her about that particular matter.It washerfault Jessa had yet to accept him.
“Have you slept with her yet?”Emily asked before he could answer.
“She slept in my bed when she arrived.I slept in the chair.”
The lass wrinkled her nose as she stepped closer.“I wasn’t exactly asking aboutsleepingsleeping.”She twitched a brow with a meaningful look.“I was asking aboutsleeping—you know.”
“Is this something from the future of which I am unaware?”
“Have the two of you had sex yet?”She scowled at him.
“That is a private matter between myself and Jessa and none of yer damn concern.”
Emily shrugged.“Fine.She’ll tell me.”
Realizing that the cocksure minx was probably right, he bared his teeth.“We have kissed.Nothing more.It would not be fair of me to try anything more whilst she was still so confused.”
“Wow.”
