Evangeline heard horses approaching and the sound emboldened her. Ahearn had to be close. “I cannot lose that ring,” she insisted, putting out her hand imperiously. “Any man would be vexed by the loss of such a prize. Why then would you expose me to the fury of my betrothed? You are the one who warn me against him.”
Ramsay’s gaze bored into hers, searing in its intensity. “You speak aright. I would return it for a kiss,” he murmured, drawing her yet closer, and Evangeline’s heart leapt anew.
She lifted her chin. “Return the ring first.”
His smile was gloriously confident and his voice dropped to those depths that dismissed her resolve. “Surrender the kiss first, my lady.”
She eyed him for a moment, weighing her choices, then stepped forward impulsively. Ramsay smiled slowly and a twinkle lit in his eyes.
He might as well have dared her to kiss him of her own volition.
Evangeline could never refuse a challenge. She would show him that she was no demure maiden whose fate could be decided by another. She would show him that she was as audacious as he recalled.
And she would have one kiss to remember the temptation of Ramsay MacLaren.
She called herself a fool even as she lifted her lips to his.
Chapter 2
If anything, the lady was more dangerous a temptation than Ramsay recalled. His memory, certainly, had not done her enough credit. Evangeline was so magnificent that his heart had stopped cold at the first glimpse of her, eyes flashing, cheeks flushed. Her waist was slender and her curves were lush, her dark kirtle laced tightly at the sides. Her hair was long and of so deep a hue that it was nearly as black as the destrier.
He had been terrified when she fell from the horse but should have known that Evangeline would not be halted or even injured so readily as that. Her gaze had been full of fury when he reached her, and surely, locking his hands around her waist to lift her closer had been a pleasure unexpected. It had taken all within him to let her go, to keep from claiming what was not his to possess.
It stung that she refused him so readily, but he knew he should not have been surprised.
He had demanded the ring to better appear a villain, but the sight of the familiar stone had astonished him. Aye, Ramsay knew that ring and its tale. That Rufus had it in his possession was no good detail and he wanted Evangeline to have as little to do with it as possible.
He had never expected her to grant him a kiss.
But then, this lady had a gift for defying his every expectation. Perhaps that was the root of her allure. Ramsay should have anticipated that even the barest touch of her lips would awaken every yearning within him. His arms were around her before he knew it, his fingers speared into her hair to hold her captive to his embrace as he deepened his kiss, savoring her as he had in his dreams these past years. He did not even care if they were caught and would have paid any price to continue this sweet embrace.
Marvel of marvels, she gasped, then surrendered to him, parting her lips and leaning against him, fairly inviting him to claim her in this most unlikely of places. The kiss stirred a slumbering desire to wakefulness, making Ramsay hunger for far more.
It made him consider the merit of abandoning his reservations, if not his principles.
The sound of another close at hand was precisely what Ramsay did not wish to hear.
“My lady?” a man bellowed and Ramsay knew better than to linger at this feast.
He broke his kiss, spun the lady around, and bound his own mask over her eyes before she could stop him. This time, however, he ensured the eye holes were not aligned and that Evangeline was blinded. Her lips parted almost in invitation and Ramsay had to force himself to step away from temptation.
She was not his to possess.
“Ahearn?” she cried to summon her guard and the sounds of the approaching party grew louder. “Ahearn!”
“My lady Evangeline?” the other man shouted and this encounter had to end.
“Farewell, my lady,” Ramsay whispered as he spun her around to disorient her. “Dream of me.”
“I will not! Cease this game…”
“But I will dream of you,” he confided, kissing her cheek and inhaling of her sweet scent. How he yearned to sweep her into his arms and carry her away, but the lady had declined and her will was all.
He had to abandon her.
“Fiend!” Evangeline cried, snatching for him but missing. She strove to unknot the fabric, but Ramsay did not linger to watch. He knew she would free herself and that her champion would soon be at hand.
He darted through the shadows, leapt into Foudre’s saddle, then snatched the reins of the black destrier as they passed. The black stallion followed his own readily. Ramsay was expected to be a thief, so he would claim this prize—but truly the lady’s kiss that still warmed his lips was the treasure Ramsay had not expected to find.
