“Is it working?”
James nodded. “Aye, it is.”
Prim laughed, a husky breathless chuckle. “Are you going to ask me?”
“Nay, lass.”
“Because, as you told me before, if I want something I must take it myself?”
The image of Prim taking what she wanted of him boiled James’s blood. “You must be more tipsy than I thought.”
“Or are you more prudish than I believed?” Her eyes, glowing like sun-kissed amethysts, challenged him.
He enjoyed the fire he saw there, her confidence. It was as though taking the role of aggressor sparked something in her. Still, he wouldn’t let her do anything she’d regret.
“I better see you home.”
Prim hiccupped against his chest. “I’m not so tipsy as you think, you know. Only happy. I suppose you hadn’t seen enough of one from me that you’d mistake it for the other.”
“I only want to see you happy, lass,” he swore.
“Then take me home.”
CHAPTER 23
I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.
~ Mary Wollstonecraftfrom A Vindication of the Rights of Women
“We’re here.”
“What?” Prim asked drowsily.
She’d spent the short journey across the park curled against his side, purring like a kitten as she nuzzled his neck. It was all James could do to keep his hands to himself.
“You’re home,” he told her.
Her heavy lids widened with confusion as she peeked out the carriage window. “I thought we were going to your home. We cannot…dothisat my home.”
“We are not doing this at all, remember?” he said, though it went against every instinct in his body to say so. But for Prim, to do what was best for her, he would suffer the frustration. “I won’t face you the morning after and see sorrow in your eyes, lass. Believe me, such nobility sits ill within me, but when I make love to you there will be no doubt in my mind that you want it, too.”
“I do,” she said. “I only protested about going to my home tonight because I don’t want my children to assume there is something more between us if they saw you in my bedchamber. The girls in particular have gotten caught up in Shane’s stories of them having a new father someday and Ellis likes you so much already. You’re all he talks about. I couldn’t bear to get their hopes up.”
Her sensible explanation sounded remarkably lucid. He’d never had reason to give children much thought when it came to his lovers. That he did hope to be the father they wanted, she couldn’t know. Yet.
Prim’s gloved hand stroked his cheek. “You’ve shown me a different way of living, Jamie. As difficult as it is sometimes to act upon it, it is the life I want for myself. I want to set an example of strength and confidence for my daughters to follow. The more I’m with you, the more self-assured I become. More adept at acting on my desires. And what I desire is you.”
Her confession sent his pulse thrumming once more. All the nobility in the world couldn’t have stopped him from taking her lips. Their mouths meshed, hot and hungry. Prim rose against him, her breasts pressed to his chest. Her arms winding tight around him.
“Yes, Jamie…”
James groaned and tore his mouth away. “Blast it, lass. I don’t want you to have any regrets.”
“I won’t,” she protested. “I made this choice.”
“A choice that contradicts everything I know about you.”
Prim pushed away from his side and stared up at him, searching his face in the dim light of the carriage lamp. “Do you think I’m not a bundle of nerves inside, Jamie? Do you think I’m not shocked in myself? I am. A maelstrom of doubts and self-incrimination struck me within seconds of asking you to take me home. To take me toyourhome.”
