“You might be the first person to have said that.”
“Then I can say with utter certainty that everyone else in your life is an idiot.”
She laughed, dizzy with pleasure from the ridiculous compliment.
Foolish, a voice in the back of her head said.This is how it always starts.
He dragged his mouth along her jaw. “I liked it when you blindfolded me. I would like you to do it again tonight.”
“Is that why you intend us to stay overnight in Bridekirk?”
“Not the only reason. But I can’t deny it was a factor.” He looked at her with lust-drunk eyes. “Do you object?”
“I said once.”
“Then tell me to arrange two rooms for us, and I shall.”
She wouldn’t. They both knew they had come too far for that; if she had intended to turn him down and reject him, she would already have done so.
“I’m glad,” he said into the silence, his voice sinking lower. “I’m not ready to lose you yet.”
A shiver rolled over her skin. “You shouldn’t say things like that.”
“Why not, if they’re true? I know you won’t let me do the honourable thing, so let me do the dishonourable thing instead.” He flashed her another wicked grin. “Or rather, let me convince you to dishonour me thoroughly. However you would have me.” He slid his hand to her waist, urging her onto him. She slid her knees either side of his thighs, perching atop his legs as though they were in a bed, or a chair, not in the bed of a cart rattling slowly along a winter road. “You may choose the means, so long as you choose me.” His hazel eyes speared her. “Just for tonight.”
She braced herself against his good shoulder. “Just for tonight,” she agreed.
“I know better than to try and keep you any longer.” He urged her down for a kiss, and she allowed herself to sink a little deeper into him. His good hand reached up her side to cup her breast, and she bit back a gasp, glancing to where Old Tom sat before the horses, oblivious.
Mischief sparked in Oliver’s eyes, and when she shifted, she felt his arousal underneath her. How was it that in such a place, at such a temperature, her body could still respond in this way? As though he sparked a storm within her, and she crackled with lightning and thunder, an excess of sensation that made her fingers burn with the urge to touch him.
“Go on,” he murmured, his voice hypnotic. “You know you want to.”
She threaded her fingers through his hair, and he released a long breath as she dragged his head back. Then, just as he had done to her, she kissed along his throat, ghosting her lips across his Adam’s apple, the tendons that tensed at the press of her mouth. She let herself taste his skin, and he bared his throat to her the way a rabbit might offer itself to the wolf.
“Admit you want this,” he said to the sky, his voice so low she almost felt rather than heard it. “I know you do, but I want to hear you say it.”
She tightened her hold on his hair, relishing the way heat leapt into his gaze, the way she felt his pulse speed as she pressed her fingers against the hollow of his throat.
“Will you beg?” she asked, tugging him back to face her.
“On my knees, if I must.” His breath warmed her lips. “Whatever it takes. I can be patient. With you, darling, I can be as patient as you need.”
“A rash promise to make,” she said, and kissed him again.
Chapter Twenty-One
AlthoughEmilydidnothingthe remainder of the journey but tease Oliver almost past his endurance, he insisted they eat a small luncheon before going up to the room he had hired for them.
“Believe me, we’ll need to keep our strength up,” he said, procuring them a table and platter of cold meats and cheeses. “And you should have some ale.”
She wrinkled her nose suspiciously. “Why?”
“Call it a rite of passage.”
“Will I like it?”
He grinned. “Almost assuredly not.”
