“I’m going to hug you,” I warned him as he settled down next to me.
His chuckle was almost enough to warm me as he raised his arm in invitation and I moved into him. He hissed. “Your nose is like ice, woman,” he complained as I nuzzled my cold face into his throat.
My arms wrapped around his strong torso and I sank fully into his hard body as his arms pulled me tight.
Safe.
That was the word that clanged through my mind.
For the first time since my parents died, I felt safe.
Emotion clogged my throat and I swallowed hard, trying to focus on Ramsay’s heat and not on my emotional reaction to him.
“You’re so warm,” I whispered, lifting my head from his throat to look at him.
He peered down at me in the dim light of the solar lamp.
“I’ve always run a wee bit hotter than normal,” he murmured.
I grinned. “You are very hot.”
Ramsay’s lips twitched. “Are you going to use this situation as an excuse to flirt with me, Silver?”
“Are you really opposed to it?” I teased.
“Go to sleep,” he ordered instead.
“I will …” I held my breath, my heart suddenly pounding in my ears as bravery took over me. “If you tell me you’re not attracted to me too.”
Considering I was totally opening myself up to painful rejection, I stiffened with anticipation in his arms.
Ramsay searched my face, his hold on me tightening ever so slightly. “I can’t tell you that.”
I sucked in a breath, shivering with aroused triumph.
My gaze dropped to his mouth, surrounded by that trim beard. Slowly, slowly enough to give him time to object, I moved my head toward his. My breathing shallowed as the storm raging outside fell away and it was only me and Ramsay McRae.
A man I’d wanted to kiss from almost the moment we’d met.
The space between us disappeared and finally, eventually, my lips touched his. Just a tingling, tentative brush of mouth against mouth. His beard tickled my chin. I shivered again but not with the cold as I pulled back ever so slightly to look into his eyes.
He stared back.
Not objecting.
Waiting.
I held his gaze as I brushed my lips over his again.
His hands flattened against my lower back, fingertips putting a little pressure on me.
Notpushing me away.
He watched me with that intense stare as I whispered my lips over his again and arousal flushed through me, tingles of need exploding between my thighs.
From a barely there kiss.
My breathing turned jagged, and he pressed me closer.
