“I’ll return soon,” Maureen said, already halfway out the door. “Dinnae get lost in thought without me.”
“I will do my best,” Selene called as Maureen sauntered off.
As she turned back from the door, her fingers went without a thought to her mother’s necklace. To her horror, her hand at her throat brushed nothing but bare skin.
Selene froze for a moment, then checked again. And again. Nothing.
Her heart plummeted to the cold, stone floor.
“No, no, no. Don’t do this to me,” she breathed, scanning the room wildly. “Ihadit. I had it this morning. I had it when we returned, I remember…”
Panic prickled her scalp, almost paralyzing her. Losing the one precious thing she had from her beloved mother was not an option. It felt like she was losing her all over again.
She started her search on all fours – scanning the floor, peering under the mat, then under the table, on the table. Then she scrabbled desperately through everything in her trunk, coming up with nothing. Within a minute she was crawling halfway under the bed with her derrière sticking out at a most unflattering angle, dust smudged across her cheek, muttering unladylike things under her breath.
Which was precisely when someone coughed behind her.
A very male someone.
She clamped her eyes shut. “Oh, please no.”
“Should I come back later?” Kenneth’s voice rumbled behind her, far too amused for someone who had just walked in on a woman with her face under a bed and her skirts hiked up.
She scrambled backward, banged her head on the bed-frame, swore loudly, and barely managed to sit up before he came closer. He was still damp from the ride earlier, his hair tousled, his linen shirt unlaced at the throat.
It’s unfair how much space he takes up just standing there.
“Are ye… stuck?” he asked.
“I’mlookingfor something.” She brushed hair from her face. “My necklace.” Now she was almost wailing. “It’s g… g… gone.”
She half expected a comment about her dramatics, or some teasing remark. Instead, Kenneth’s entire expression shifted, becoming instantly serious and focused.
“Let us find it, then.”
Before she could reply, he began dragging furniture away from the walls as if each heavy piece weighed no more than a basket of feathers. Selene stared shamelessly. No man should be allowed to lift heavy things so easily while looking so infuriatingly handsome into the bargain. Her treacherous brain offered a vivid memory of his hands on hers during the storm, steady and warm, and she almost forgot what she was searching for.
“Here.” Kenneth reached behind the wardrobe, straightened, and opened his palm.
The necklace glinted in the firelight – her most precious possession, delicate, familiar and safe.
Selene did not pause to think. She gave not a fig for propriety, commonsense, or even the rules of what a proper lady could and couldnotdo.
She simply leapt forward, threw her arms around him and planted a warm kiss on his bristly cheek.
Kenneth froze. His hands hovered in the air for a heartbeat – just long enough for her to realize exactly how close she’d pressed herself against him – before he lowered them to clasp her in his embrace, hesitantly at first then firm.
“Selene…” His voice was a low, rough, rumble, yet soft as butter. She could feel the vibration of it through his chest.
Breathless, she clutched the necklace to her heart. Their eyes met. Something like lightning moved in the air between them – a shimmering and sparkling something that dazzled and bewitched.
Her heart fluttered in her chest like a frightened dove. They were close. Too close. Close enough for her to see the gold flecks in his eyes. Close enough so that one of them had only to lean an inch or two and they’d?—
Kenneth’s gaze dropped to her lips.
Her breath hitched in her throat.
He leaned closer.
