“Somehow, something tells me ye like cruel women,” she said.
He huffed. “I likehonestwomen.”
“Honest,” she repeated. “Fine. Ye think I wanted that kiss in the passageway.”
“I didnae saywanted,” he said.
“Ye meant it,” she said.
He watched her mouth, then her eyes. “Aye,” he admitted.
The word sat between them like a hand pressed flat against a page. Her body answered before her senses did. A pull low in her stomach, a sweep up her chest. She tried to straighten her shoulders and found she already stood too straight.
“Again, it was a mistake,” she said. “And perhaps the wine I had at dinner.”
“Ye’re blaming the wine now?” he said.
“I wasnae thinking clearly,” she said, too quickly.
The corner of his mouth curled. “What about now?”
“What about now what?” she said, ignoring how slowly the words escaped her mouth.
“Are ye thinking clearly?” he said. “Please tell me ye arenae.”
She laughed, but it came out thin. “We cannae do this again, Alex. That would make us fools.”
“We already are,” he said. “We let two wee generals lock us in a room.”
She fought a smile and lost it. “We didnae let them. We wereoutflanked. Yer words.”
He leaned his palms on the table. His forearms flexed. She knew if she put her hand on the board between his, she would find warmth there. The thought came uninvited. It sat and would not move.
“Ye ken I have found that yer words never match yer actions,” he said. “It is a strange way to live.”
“Ye keep pushing me to the edge and pretending ye are only standing near,” she said. “It is astrangeway to be a laird.”
His lips flattened. “If ye were mine, I would tell ye it is a healthy way to live,” he said. He stopped on the word and seemed to test it, like a blade against a whetstone. “If ye were mine.”
“But I am nae,” she said. She meant to make it iron. It came out soft. “Nae truly now, am I?”
He breathed. Not deeper, but closer. She felt it. Her skin tightened from wrist to shoulder.
He did not touch her. He did not need to. He was close enough that a lean would do it. If she swayed forward the width of a breath, she would find his mouth.
The thought made her hand curl around empty air.
“Nay,” he said quietly. “Nay, ye arenae.”
“‘Tis part of the arrangement,” she said, though she knew her heart was completely elsewhere.
“Aye. The arrangement,” he said, almost smiling.
She swallowed. “Aye, that one.”
“Do ye believe it?” he asked.
“Aye, I do,” she said.
