“Why won’t you ever wear it?”
“Because it came with a promise he never kept.”
He reached for her hand and entwined his fingers through hers. Then he brought her knuckles up to his lips and kissed her softly. “What was the promise, Charlotte?”
“That things would be new with us. We would start over and he would be the father I needed. I knew ’twas all vain talk, for he did not show up to my celebration. I waited all day for him. I waited while all the foolish fancies he had birthed withered and died before my eyes. I ran away after that, but not for long. I would have missed Rosie and John and Anna too much.”
“You will have your own family someday,” he reassured. “All the fancies you dreamed of can be real.”
“I have heard this before from Preston,” she told him.
“Did he promise to give it to you?” She nodded and he scowled and mocked his adversary. “What is he waiting for? Someone to come and steal you away?
She laughed and slid her playful gaze to his. “Perhaps. Will that someone be you?”
“Yes,” he told her brazenly and without hesitation. “It will be me.”
Her eyes opened wide with surprise. “Detective, how do you know what I want?”
He moved closer, so close that their bodies touched. He snaked his hands around her waist and drew her in gently. “You want me. Am I wrong?” he asked letting his lips hover over hers.
“No. You are not wrong.” How had she come to love being in his arms? She hadn’t been there often, but it was as if she were coming home. Home…to a husband and a babe. A family. He held her as if he cherished her and hated to let her go.
His kiss was deep and long, curious and hungry. His lips felt as plump and pouty as they looked when she sucked his bottom lip between her teeth. Preston never hauled her into his arms before. He never kissed her so passionately.
Michael desired her. She could feel it in his salacious kiss. She could see it when he looked at her, which she found him doing often. She wanted to kiss more of him, his arms, his belly…
He groaned into her mouth and she felt as if she was being set aflame. She could feel his desire growing harder and boldly, instinctively rubbed herself against him.
“All right,” he said, breaking their kiss. “We need to stop before I can’t.”
She smiled, liking that she could bring him to such pleasure that he would abandon his control. But liking more that he would not force her to do what could possibly ruin her if she ended up carrying his child and he was taken back to his home in the twenty-first century.
She still found it difficult to believe his story about time traveling—or her own eyes when Mr. Simeon appeared and disappeared and brought her back her blanket and a toy from the future. But it had to be real. What else could it be? Presently, she didn’t care, except that she didn’t want to fall madly in love with him if he was leaving.
“Michael,” she asked, staring up into his starlit-blue eyes “what if you are given the choice to stay here or return to your future? What will you choose?”
He didn’t answer her. Not for a few moments, at least—and that was enough.
She straightened her spine, patted her locks, and moved away from him.
“Charlotte,” he called out to stop her as she walked off with her horse. “Hang on, let me—”
“There is no need, Michael.” She stopped and turned to face him. “You fear that speaking the truth of your heart will hurt me, so you avoid it. ’Tis kind, but your pity will do me no good.”
“Will this do you any good?” He appeared beside her, pulling his horse by the reins with one hand and holding out the other to her. In his open palm was the ruby ring she’d lifted the morning she’d met him.
“You had it all this time?” she asked, reaching for it.
“It was in the back pocket of my jeans.” The same black jeans he was wearing now, and that he hadn’t worn since changing into eighteenth century hose. “I never gave it to the constable.”
Her eyes danced at the sight of the glittering red stone. “Bromley is not far. We could go to the town and trade this for food.”
He smiled at her. “Let’s go.”
She chose not to think about his hesitation in answering her question. Not now. They had the ruby ring! He could have kept it and said nothing to her, but he gave it up to her. He agreed to trade it for food.
So, he was exactly the sort of man she wanted as a husband; compassionate, considerate, strong, handsome—the list went on. So what? He didn’t know what he wanted, and she didn’t want to be waiting around the way she’d done for Preston.
