Startled, she said, “Is that a problem?”
“Yes.” He stood and drew her up into his arms, then kissed her with shocking intensity.
After an instant of surprise, she wrapped her arms around his waist and kissed him back, feeling wildness rising inside her. His hands began roving over her body, bringing every place he touched to tingling life. When his hand covered her left breast, she pressed against him, wishing he were caressing her bare skin. She breathed, “I feel overdressed.”
He broke the kiss and put a little space between them, then bent his head until his forehead was pressed into hers. “Which is why I need to travel on my own, my Nordic goddess. Being together all the time would be difficult. You know what I want, but it must be freely given, not stolen by seduction.”
Jolted, she pulled her head back and looked into his gray eyes, which were stormy with emotion. “What exactly do you want?”
“You. All of you. Your hand in marriage and partnership, your lovely body in my bed.” His smile was twisted. “Your tart tongue telling me when I’m wrong. Are you ready to agree to all that?”
She almost said yes, and that she was most certainly ready for the bed, but managed to tamp down her reactions enough to give reason a chance. All too aware of the bed only a few feet away, she stepped back so they were no longer touching. “That sounds lovely and romantic, but . . . you’re right. I’m not ready for all that yet.”
He gave her a twisted smile and retreated to his chair, removing Odin from the tea table in the process. “I was rather hoping I’d be wrong.”
She seated herself again, pulling her way out of Ramsay’s reach. “I think you know too much about women to be wrong.” She hesitated, then asked, “Have there been many women, Kai?”
He shook his head. “I’ve always been much too busy to be a womanizer. There were occasional exceptions, but never love or a desire for something deeper. The only women I’ve cared for deeply have been Gisela and you.”
“Is there some similarity between me and Gisela that draws you?” she asked, knowing it was a bad question but unable to stop herself from asking it.
He frowned as he sought words. “You both have traits that I’ve always admired,” he said slowly. “Intelligence. Kindness. Curiosity. Charm. But other women have those traits also and I haven’t been inspired to deeper feeling. Gisela was special, and so are you in a different way. You are yourself, not only Gisela’s sister. She was my first love.” He drew a deep breath. “I believe that you’ll be my last.”
His words were so powerful that she didn’t know how to respond. Finally she said, “Love. Is that what we’ve been dancing around?”
He nodded. “Have you ever loved another man?”
“I’ve never thought about romantic love much, since I always felt that I was fated to be a spinster.” She made a face. “I’m beginning to understand the lust part, though.”
He laughed, his face lighting up. “That’s progress of sorts. I think enough has been said for today. Except . . .” He hesitated before continuing. “If I lose everything to Roald and leave Thorsay because the only thing for me here is an empty title, would you lose whatever interest you might have in me?”
It was a serious question, so she thought about it seriously. He’d grown up with the prospect and now the reality of being the laird, and that inheritance had given him bone-deep confidence and an air of authority. He’d be a different man if he hadn’t been raised with the knowledge of his position.
But confidence and authority were part of him now, and he’d have those qualities even if his inheritance was taken from him. She liked the man he was, and she was sure she’d like him still even if he was no longer the laird. “If you left Thorsay for a new life, would you take me with you?”
“Yes,” he said without hesitation.
She gave him a slow smile. “I’ve always wanted to travel.”
After several heartbeats of silence, he smiled back. “I think we understand each other, then.” He rose to his feet. “And I’d better leave before I remember how close that bed is. Fiona, would you like to go for a walk?”
The dog bounced to her feet, ready and willing. Signy stood also, glad that her ankle didn’t give more than a serious twinge. “I’ll see you downstairs for dinner tonight,” she said. “And I’ll make lists of art materials for Broc, and the people you should call on in the outer islands.”
“I find list-making a very attractive trait in a woman,” he said with a touch of mischief in his voice. He stepped forward to brush a light kiss on her forehead, and then he was gone, Fiona dancing along at his heels.
Signy sat again and poured the last of the lukewarm tea. There had been no absolute declarations of love, nor a proposal or acceptance of marriage.
Yet she was quite sure that a mutual commitment had just been made.
Chapter 24
Broc liked London and had passed through often enough that he could generally make his way around. After stopping at Thorsay House to make sure they had space for him—they did—his first call was at the home of Captain and Lady Aurora Hawkins Vance.
A polite butler greeted him and said that the Vances were out of town but would be back soon and receiving visitors. Rather than pursue them to their country estate, Broc decided to leave a note saying he was an emissary from Ramsay. That should gain him entrance as soon as they returned. If they didn’t come back to London in the next few days, he would follow them to the country.
Since it was late in the afternoon, he returned to Thorsay House, where he shared a fine dinner with the Browns, who ran the house on behalf of the laird. Mr. Brown was a native Thorsayian, and Broc knew some of his family. The couple enjoyed hearing the latest news from the islands.
Brown had retired from the army, met his wife in London, and they’d been here ever since. Broc wondered if the old laird had bought this house and created this position for the Browns. It was the sort of thing he’d do.
