“I thought you didn’t want to kiss me,” he said.
“I don’t!” she shot back.
“Truly? What happens in dreams is an echo, perhaps, of baser thoughts. You are a young, vibrant woman. Desire is natural.”
“With a Sassenach?” she challenged.
He lifted his hands in a shrug. “And with a Scotswoman.”
She looked at him a long moment, and he could see the awareness building in her. Finally, she tilted her head as if to inspect something curious.
“You wish to kiss me?”
“You are beautiful, smart, and you make me smile.” No, that wasn’t exactly right. “You make me feel things. And I find I want that.”
“Even though I am unsuitable as a mother to your children?”
He winced at that. “I have reconsidered those earlier words,” he said. “Indeed, I begin to think I was entirely wrong. My children would do well to have you as an example. You are bold and moral. Yes, I find you dangerously wild at times, but perhaps because you have not calculated correctly, not because you are too impulsive to see reason.” He matched her expression. “You did accept my escort home after Lord Liddican’s attack.”
“I am not a fool. There are dangers a woman cannot face alone. Even one who knows how to fight.”
He grinned. “See? You are reasonable. And that is vastly reassuring to me.”
“You feared for my safety?”
“Yes. And you, apparently, fear for mine, if you wake screaming because a banshee kills me.” He closed the distance between them. “What do you think that means?”
She snorted. “That I am daft.” Then she pressed her fingers to his chest. “But they say all lovers are such.”
He grinned. “Perhaps we should try an experiment. Let us repeat whatever we did in your dream and see if the spirit attacks in true life.”
Her eyes widened. “Everything we did?”
Wasn’t that interesting? Just how far had they gone in her dreams?
“Shall we start with a kiss? That’s not so scary, is it?”
“T’was not the kiss that was so frightening. It was the banshee ripping out your heart afterwards.” Her brogue was becoming thicker now.
“If a banshee appears, I shall—”
“Be torn limb from limb!”
He shrugged. “Then, I ask you to raise my girls for me. Teach them to be smart and bold like you. To not allow injustice, but fight it as best they can.”
He saw the words hit her, her body softening as she absorbed them. “You don’t think me unnatural?”
“I think you wonderful.”
Then he was done talking. He closed the distance between them, and slowly—in case she disagreed—lowered his lips to hers.
She did not disagree.
Chapter Nine
His kiss wasdifferent than what Sadie had dreamed. Not better, not worse, just different. The texture of his lips startled her. In her dreams, she hadn’t felt that at all. Since he went slowly, she was able to feel his mouth against hers, to appreciate the touch and shape of him.
Nice. Erotic.
