She shook her head at him. “And you actually think Shaw would have let you court his daughter with all that bad history between your families?”
“Why not?” Dominic shrugged. “It’s exactly that—ancient bad history. I’m confident Shaw would quit fretting over our border if his daughter were to become mistress of Rothdale. Besides, the man strikes me as simpleminded.”
“Are you sure the daughter isn’t simpleminded, too?”
“I doubt I would have cared.”
What a sad thing for him to say. “Do you really aspire so low?”
“What else is there?”
“Happiness, love, children.”
“That sounds like what you might aspire to.”
“But not you?”
“Love is fleeting, as is happiness. I would have got around to having some children, though. I just wasn’t in a hurry for them.”
“Cynical—at the least, not very optimistic, are you? But happiness and love are possible. Whether they last is entirely up to you. Surely you could agree with that?”
He snorted. “That both require work?”
“Not so much work as a little effort. Or maybe nothing a’tall except acceptance. Sometimes you have to believe you can attain something to attain it.”
He raised a single brow. “A philosopher, too? Aren’t you full of surprises.”
She wasn’t put off by his derisive tone. “As for you not caring whether your wife is simpleminded or not, I highly doubt you’d want that trait passed down to your children, so that statement is false. You would care.”
“I’m not getting a chance to find out, am I?”
She stiffened. The subject had just turned on them, and this was not the place to get into that argument again, when she couldn’t move without touching him, when she felt him against her knees, his legs bent enough to touch her entire right flank and hip. She wouldn’t even be able to get out of here without crawling over him.
Wisely, she didn’t rise to the bait. She opened the sack of blankets, took out two more, and handed him one. He folded his to use as a pillow and put his head on it. He still had to keep his knees bent, or his feet would have been out in the rain.
“Get some sleep,” he said. “It will be morning soon enough. And if the ghosts wake you, ignore them.”
She stared. “Whatghosts?”
“Some of these old castle and guard-tower ruins are reputed to be haunted. I never believed it m’self, but you never know.”
“Is this one reputed to be haunted?”
“I don’t know. But in any case, ghosts are harmless, so no screaming. I don’t wake well to screaming.”
She rolled her eyes. If he hadn’t added that, she might have thought he was serious. She couldn’t guess what he was up to tonight, teasing, telling obvious whoppers, almost as if he’d grown comfortable with her—even as he still tried to push her away.
But she didnotwant to lie down next to him, even though he’d closed his eyes, letting her know he was done talking. And she didn’t think she could sleep sitting up, much as she would like to. No longer the least bit cold, a little too warm in fact with the thought of sleeping beside him, she draped the other blanket over her anyway and lay down carefully on her side, facing away from him.
She had to bend her knees, too, because his legs were blocking her from doing anything else. But she didn’t have enough room on her side to bend her legs without leaving her backside pressed against him. She was mortified. She hoped he was asleep and didn’t notice that she was touching him again and wriggling around as she tried to get comfortable and couldn’t!
“If you’re not still in the next second, we’re not going to be sleeping tonight.”
She wasn’t exactly sure what he meant by that, but she immediately stopped moving. Her last thought before she drifted off was that it was pleasant to feel his warmth all around her as the wind howled and the rain continued to pour down outside their ancient shelter.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
BROOKE AWOKE TO FINDherself twisted all around Dominic, but he was likewise twisted around her. How the deuce had they slept like this?
