CHAPTERFIVE
Yanking Karolina close would be the easiest thing in the world.Delaying contact was the most delicious torture.
“Do you always take a stroll at this time of day, or are you checking up on me?”she asked.
Resting back against the stone fountain behind them, he leveled a stare on his new wife’s face.Until he knew her better, he was giving nothing away.“You cost me six ponies.Your father’s original price was two, but he changed the price after that tango.”
“And laughed as he said it, I’m guessing?”
“I laughed too,” he admitted.At the sheer audacity of the man.
“Should I be grateful to you for increasing your offer?”
He shot her a glance.“The tango was worth it.”
“Two men bartering ponies for human lives.I hope you’re proud of yourself.”
He shrugged.“If I find you satisfactory, two more ponies—”
“Do you intend to test me out tonight?”
“If you’re lucky.”Ignoring Karolina’s exclamation of affront, he gave her a reminder about the rest of the sordid deal.“The original offer of an additional pony for each living child remains in place.”
“God help our children.”
“There won’t be any.”
Shock hit unexpectedly.Had she wanted children?Yes.She wanted a home and family filled with love, to prove to herself that hope existed.But this was just a deal, and that was how Conor was treating it.
Her shock turned to anger.“Is the ambassador waiting for bloodied bedsheets to prove that you’ve had me?”
He pulled his head back.“I’m sorry, what?”
“Don’t pretend you’re so naïve you don’t know that marriages used to require witnesses to the act, or at the very least a bloodied bedsheet to prove the virgin had been well and truly wed.I believe some women took a sheep’s bladder full of animal blood to bed to prove—”
“You’re a virgin?”
“Will that cost you more ponies?What?”she flared when Conor looked at her with bemusement on his face.“Or don’t you find me attractive?”
“Are you a virgin?”he pressed, but she wasn’t listening.There’d been so much bad in her life, she found it impossible to believe anyone could care for her.
“Am I so repulsive that you can’t even bring yourself to kiss your bride?”
“Who said I can’t?”Her eyes were wounded as he drew her into his arms, but with a cry of denial, she thrust him away.
Conor was having none of it.“Even virgins get kissed,” he insisted, waiting, not demanding, not dragging her to him to kiss her, because that might have been what he wanted—
Whathewanted?It was what she wanted too, but now she’d spoiled everything with the temper she didn’t even know she had.A lifetime of watching what she said, what she did, in case she brought the roof down on helpless victims, had all been wiped out by this man.Conor had unleashed something dangerous inside her, a passion for life, a longing for the impossible.
“Don’t look so shocked.It’s true that virgins get kissed,” he said, bringing her back to the original conversation.“And you look as if you need both a hug and a kiss.”
Was this part of the deal, she wondered as he took hold of her hands, bringing her close as gently as he might lead a fractious pony.The brush of his lips against hers was stunning, yet undemanding.Perhaps the undemanding part was why it was so magical.
“You can go now,” he prompted with amusement, stepping back.
Go.How humiliating.She’d been kissed and dismissed.More humiliating still were the tears that sprang to her eyes.How could Conor make her feel things so intensely?It was too late to hide her feelings.He’d seen and seemed shocked, and even reached out, but she had to get away.It wouldn’t have mattered if she hadn’t cared so deeply what Conor thought about her.But she did care.She cared a lot.
Back in her glorious suite of rooms, she felt a fool for allowing emotion to get the better of her.Fresh tears sprang to her eyes when she noticed the tray Anna had left.Loaded with delicious, sweet temptation, there was even a delicate silver bud vase containing a single perfect white rose.The thoughtfulness behind the gesture, a simple act of kindness, was all it took to add to those emotions Conor had stirred, emotions that she’d hidden for years, and that was dangerous when she had to remain strong.
