“I brought you fruit,” he claimed with outrage.
“But why?” she asked. “What is your motive?” She’d truly be disappointed if he was only being kind because he wanted to seduce her. According to Cressida, that is all any man wanted.
Twelve
Orion stared at Nina, uncertain how to answer and feared that if he said the wrong thing that he’d be sent from the grove and asked never to return.
He did not want to be sent away and he had only wanted a simple kiss from her delectable lips, except it ended up him kissing her cheek. Kissing Nina had been a desire that had plagued him since they first met. He wanted more but set his desire aside. Yet, that didn’t mean that it disappeared, and his heart did a funny little skip when he saw her.
These sensations were new. Not the desire for he had experienced that often. It was the longing to see and be with Nina. To learn as much about her as possible. To touch, hold, kiss and converse. What he was feeling went beyond friendship, and something he had never experienced before and not quite certain what it was, and just as certain he did not want to put a name to these feelings.
However, he did not like her being suspicious of him as if he were some kind of rogue. “My motive in bringing you fruit was as I said. You grow weak too far from the grove and I thought you would enjoy a peach or pear.”
Nina bit her bottom lip. “I do like peaches,” she answered. “But that doesn’t explain why you tried to kiss me.”
“I have wanted to kiss you for days,” he admitted.
“We have only known each other six days,” she reminded him.
“That is still days.”
Nina tilted her head and studied him. “Do you want to kiss a lot of women?” Her auburn eyebrows drew together in study of him. “Does this occur often, such as when you are in London, or a house party?”
She then lifted the peach and took a bite and waited for his answer.
Orion could only stare at her, again, not certain how he should answer. Her accusing tone was gone, and now it held curiosity.
“This is not an appropriate conversation,” he finally said. No woman would dare ask such a thing of a gentleman. But what did Nina know of propriety since she’d lived in this grove most of her life.
“Does that mean you will not answer my question?”
“I should not answer,” he insisted.
She gave a nod, bit into her peach, and stared out over the clear lake, which was more of a pond as it wasn’t so large.
Was she angry? Did he ask?
This was the first time in memory that he was at a loss as to how to speak with a woman or find the right words. It had never been a difficulty before.
Then again, no other woman had ever asked him how many women he had kissed.
She took another bite of her peach and this time juice dripped over her bottom lip, but Nina’s tongue quickly darted out, licking the nectar before it could trail down her chin.
He nearly groaned and looked away. He did want to kiss her, and badly. And, he could lie to himself all he wished but no kiss was simple, and Orion suspected that once he kissed Nina, it would be far from sweet and innocent.
“Why does it matter how many women I may have kissed?”
“It is a curiosity.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I have been told that men like to do a lot of kissing and need to do more than kiss, whereas a woman does not.”
Orion nearly choked on his pear. He didn’t think that their conversation could become any more improper. Did he dare ask what the more was that men needed, though he suspected he already knew what her answer would be. That was certainly not something the two of them could, should, or would ever discuss.
“As you will not tell me how many women you have kissed, I am assuming you will not tell me of your lovers either.”
Bloody hell! How had they gotten on to this topic? Had nobody ever told her that certain matters should not be discussed with a man?
“I am certain you have had lovers, have you not?” She tilted her head and looked at him out of the corner of her pewter eyes with a slight quirk of her mouth.
Had Nina simply been teasing him this entire time?
