“Only if they are due.” He winked.
Joy pulled another laugh from her.
“You commandeered me,” he said solemnly.
Meghan’s throat worked rhythmically.
He remembered.
“I asked. You came.”
To keep you from Linnie. To keep you for myself…
He had not known that.
Now Meghan had him.
In a way.
He smiled. “We shall split the difference.”
Meghan’s own smile slipped.
No, they needn’t do that.
You commandeered me…
I asked. You came…
Only one of those insistences was correct—and it was not Meghan’s.
If only she could memorize the feel of his smile for when sadness came.
Meghan reached up between them and traced the seam of his smile.
August’s body stilled.
She wondered at his reaction, but she wondered even more what his lips felt like.
“I did wonder what your mouth felt like,” she felt inclined to share, given the attention she was paying his mouth.
“Did you?” His voice sounded strained.
Since she had just said she did, she did not feel inclined to clarify.
“Share your musings with me, love.”
Meghan did not take offense at his order.
Had August admitted to her that he thought about her, she would have urged him just the same.
“You wore a beard,” she murmured.
“Sometimes I do that.”
Meghan canted her head. “Why?”
“It provides some warmth from the elements.”
