Hannah chuckled again, and the sound of her mirth filled Eoin. He wanted more of this. Yearned for it. What would life be like with Hannah constantly by his side?
“Those are rather uninspired choices, especially for a bird with so much personality.”
Eoin lifted the fluff to scrutinize it, but he couldn’t see much in the dark. No inspiration came. “Mayhap you should name it?”
“Oh no. I wouldn’t dare. It’s your pet.”
Eoin decided it was futile to debate the fowl’s status in his life. Instead, he bent to place the small animal on the ground near their feet.
“Aren’t you afraid she’ll wander off?” Hannah asked.
Eoin glanced down at the little mite even though he couldn’t properly see it. “Not with me here. It’ll faithfully stick by my side.”
“Ah! So you do admit that you’ve become a mother to it!”
“Will my capitulation make you happy?” Eoin cast a sideways glance in Hannah’s direction. In the low light, he could just spy the outline of her profile, but he wished he could fully see her pink lips parted in laughter and the happy flush touching her pale cheeks.
“Exceedingly so.”
A rare chuckle escaped Eoin. “Then I suppose that I have no choice but to claim parentage to it.”
“Her,” Hannah said definitively.
“Her?” Eoin pointed at the chick, who was most likely munching happily on bugs. “However can you tell? It is just a ball of fluff that is sprouting feathers.”
Hannah shrugged but did not appear shaken in her conviction. “I simply have a feeling that the goose is female. She has that air about her.”
Giddy joy shot through Eoin. Unable to contain it, he nearly doubled over with laughter.
“What?” Hannah asked. “Can’t you sense it as well?”
“Noooooooo.” The denial came out as a helpless, uneven howl.
“Well, I can,” Hannah replied loftily.
Eoin tried to get his chuckles under control but found that he simply could not. He realized that he wanted to kiss Hannah—to share this glee with her. Acting on instinct, he started to bend his head in her direction, but then he froze.
“Why are you stopping?” Hannah asked as she threaded her arms about his neck. “I want to— Owwww!”
“That is why,” Eoin explained. “I didn’t want you to get pecked again.”
“Hmmmm.” Hannah kept her hands interlocked behind his head as she glanced down speculatively at the still-unnamed menace. “I believe my ankles can endure, especially since the rest of me will be suffused in pleasure.”
Heady need shot through Eoin, and his bliss burst into flames of want. “Suffused in pleasure? I make you feel… like that?”
“Most assuredly!”
Hannah gently tugged him toward her, and his heart bumped furiously in his chest. With his blood pounding this hard, he doubted that he would even hear the gosling’s hisses. He hoped Hannah’s legs wouldn’t suffer too—
Rawrrrrrrrr!
Eoin jerked away from Hannah. For a brief moment, he stared dimwittedly at the fowl despite the absurdity of the sound emanating from it.
Rawrrrrrrrr!
Hannah’s nails dug into Eoin’s shoulder as they both whipped their heads in the direction of the roar.
“That—that sounded like a bear!” Hannah’s voice hovered between disbelief and terror.
