Nora lifted her eyebrows. “Ye think that I mean it in the same way? If ye do, then ye are more foolish than ever I thought.”
Something snapped between them, something intangible, something she could not quite describe.
Creighton surged toward her. His hands landed on the curve of her waist, hauling her toward him with a kind of desperation, a drowning man clutching at a rope thrown to him. Nora’s mouth opened, a muffled gasp wrenched out of her when he pressed their bodies together.
“Always with the insults,” Creighton breathed. “Sometimes I think that I ought to teach ye a lesson, lassie.”
With what felt like a superhuman effort, Nora pressed her hands against his chest and pushed, hard. Not really hard enough to dislodge him, but he stepped back anyway, creating space between them.
“Nay,” she whispered. The wanting pulsed inside her, a hard knot in her gut that shouted at her, telling her that she was making a mistake, what was shedoing? He was right there, so close.Nearly.
“Nay?” Creighton murmured, brows knitting together. “What is that ye want, Nora?”
“I want somethin’ real,” she responded, the words coming out without her having to think of them in her head. The sentences unspooled, popping up in the air between them. “I want ye, Creighton, so badly that it hurts, but I cannae… I am nae yer toy.”
“Toy? Nay, lass,” he breathed, taking a step toward her. He moved gingerly, as if trying not to spook a skittish deer. “The day I first saw ye felt like… like…” he paused, frowning. “I saw an eclipse once. When I was in university. We kent it was comin’, even those who didnae study astronomy. All of us, students and professors alike, went out to see. I didnae ken what to expect. I’d read about eclipses, but seein’ it…”
“I heard this story. Andrew told me,” Nora managed. “Red is yer favorite color.”
He nodded, smiling wryly. He took another step forward, closing up the distance which had opened between them. Tentatively, he reached toward her, warm palms cupping her cheeks. Nora let her eyes close, sinking into the sensation of his hands against her skin. She could feel his eyes on her face.
“The moon covered up the sun,” he continued, his voice a low drawl in her ears. “The world turned red, so bright nobody could look up at the sky. Darkness and light, mingled together so sweetly. For hours afterward, whenever I closed me eyes, I could see that eclipse, the red and black together. Beautiful. So powerful, so breathtakin’. Even though we kent nae to look at it, all of us risked a peek, at least once. We had to. Ye cannae look away from somethin’ so beautiful, so powerful.”
Nora found that she was holding her breath. She inched open her eyes, meeting his gaze squarely.
“It sounds like a wonderful experience,” she murmured.
He nodded. “It was. And the way I felt, when the moon covered up the sun in that way, was how I felt when I first saw ye. I understood, when I saw that eclipse, how a person could believe that the sun and moon were worthy of worship. And when I saw ye,reallysaw ye, I understood how a man could fall in love without realizin’ it, and hand himself over, heart and soul, to another person.”
Nora had to breathe, her lungs were thrumming. She let out a ragged exhale, not daring even to blink, certainly not to look away.
“Ye are me eclipse,” he whispered.
Nora said nothing. She only looked up at him, breath stuttering in her throat, her mind reeling.
“Oh,” she managed at last. The single word seemed almost ridiculously small for the conversation.
A slow smile spread over Creighton’s face, curving his mouth and crinkling up his eyes.
“Ohindeed,” he murmured. Slowly, carefully, he leaned forward, and fitted his lips to hers.
For a moment, that was all it was: his mouth pressed against hers. Warmth spread through her skin, even so, the dreaded blush reddening her cheeks.
He shifted, sliding an arm around her waist and pulling her against him. Deepening the kiss, the tip of his tongue traced out her lower lip, and Nora opened to him without even thinking twice. Curling her hands around his shoulders, she pulled herself closer to him, feeling the shift of muscle beneath her body.
“When the year is up, and the peace treaty signed,” Creighton whispered, pulling back only an inch or two to break the kiss and speak. “I daenae want ye to leave. Lass, I never want ye to leave again.”
“I willnae,” she breathed, keeping her eyes closed. She could feel his eyes on her, feel his warm breath tickling her chin. “I’m goin’ nowhere.”
He kissed her again, more passionately than before, his hand rising to cup the back of her neck, fingers tangling in her hair.
It was too much. Too much and not enough. Nora pressed herself against him, swallowing down a moan as it crawled up her throat. Her skin prickled like it was on fire, the thrum of wanting deep in her chest growing louder and more insistent with every passing moment.
“I want ye,” Creighton breathed, pulling away and pressing a kiss to the side of her neck. His stubble grazed the soft tap of her pulse, making her shudder. “I want ye so badly I feel as though I’m aflame. I feel like climbin’ into a bath of ice water just to calm meself down.”
Nora let out a ragged breath, pressing herself against him. Something hard and hot nudged at her hip, and when she experimentally rolled her hips against it, Creighton shivered, his whole body shuddering. Heat exploded in her gut, and she dug her fingertips into his shoulders.
“When we were together before,” she managed, voice rasping. “Ye never… That is to say, ye made me…”
