“I’ll help you with the charm, and I am happy to keep you company, but I don’t want you to kiss me just because there is no one else.”
The shadows under the willow made it hard to judge his expression, but whatever Alan was feeling wasn’t happy. “You think I kissed you because there is no one else? I don’t want anyone else.”
“Because none of the villagers have even given you a second look for years.” I wrapped my arms around myself. “I don’t blame you, Alan. I can’t imagine how that sort of isolation must feel.”
He took a step toward me. “I didn’t kiss you because you are the only person available, Mina. And you were wrong. I wasn’t going to say since Powell used the charm. I stopped because I realized I had never felt like this before. It has nothing to do with anyone else and everything to do with you.”
His lips crashed against mine, and there was nothing tentative in the way he kissed me now. This wasn’t a seduction, but a declaration of intent. I pressed my hands against his back and welcomed the onslaught. My doubts disappeared. Alan didn’t kiss me like a man who had no other options; he kissed me like a man who had made his choice.
He had chosen me. Not the woman immune to Powell’s charm. Not the princess. But me.
Alan’s hands roved over my body, and I cursed the layers that kept my skin from his. Then his fingers dipped under my shirt, under the edge of my bodice, and brushed against one hard nipple. I arched into his touch, my hands fumbling for my laces. He dragged his finger to the side, toward my other breast, but became tangled momentarily with my necklace.
The diamond charm was suddenly a shard of ice against me. I jerked back without conscious thought.
Alan’s breathing was as unsteady as my own. “I’m moving too fast, aren’t I? Sorry.”
I shook my head, my hand laying over my chest, pressing the charm into my skin. “No, I...”
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t tell Alan my identity. Right now, he wanted me for myself, but what would happen if I told him I was the princess? We knew so little about each other. If I waited, maybe he wouldn’t change how he treated me when he learned my real name.
But I couldn’t let us go beyond kissing with such a secret hanging between us. “I don’t have a contraceptive enchantment,” I lied, finding a reason to pull back that let Alan know how much I wished we could continue.
“Right. That makes a difference.” He glanced at the branches of the willow in the direction where we had entered. Running away was probably his standard defense mechanism, and right now he was struggling, unsure how to step back from the intensity of the past few minutes. But he didn’t flee.
He glanced around the space beneath the willow’s branches and gestured toward the trunk. “Maybe we should sit down?”
“An excellent suggestion.”
Sixteen
Alan
???
I sat withmy back against the willow’s trunk, Mina at my side, tucked under my arm. It wasn’t exactly what I’d had in mind when I suggested we sit. I had been thinking more along the lines of keeping space between us, making it so I couldn’t shift closer without noticing. But I hadn’t protested when she sat next to me.
My fingers brushed up and down along her arm, no matter how often I tried to still them. In the shadows, I could convince myself that the world beyond us didn’t exist. That sense of seclusion made it hard to remember that our actions had consequences.
I wanted to indulge in the smooth satin of Mina’s skin, to coax free more of the soft moans she made when I kissed her. But if I started again, I wouldn’t want to stop. I hadn’t exaggerated when I told her that I had never felt this way before. Mina might have intrigued me at first because she treated me differently, but that had quickly morphed into something more.
I hadn’t spent much time with her yet, but I knew her. She was the type of person to entrust a fortune to a stranger with nothing more than a vague hope he might be able to do what she wanted. She was generous, optimistic, and honorable. Stubborn and determined. I knew the essence of her, but I wanted to learn the details, too.
I shifted, angling my body slightly so I could look at her without putting any extra space between us. “I’m curious. What brought you to Skorsa?”
Her eyes went wide, her hand pressing against her collarbone. An odd reaction to such a simple question. She slowly dropped her hand back into her lap and I wondered if she simply hadn’t expected a question at all. “I’m visiting my aunt and her family.”
“But why now? I don’t remember you visiting the village ever before.” I was certain I’d remember Mina if she had come to Skorsa in the past.
“No, I’ve never visited before. This summer seemed like the right time.” She paused for a moment, weighing her words. “I wanted to see the differences between village and city life.”
“How do they compare?”
She smiled. “It is much more peaceful here.”
“Boring, in other words.”
Her laughter was the only response for several heartbeats. “Peaceful does not mean boring. And I’d argue that finding Powell using a charm against you is the opposite of boring.”
