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“What did you do?”

“In my panic, I turned to my hostess and asked her if the almanac had called for a rain of fish that evening.” Gavin burst out laughing, and Ina grinned. “She said not that she was aware, but she’d heard once about a shower of frogs in the Highlands.”

“You’ve never lacked for bravado,” he said, still chuckling as he reached for the bottle of wine to refill both of their glasses.

“I was so mortified, I couldn’t think of anything else but to bluster my way through it,” she said.

“It’s your turn again,” he said.

She sipped her wine and studied him, wanting to wheedle out a confession equally or more humiliating.

Inspiration struck her and, rather pleased with herself, she said, “I’ve never been caught in a state of dishabille.”

He snorted. “I was at school, living with dozens of other boys. No one escaped.”

“School stories don’t count,” she said.

“According to what rules?”

“The ones I just made up.”

“Fine,” he grunted. “Since you insist, I have been caught in a state of undress.”

Heat flushed her cheeks. She should’ve known it’d happen. Even the slightest provocation from Gavin could send shivers dancing up and down her spine. Her body couldn’t shake the memory of him—or how much she wanted to feel it all over again.

“One unusually hot day when I was about seventeen I was out riding at home when I decided to stop for a swim at the lake I told you about. I—” He coughed.

“You took off all your clothes?” she offered helpfully.

He shot her a look. “Yes. I dove in and was halfway to the middle when I saw my brother on the shore. He was on horseback, waving my trousers over his head like a flag.”

Her eyes widened. “No. And did he—”

“He did,” he said with a nod. “He took them as well as my jacket and my shirt and rode all the way back to the stables nearly an acre away.”

“What did you do?” she asked, pitching over the table in curiosity.

He shrugged. “What else could I do? I pulled on my smallclothes which, fortunately, Richard had left me, climbed on my horse, and rode back home.”

Her sides ached from trying to hold in the giggles that threatened to erupt, but she wanted to hear the end of his story. “Did anyone see you?”

“As a matter of fact, my mother was taking tea in the garden with several ladies. My future sister-in-law, Grace, was in attendance. Her friend almost fainted on the spot.”

It was too much. She broke into peals of laughter at the thought of a sopping wet Gavin bowing to the ladies from atop his horse. “Oh, that’s wicked of Richard. And to think I used to regret being an only child.”

He grinned. “You would’ve held your own. I have the utmost confidence in your wily ways,” he said.

“I shall choose to take that as a compliment,” she said as the giggles slowed.

“It was meant as one.”

The heady mix of wine and laughter was making her bolder. Not reckless or dizzy, as it had the one time Gavin had found her drunk on her father’s whisky, just . . . looser.

“It’s your turn,” she said.

“I forfeit my turn,” he said.

“That’s not how the game is played.”