Page 53

There was a loc fallen across her cheek, and I lifted my hand to move it, and stopped myself with my fingers an inch from her skin.

She noticed, because she notices everything.

"You're doing it again."

"What?"

"Stopping yourself."

I let my voice drop, because there was no air left in the room for anything louder.

"Someone has to."

Her eyes went to my mouth. "Maybe I don't want you to."

My heart was going like a hammer. I leaned in, close enough that she could feel the breath of the words on her lips.

"Then tell me when you're certain."

"You make it sound so simple," she whispered.

"It isn't."

"No?"

"Robin, every sensible thought I've had since I woke in this cabin has ended with me wanting to kiss you."

Her eyes widened, then narrowed with wicked delight. "Every one?"

"Unfortunately."

"That must be exhausting for a man who thinks so much of his good judgment."

"You have no idea."

Her smile softened. I could have borne the teasing indefinitely. That softness nearly brought me to my knees.

Her lips parted.

For one entire second I believed she was going to close the distance, and God help me, I was going to let her.

Then she stepped back.

I let her go, and the cold air came in between us, and I stood there with my hand against the wall and understood something that would have appalled me a month ago.

If she had kissed me, I would have kissed her back. Warrant, Crown, badge, oath, and the whole weight of the law of England, and I would have kissed her back without one moment's hesitation.

The storm went on half the night.

She sat by the fire mending the leather strap of her quiver, cross-legged with her knife in her teeth while she measured the cut. I lay propped against the headboard and watched her. I didn’t pretend to myself that I was doing anything else. We talked about easy things. Nottingham in winter, the border, a village in the north where she had once stolen a goat. The kind of talk two people have when neither of them wants the evening to end.

Then she said, without looking up, "Do you still believe in it? The Crown. The law."

"I believed the law and justice were the same thing," I said. "I built everything I am on that. I am no longer certain."

Her hands kept working the leather.

"You're changing, Bisbane."