“AndCurstag?”
“What about her?”
“Well,” she said, casting her gaze to the side, “she watches you as if…”
“As if what?”
“As if the two of you were lovers. She said as much today.” Margaret quickly added, “Of course, it’s not any of my concern.”
Margaret sounded jealous. Now that was promising.
Finn rested his hands on her hips and met her gaze. “She’s nothing to me.”
“Would Curstag say the same?” she asked.
“Doesn’t matter what she’d say,” he said. “You’re the one I want.”
###
He wanted her? There was nothing special about that. Men had been wanting to bed her since she was thirteen. But Finn was the first manshewanted.
If ye had me, what then?She was tempted to ask him, but she already knew the answer. He would be disappointed. Beauty drew men to her, but William had shown her that was not enough.
“You’re so beautiful ye take my breath away,” he said, which was like jabbing her with the point of his blade.
When he reached for her, she turned her back.
For once, she wished a man wanted her just for herself. She wanted Finn because of everything he was. His good heart, charm, and humor drew her as much as his fine looks—though they were very fine, indeed.
She sighed. It did not matter why he wanted her anyway. The risk of another failed pregnancy and heartache was too great to give in to temptation.
Late that night, as they lay side by side in the bed, the tension was thick between them.
“I don’t know which will kill me first,” Finn muttered, “frustration or lack of sleep.”
“Death seems unlikely,” she said.
He chuckled, which eased the tension for a moment.
“Ye know this can’t go on forever,” Finn said, turning on his side to face her. “Just what was your plan?”
He was far too handsome in the glow of the candle he’d left burning, so she decided it was safer to keep her gaze fixed on the ceiling.
“I had no plan beyond not being labeled a whore,” she said.
“I don’t mean when we arrived here at Dunrobin,” he said. “What was your plan at the verra beginning when ye decided to go along withthe kidnapping?”
“I don’t recall ye giving me a choice.”
“All the same, ye wanted to come with me,” he said.
“Ella’s brother only brought her to me an hour before ye came to the cottage,” she explained. “I’d decided I must escape with her, but I’d no time to make a plan beyond that.”
“Ye took a chance running off with a kidnapper,” he said. “Evidently, it wasn’t because ye find me irresistible.”
He was very nearly irresistible, which was the problem.
“In truth,” she said, “I’ve never done anything so bold in my life as the things I did that night.”