A wise man knew when to give in, so he told her, “My brother needed me.”
He regretted his harsh words to Brian before he left. And the punch in the face, though his brother had deserved both.
“Your brother needed ye foreight years?” Sybil asked, her voice dripping with skepticism.
“Aye.” Brian still needed him. No matter what his brother thought.
“Truly?” She turned again to look up at him. “Why?”
“Do ye always ask so many questions?”
“I wouldn’t need to,” she said, giving his arm a playful squeeze, “if ye answered the first one fully.”
Ach, the lass had more charm than a sprite and more persistence than a hungry cat.
“Come, tell me.” She rested her palm on his chest and leaned into him. “Please.”
With her touching him like that and fixing those violet eyes on him, Rory had trouble recalling just what she wanted to know and why he did not want to tell her.
“I can see,” he said, “that you’re a spoiled lass who’s accustomed to using her charms to get her way.”
“I am,” she said with a sparkle in her eyes and a smile that could melt a frozen loch.
“You’re dangerous as well,” he said.
“Oh, I do hope so,” she said. “Now tell me all about your brother and the rest of your family. We’ve nothing else to do to pass the time.”
Rory was not about to frighten her off by telling her the full truth about his family, and he could think of far better ways they could pass the time.
***
Odd, the effect this Highland warrior had on her. Sybil thought she would never recover from the horror of the attack this morning, and yet she felt so safe riding with his arms about her that she had fallen asleep.
And teasing him made her feel like her old self for the first time in weeks. She had lost her usual cheerful nature when her family’s fortunes fell and all her friends deserted her. It felt good to smile again.
She was still grinning over his remark about her being dangerous when he lifted her onto his good leg and dropped the reins. There was a devilish glint of amusement in his eyes.
“I’ve been wanting to kiss ye since the first moment I saw ye,” he said. “I’m going to do it now.”
Sybil could not breathe, let alone form the words to object. When she moistened her lips with her tongue, she felt his heartbeat leap beneath her palm. Her gaze fixed on his mouth as he drew her to him ever so slowly.
She had expected a sweet, teasing kiss, not this explosion of passion that seared through her body at the first touch of their lips. No one had ever kissed her like this before, as if he would die if he could not have his mouth on hers. With a will of their own, her arms wound around his neck and her fingers tangled in his long, thick hair as she pulled him closer.
She was lost in the sensations and long past thought. As his kisses slowly changed from feverish to tender, she felt as if she were floating. She wanted this to go on forever.
When Rory pulled away, she stared up at him, stunned.
“That was promising,” he said with a wide grin.
How could he jest after kisses like that? Apparently they had not affected him as they had her.
“I didn’t say ye could kiss me,” she said, trying hard to gather herself.
“Ye didn’t tell me nay, either,” Rory said. “And ye seemed to like it.”
She did not bother arguing because they both knew she had.
“I’m looking forward to more of that.” He ran his thumb over her swollen lips. “But if I’m to get ye out of the queen’s reach, we must keep traveling. You’ll be safe once we reach MacKenzie lands.”