As the saying went, get bait while the tide is out.
* * *
What was Alex doing, smiling and winking at her like that, for anyone to see?
“I’d like to sneak off with ye and share a blanket under the stars tonight,” Alex said.
Glynis glanced about her, blushing to her roots. Fortunately, the riders had strung out along the trail so that no one else was within earshot. Bessie appeared to be enjoying herself overmuch, chatting with D’Arcy’s manservant at the back of the group.
“Ye have your daughter with ye,” she hissed.
“I missed ye in my bed last night,” Alex said. “I couldn’t sleep at all.”
“Alex, hush!” she said. “I’m sure ye say that to all your women.”
“Nay, I never tell women I miss them.”
Glynis did not know what to make of that. Despite herself, she was flattered that Alex still wanted her. But then, they had a long journey ahead, and there were no other women, save for Bessie, who had a good twenty years on him.
“What happened between us should not have,” she said, turning to speak to him in a low voice. “And ye know verra well it cannot happen again.”
“Why not?”
What a maddening man. “I only did it because no one would ever find out,” she hissed. “And because I never expected to see ye again.”
“Ye do want to,” Alex said, giving her that smoldering look that made her chest so tight she could hardly draw breath.
His hair brushed his shoulders, and she remembered gripping it in her fingers. And how it felt to have him deep inside her, saying her name over and over.
Aye, she wanted to.
“It doesn’t matter whether I want to or no,” she said. “I cannot, and I will not.”
CHAPTER 26
Glynis sat with Sorcha on her lap while Alex fed sticks into the fire. After four nights, they had their routine. They ate supper with D’Arcy and his men around the main campfire, and then Alex built them a separate fire several yards away from the others. He had also fashioned a tent from extra blankets for Glynis, Bessie, and Sorcha, to give them privacy from the men. Bessie, who was not accustomed to long days of riding, was already asleep inside it.
The firelight glinted off Alex’s fair hair and the strong lines of his perfect face. Though it was growing chilly, he pushed his sleeves up, revealing his tautly muscled forearms. When he caught her staring at him, he pinned her with a sizzling look. Then he slid his gaze over her from head to toe, with pauses in between, making her feel as if he was running his fingers over her naked skin.
Glynis knew what he wanted because she wanted it, too. Her resistance had worn thin, riding next to him all day and then sleeping a few feet away from him each night. Traveling the same trail made her recall all too clearly how they had spent their nights on their way to Edinburgh.
She would not bring shame upon herself and her family by having an open affair with Alex. But she had come to the conclusion that if there was any way she could have a secret one again, she would. Since that appeared utterly impossible with the child and the maid and twenty men a stone’s throw away, Glynis resolutely focused her attention on Sorcha.
“One, two, three…four,” she repeated in Gaelic, as she held up the child’s fingers. “Five…six…seven…” Glynis felt Alex’s eyes on her and turned to him. “Stop looking at me like that.”
A slow smile spread over his face. “Like I want ye? I can’t help it, Glynis. I do.”
“Watch what ye say,” she whispered. “Ye don’t know how much Gaelic the child understands already.” Despite the fact that Sorcha’s head lay heavy against Glynis’s chest and her eyelids were drifting shut, Glynis continued. “Eight, nine—”
“For God’s sake, Glynis, let the poor child sleep.” Alex scooped Sorcha up in his arms, then he paused and looked down at his daughter with a soft smile. “I’m looking forward to taking her sailing. Ye can see that the Viking blood is strong in her, just as it is in me.”
“Aye,” Glynis said, thinking they made an extraordinary pair with their fair hair shining in the firelight. “And when ye took her in the loch today, she swam like a wee fish.”
Alex laid Sorcha inside the tent next to Bessie. When he returned, he sat close enough to Glynis that his sleeve brushed hers. She stared into the fire and tried to make herself breathe normally.
“I have a proposition for ye,” Alex said.
Glynis’s stomach did a little flip. “A proposition?”
She hoped her voice didn’t sound as stiff and prim to him as it did to her. Did he have to put it to her formally? This would be easier if he sneaked off with her into the darkness, swept her into his arms, and covered her with kisses. But it was like Alex not to let her pretend he had seduced her. Nay, he would make her acknowledge that she chose to sin with him.
“I want to.” She was gripping the skirt of her gown so tightly that her knuckles were white. Could he not just get on with it?
“I haven’t told ye the proposition yet.”
“Must ye always tease me?” Glynis was so embarrassed she could not look at him. “I told ye the answer is aye. But not now—we must wait until we are certain all the men are asleep so no one sees us.”
