Page 33 of Anice’s Bargain

Her pulse tapped quickly against the heel of his palm where their skin connected. “You said some know of farming. What of the others? What of you?”

James guided her to his side and threaded her hand in his arm, for he too could be chivalrous. Mayhap not as much as her former betrothed…

He hated the rise of his jealousy.

“I confess I dinna know much of farming,” James replied. “Half my people were once farmers, men so heavily taxed, they took to raiding for survival. They were forced into it.”

“My brother-in-law was a reiver.” Anice stopped at the stairs leading into the castle. “I’m aware of more than you think. I also know something of farming.”

His lip quirked in an unbidden half-smile at this surprising woman, whose milky white hands did not appear to have ever come into contact with any amount of land work.

“Don’t act so shocked.” She ducked her head in a way suggesting she was pleased by his reaction.

“Ye dinna seem the type of lass to be digging about in the dirt.”

She laughed, and the light spilling from the castle played over the delicate lines of her neck as it flexed around the sweet, joyful sound. “I confess I am not the most adept of us all. Leila has always been the one with true skill when it comes to planting and harvesting.”

He thought of the small, dark-haired girl with the somber expression and his heart flinched, a reminder of what his clan had done. Did the population of Werrick Castle feel the same way? Was wee Leila a reminder of all that had gone wrong between their people?

Anice turned away from the staircase and pulled him back to the garden with her. “I am not ready to retire as yet.”

He let her lead him, content to walk the paths a thousand times over with her at his side. She leaned into him, sharing body heat in a way that was quietly intimate.

He stroked her hand at his elbow. Most likely not the thing a chivalrous earl’s son might do, but certainly the thing he would do. “I get yer land, and yer knowledge on how to farm it. I have the chance to draw on an opportunity that might never have been extended to me otherwise.”

She turned her hand upward and allowed him access to the softness of her palm, while her fingers stroked against his. The trail they followed took them down a darkened path. Heat fired in James’s veins. There were many things one might do by cover of night on such a path.

“It seems unfair.” His steps slowed to prolong their time in the dark, to continue the silly act of petting one another’s hands. It was ridiculous how the graceful sweep of her fingertips over his made his stomach tighten, or how circling his middle finger over her palm drew a similar sexual energy as when he’d circled the bud of her center.

“What seems unfair?” she asked in a breathless voice.

The way she spoke was far too alluring. She was far too alluring.

“I gain much from this union.” He faced her with their hands still joined. “Yet aside from having saved yer people, ye get nothing.”

* * *

James’s wordssank into Anice with the weight of a stone. He was right, of course. He did have the better end of the bargain, but in times of desperation, there was no room for fairness.

Her fingers stilled against his, and the heat of desire cooled. “My people are safe and will remain thus. Our marriage will end the Grahams’s persistent threat against Werrick.”

“What can I give ye, Anice?”

She couldn’t make out his face in the shadows, yet she was all too aware of his nearness. The heat of his body against her kirtle, the strength of his hands over hers, the way his soft burr held a note of tenderness.

A snuffling sound came from the ground and Piquette strode away. Anice turned her attention to the dog in an attempt to gain reprieve from having to answer James’s question. Nose to the ground, her beloved pet and protector shuffled off in pursuit of something delectable.

“Do ye want me to truly know ye?” he asked.

Her breath hitched. “What do you mean?”

“The first day when I asked ye for a secret, ye said no one has ever truly known ye.” He shifted closer and the pressure of his massive body against the front of her skirt increased. “I think ye want someone to know ye, or ye wouldna have said as much.”

“I was beside myself with starvation.” She waved her hand and gave a short laugh. “It was merely the ramblings of near-madness you heard.”

A pause hung between them. He ran a finger down her palm, slow, and with a deliberate sensuality. A shiver ran down her back and her nipples tingled.

“I dinna think so, Anice.” He released one hand from hers and cradled her face.