She managed a little laugh before looking back out the window, silently pleading for him to at least grab her hand. Every nerve in her body threatened to explode with passion at any minute. “We’re here!” he announced, lifting her hand to his lips. His lips barely touched her glove, but her body responded as if he had just taken her in his arms. Her knees buckled, sending her sailing into his waiting arms outside the carriage.
“I’m astounded that you lasted that long.” He breathed into her hair. “May I just say you have the nerves of steel, my lady? If I would have had to sit next to you for much longer, I would have jumped out of the carriage myself. And I mean that in the most complimentary way.” He smiled at her warmly as she stepped out of his arms and back onto the firm ground. So he felt the tension between them. Good, let him suffer. Of course, she was also suffering along with him. No wonder people had quick engagements.
“Where is the picnic?” she asked forcing the carriage ride fiasco out of her mind.
“Just down the road,” he pointed to the back of his estate. “I have a small pond with ducks near an inviting field of wildflowers, I thought we could visit. Would you like to walk or ride?” He turned to ask, but she was already running and laughing into the field.
***
“Run it is,” Nicholas mumbled to himself and chased after her.
By the time he caught up with her, she had successfully taken down her hair, so it flowed in soft waves about her shoulders. Her bonnet had gone flying somewhere back by the dirt road, and her face was lifted up to the sky in worship. “I could live here,” she said breathlessly.
“I want that,” he answered.
Her head inclined toward his. “What exactly do you want?”
Smiling, he shook his head momentarily breaking eye contact as he announced breathlessly. “You. Everywhere.”
He hadn’t meant to be so honest, but nature had a way of making him feel alive without blemish or secrets. Her blush deepened as he continued to stare at her perfect face. “Tell me about yourself, Sai. I want to know everything.”
“It’s Sara.”
“Who’s Sara?” he asked looking around.
“No, you misunderstand. I’m Sara. My aunt changed my name, so it would sound more foreign for my launch into society.”
He bit his lip to keep from biting hers. “Sara,” he repeated. “It fits better than Sai does. I don’t know why I didn’t see it before.” He leaned closer to her, just close enough to be able to smell the lemons on her skin. “Tell me more,” he whispered near her ear.
Her rich laughter made him dizzy with desire and aching need. Good Lord, when had he ever been so spellbound by a woman?
“I grew up in the country.”
“You’re making that up.”
“Am not!” she snapped and threw a flower at him. “Listen like a good boy, or I won’t continue.” She crossed her arms in protest. He wanted to uncross her arms…among many other things he was dying to do to her in that field.
“Go on,” he enticed, noticing his voice had grown husky. Perfect; now she knew the level of attraction.
“As I was saying.” She glared in his direction, and he tossed his head back in a laugh. “I grew up in the country, my sisters ran off to Gretna Green. They married twin brothers with no title and no fortune, leaving me as the only hope to marry and save my family.”
He had figured as much, not the whole marrying twins part, but the part where she needed money. “How much do you need?”
She looked at him annoyed. “That’s the problem. I have no idea. It never seemed bad. In fact, we always seemed to have more than enough.”
“So you have no dowry?”
Pain flashed across her face as she looked away. “No, no. Only my sisters.”
He paused. “That doesn’t make sense, Sara.” Her true name rolled off his tongue naturally. “Why give your sisters dowries but not you? If anything it should have been equally spread amongst the daughters. That’s the way these things are done.”
“You said there were ducks?” she asked, getting up. Obviously that part of her family history was not to be discussed. He wondered why. Was she illegitimate? No, she would have said as much. What was she hiding? Apparently, he wasn’t the only one with secrets.
“Just over there,” he pointed to a small pond with tiny ducks and a few swans.
“I always wanted to be one.”
“A duck?” he came up from behind and hugged her, in the most platonic way he knew how, which wasn’t at all platonic, but he had to touch her.