“‘Destroy the English.’ It’s all very ghoulish.”
He stared across the meadow.
“But then I thought, ‘Cassia, Máel has very much ruined you.’ And I am English.” She put her arms around his waist and held on. “Do you not see? You have ruined me and thus, you have fulfilled your oath.”
He hooked his arms around her waist, so they were both holding on. “’Tis an interesting notion.”
“Perhaps, seeing as I no longer have a home we can go to, we could…” She gave a little shrug. “Go to yours.”
The sun was sinking to the horizon in a golden glow. Cassia would think it beauteous. But she was not looking at it. She was looking at him, her face hopeful and earnest.
He cupped her chin in his hand. “You think you could manage an Irish home?”
“I managed an Irish interrogation, did I not?”
“That wasn’t an interrogation. That was a conversation. You do not want to see an interrogation.”
She gave him a little shake. “Answer me.”
“Aye.”
She straightened sharply. “Aye?”
“Aye.”
She stared a moment, then pressed her body to his and kissed him all over his face: lips, cheek, even his nose.
He had never, ever been kissed on his nose.
“I have so many plans,” she exclaimed between kisses. “I can see it all now.” She turned in his arms and swept out a hand, as if the world she envisioned was already there, just waiting for them. “There will be gardens, both of vegetables and flowers.”
“A wise plan.”
“And I’ve thought about a library, for the romances, of course—“
“Of course.”
“—And perhaps a few scribes—”
“Careful, Cassia. Recall, I have no home in Ireland. It has all been lost. Anything might happen after we cross the Irish Sea. Anything,” he emphasized, ensuring she knew what she was in for. “I do not know what lies ahead.”
A smile broke across her face. “It sounds like quite an adventure.”
“Although…,” he said thoughtfully. “I do know a sheriff over there.”
Her beaming smile grew. “Do you not see? Adventure.”
“Then we have a plan,” he said slowly.
For the first time in his life, he had a plan that went beyond the next few moments or days. A plan with a purpose.
Aye, it was still as hastily-spun as all his other plans, but this one was fundamentally different: he was not alone. This plan had been sprung with Cassia. It was a shared plan—a shared dream.
This plan would become his mission: to please her, protect her, and ensure she had everything her heart desired, whatever the cost.
“A plan,” she echoed dreamily. “For adventure.”
He shifted her to face him again, her body tucked up against his groin. “I’ve a plan for tonight, Cassia,” he said roughly, sliding his hands down her back and cupping her bottom.