What she did know was that she didn’t want to walk away just yet.
‘Lottie?’
His blue gaze was searching her face, only she didn’t know what to say. She was more confused than ever, but it seemed incredibly important not to offer up something less than the truth.
She looked up at him and swallowed. ‘I want this. I want you.’
His eyes locked with hers. ‘And I want you too. Emphatically. Completely. Shamelessly.’
His fingers traced the curve of her hipbone as he spoke, so that suddenly she was squirming against him.
‘And I don’t want to turn away from this thing between us. Not yet.’
The certainty in his voice was captivating, and she stared at him spellbound.
‘Let’s give ourselves these three weeks.’
He was spelling it out for her, making it simple for both of them in a way that had been beyond her, and she was grateful that one of them had managed to put it into words.
‘And afterwards you’ll still be Sóley’s mother and I’ll still be her father—just like we agreed.’
‘So we just carry on as we are?’ she said slowly.
He nodded. ‘Until we stop.’
His blue eyes were clear and calm and irresistible. Breathing in his warm scent, she nodded slowly, and as she leaned into him they began to taste one another all over again.
* * *
‘How do you feel about taking the horses out after lunch? I’d like to show you the estate while you’re here.’
Keeping his eyes fixed on Lottie’s face, Ragnar leaned forward and refilled her water glass. They were having lunch alone today. Sóley had already eaten and gone upstairs for her nap, and they were eating in the dining area.
It was a glorious room, with a glorious view, and normally he simply sat back and enjoyed the contrast between the restrained luxury of the interior and the stark wilderness outside the glass. Today, though, his gaze kept returning to the woman sitting opposite him.
It was easier between them now. She was still quieter than any woman he’d ever met—certainly quieter than any in his family—but her quietness no longer felt like a show of defiance. Now that he wasn’t so on edge himself, he realised that if she was quiet it was because she was concentrating, really listening to what he said.
And not just listening. When her gaze was on his face it felt as if her soft brown eyes were reaching inside him.
‘What about Sóley?’
He stared at her blankly. Caught in the honeyed trap of her eyes, he’d lost track of the conversation.
With an effort, he refocused his thoughts. ‘We’ll only be out for an hour or so at the most before we lose the light, and Signy is desperate to spend some time with her.’ Sensing her uncertainty, he changed tack. ‘But if Sóley isn’t happy to be left then we won’t go, obviously.’
‘I’d really like to see the estate, and I’d love to go riding.’ She glanced longingly through the glass, and then her face creased. ‘But I don’t have any jodhpurs or boots or a helmet.’
‘That won’t be a problem. When you said you liked to ride I had one of my people pick up everything you need.’
She frowned. ‘But how did you know my size?’
He held her gaze, feeling his body respond in about fifty different ways to her words. ‘I know how you fit against me, so I just scaled down.’ His eyes flickered over the high curve of her breasts. ‘With a few adjustments.’
Signy chose that moment to come and check their plates and find out if they wanted coffee or tea, and he took the opportunity to make sure she was happy to look after Sóley.
When they were finally alone, he looked back across the table at Lottie. The curve of her cheekbones was still pink and, watching her fingers slide up the stem of the glass, he felt his body stiffen to granite hardness. It was all too easy to remember her hand moving in just such a way but for a very different purpose.
Picking up his own glass, he drank some water. It was refreshingly chilled, but unfortunately its cooling effects ended at his stomach and didn’t extend to his blood. He was starting to think that where Lottie was concerned nothing was going to change the way his body felt about her.