He shook his head and sucked in a breath. “Ye ken whyI’m not.”
She lifted her chin. “I will not argue the point with you, but you’re wrong.” One side of his mouth pulled into a reluctant smile.
The sight warmed her. “Callum, I know my worth, and I know what I deserve, both the roses and the thorns. I won’t accept anything less than love.”
Callum’s jaw clenched, and he released a slow breath. “Aye, ye shouldnae.”
Why was she disappointed with his response? It wasn’t as though he was about to declare himself as a husband for her—
His hands wrapped around her ankles, his thumbs rubbing the bones on the inside of her foot. “Ye said ye didnae want this to end…”
His touch sent heat shooting up her legs to pool at the pinnacle of her thighs. “If we’d been caught today, and I was ruined,” she whispered, “I’d be sent elsewhere. We’d never have another moment together.” She forced the words through a tight throat. “I’m not ready to say goodbye.”
He growled and turned partially away, his fingers leaving deep divots in his hair as he raked through the dark locks.
Her stomach dropped. “But I understand if you don’t feel the same way. Of course you wouldn’t want—”
“No, dammit.” His jaw ticked and his expression was feral when he returned his gaze to hers. “Ifeelsomething for ye, Violet, and I dinnae ken how to explain it. I worry about what’ll happen to ye after ye’re ruined. I didnae like how those men talked about ye today—ithurt.”
A smile pulled at her lips. “You hurt becauseof me?”
He wrinkled his nose as he nodded reluctantly, and a laugh escaped her. “See? Was it so difficult to admit you have human emotions?”
“I have human emotions.”
“Grumbling is not an emotion.”
He, true to form, grumbled, though his eyes darkened as he ran his hands halfway up her calf, then down again. Up higher, back again. “What do ye want from me, Violet?” Up higher still, his fingertips resting behind her knees. “I’ll give ye anything.”
Goosebumps raced across her flesh. “I want you—you to be with me, if you truly desire me.”
“Fuck, I desire ye.” A pained moan fell from his lips and he pulled himself forward. She spread her thighs wider to accommodate the breadth of him. “Was I no’ clear that I am fucking wild for ye?”
She leaned in, wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “You might be a gifted actor.”
“Not tha’ good.” He caught her mouth, sipping from her at a pace that made her want to strangle him and weep from the pleasure simultaneously. “Does that mean we can enjoy each other without worrying about ruining ye?”
He’d already ruined her in ways far more permanent than her reputation, but she could pretend those didn’t exist now, not in this moment. And yet—
She had to protect herself. “Whatever happens between us ends when we leave this house. I won’t wait for you to return from Panama.”
A lie. She would wait if he asked, but the pain of missing him and fearing for his safety would break her. If she were to be left alone and unhappy, she might as well marry someone from society and please her family.
Something dark passed over his expression. “I can be with ye while we’re here, then?”
A deadline was for the best. She could prepare for the heartache and loss, instead of being blindsided by it. “While you’re in England,” she whispered, leaning in and kissing him, losing herself in the moment to forget the ache in her chest.
The kiss was chaste at first, a simple meeting of lips. Callum stepped in, his torso forcing her knees wider, and planted his hands on either side of her on the tiles. The heat radiating from his body scalded her, stripped her of her senses, and she cupped the back of his neck to pull him closer as she licked at his mouth.
A low growl escaped him as he shoved the hideous dressing gown higher on her legs, his chest flush against hers as he claimed her mouth with deep sweeps of his tongue and scrapes of his teeth. His hands left the tile and swept up her side as one buried in the mass of hair at her nape, holding her in place for his plundering.
He smirked as his thumb ran over the quilted fabric. “I don’t suppose ye planned to seduce me in this.”
Her laugh dissolved into a moan as he kissed her again, sweetly, then with a caress of his tongue against hers. “I had no idea what to wear for swimming, so I made a guess.”
“I havenae taught ye to swim yet.” He nibbled her lower lip.
“Then I’ll have to come back.”
