The hairs on Violet’s neck raised as James watched her friend walk away. “Do you—”
“You need to understand something about my cousin.”
“Oh,” she breathed, her cheeks heating. She lowered her voice. “He told you what we were doing, didn’t he?”
James’s scowl answered her question. “He has, and I must admit, I’m surprised. Callum rarely enjoys things that are…”
“Scandalous?” she offered.
“Fun.” He sighed, though his lips spread in a smile. “Callum has put a tremendous burden on his shoulders.”
Violet tracked one of the Lordlings—Pidgeon, was it? Emu?—as he teetered around the field on the bicycle to the cheers of his friends. “He wants to protect you,” she said.
“He wants to protect everyone, whether or not theyneed it.”
She brought her gaze to his and was struck by the similarity of his and Callum’s features, the identical furrow between their brows. “Do you want to be protected?”
James rocked back on his feet, then nodded towards the place where Callum was striding across the field, his eyes fixed on her. Her entire body heated as though his hands were already on her.
“Callum will have to put down some of his burdens before he can be free enough to love,” James said while his cousin was still out of range.
Violet jolted. “Love—no, that’s not what’s happening. We’re only pretending.” Her tongue felt thick as she said the words, like it protested the lie.
James smirked. “Of course you are,” he drawled, then escaped to pick up his bicycle again, riding away before Callum reached him.
“Are ye cold?” Callum asked the moment he arrived at her side, that cavern back between his brows.
She wanted to kiss it. “No, why?”
“I thought ye shivered.”
Perhaps his approach had made her tremble, his proximity sending her equilibrium into a tizzy. She started to deny it, but he spoke first, his voice low and rumbling like thunder in the distance. “About yesterday…”
She made a sound akin to an animal being sat on. “Oh, um,” she stammered. “What about it?”
His lip pulled up in a wicked smirk as he leaned close. “That may have been the single most erotic experience of my life,” he said in arumble. “I woke up this morning and had to take myself in hand remembering how you tasted.”
An image of Callum, head thrown back in pleasure, flooded her with heat.
His voice was lower now, like the purr of a barely tamed wild cat. “I want to see ye again tonight,” he murmured. “I can take ye to the pool, teach ye—”
“Wait,” she barked before he muddled her senses further. James’s words still buzzed in her ears. “Do you see me as a burden?”
He huffed a laugh, or at least as close to a laugh as he was capable. “A burden? No.”
“But you are obligated to me?” His head tilted, but she pressed on. “You agreed to this ridiculous ruination plan—”
“At least now ye admit it’s ridiculous.”
“I’ve always thought it was ridiculous, but keep up.” She exhaled in a rush. “You agreed to this plan in some misguided sense of chivalry, then you defended my honor to Pennington, of all people. You tried to buy me a dress, Callum. Why are you doing this?”
He recoiled. “Do I have to have a reason to do something kind?”
“Don’t you?” His lips parted, and she held up a silencing hand. “You’re supposed to be focused exclusively on your business and your cousin, but you’d risk everything to help me, someone you barely know. Why?”
Callum leaned closer. “Why are ye asking me this? Ye said ye trusted me.”
And she did trust him, but she couldn’t trust her heart. “I did—Ido, but this—” she motioned vaguely between them, “this feels like…”
