“What are you doing?” she asked, her heart still racing with the latent fear of falling.
He leaned against the far wall, his eyes gleaming in the low light, so tall and powerful and impressive that she could have stared at him all night.
“Get on yer knees, lass,” he commanded, his deep voice traveling without effort.
“What?”
“Get on yer knees,” he repeated. “Daenae ask questions. Surrender every thought.”
Nancy hesitated. “I’ll ruin my dress.”
“Ye hate that dress,” he pointed out.
Feeling a little foolish, but unable to deny his point, she slowly lowered herself to the ground, kneeling there on the cold stone as if she were about to beg forgiveness.
This is stupid. Is he just trying to make me look like an idiot or…?
Hot and flustered, still uncertain of the point, she forced herself to hold his gaze. Why wasn’t he saying anything? He was just looking at her intensely, letting the silence grow between them until it stretched to an unbearable tension that she desperately wanted to break.
“What now?” she asked, letting her imagination fill in some possibilities.
Yet, he wasn’t moving toward her; he stayed right there against the wall.
“Hunter, this is silly,” she rasped, her face burning. “What if someone sees?”
“They willnae,” he replied, the sound of his voice a welcome thing. “And ye daenae care about that. Ye only care about what ye want to do.”
She frowned. “Well, right now, I want to get up and go downstairs to my room and stay there for the rest of the?—”
“Crawl to me,” he said, his voice strangely soft, the whisper of it somehow making it incredibly powerful.
“Pardon?”
“Crawl to me.” He gave a small nod. “Daenae think about it, just come to me on yer hands and knees.”
She swallowed thickly, struggling against a tight feeling inside her, like a rope holding her back. It was awkwardness and uncertainty, making her sweat, making her feel silly, keeping her rooted to the spot, keeping her from crossing the parapet to where he stood.
“I can’t do it,” she uttered, unable to let go.
“Come to me,” he urged. “Let everythin’ else fall away and crawl to me.”
She closed her eyes and took a breath, feeling the cool wind on her face and the solid stone beneath her knees. She concentrated on the beat of her heart and the shaky rise and fall of her chest, like the meditation she’d never been much good at. There hadbeen a few classes she’d attended back in her world, but her mind was just too busy to stay calm for long.
Yet, despite herself, she began to move.
Her eyes opened, fixed on Hunter, drawn by his pleased smile as she crawled across the stone toward him, as if he were the reward for quietening her mind.
CHAPTER 26
The closer Nancygot to him, the more the rest of the world fell away, her thoughts focused solely on him, noting the details of his body: the cords of his neck, the flexing lines of his powerful forearms, the tempting shape of his mouth with its deep cupid’s bow, the hollow at the base of his throat, the way his hair moved in the wind, making her want to run her hands through it.
At last, she reached him, eager to know what came next.
“Kneel,” he purred.
She pushed herself up, sitting calmly at his feet, her gaze turned up toward him. There was serenity in the pose, her hands folded in her lap, thinking of nothing but his next instruction.
“Slide yer hand over yer chest and find yer heart,” he said thickly.
