But she didn’t answer him as expected.If anything, she replied to him as if he had asked for word from her sister.“I wish I had better news, Soren.She’s not prompt to reply, but the missive she sent was a refusal to say anything to Bart.”
That news should have left him more disheartened than he felt, but clearly the wringing of her hands showed her distress outweighed his own.
“I’ll make it up to you.”She took one step forward and stopped, looked down at her hands, and then braved his gaze.
“There’s nothing you need to make up to me, Pru.”
“I should try again.I should try harder.If we show up at her house together, she wouldn’t turn us away.”
“Is that what you’d like to do?”Though his legs wanted to rush toward her, he permitted only that his feet could approach at a snail’s pace.
“I would.I want you to get what you want, Soren.”
He was toe to toe with her now.“You know that I’ll answer your questions without any more effort from you though, right?”
“I-I wasn’t sure.”
“I’d never ask for you to strain a familial relation for my sake.It’s just a horse.”Never in his wildest dreams had he thought that he would put a woman—nigh a stranger—above the desire to breed Bart’s stallion.Night Sky was an underrated stud with the promise of future winnings.
“Thank you, Soren.”And never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that simple gratitude would be his undoing.
Chapter 14
Soren
“Youdidn’tanswermyquestion, Pru.”He tempered the eagerness in his voice.The never before experienced anticipation that was clamoring to get out.This…feeling…was so needy.So unlike him.Usually he appreciated a woman and moved on.But Pru…he appreciated the moment with her in her bedroom over and over in his mind.The level of appreciation had hit such an all time high that he couldn’t stop thinking of her.Her face.Her gasp.Her pleasure.Having never smoked opium, he could only imagine that this was the addiction men felt to it.Needed another hit.
“Which question?”Pru asked innocently.
“My question about your second question.”He watched as her eyes dropped to his lips.Then his hands.Then her own fingers entwined in front of her waist as she took a few steps to the side where she could study the spines of several books.
“Oh…that…” Her trembling fingers running along the bookshelf betrayed her flat tone.
“Have you prepared it?”
She darted a look over her shoulder at him and a rampaging herd of rhinoceroses stampeded through his stomach.Secondary to that feeling was the question as to whether rhinoceroses even traveled in herds or not.
“I have given it some thought.”Her words trailed behind her moving body which was only taking her further away from him, so of course he couldn’t stop his feet from aiming themselves to a point where he could cut her off.
“Tell me your thoughts.”
“I don’t know if I should.”
“Why not?”
“Here?”
“I cannot think of a more apropos place for learning than a library.”
She chuckled softly and peered up at him.His hands itched to touch her, with perhaps a tenfold increase since the night he’d been in her bedroom.Still, he refrained.
“Tell me.”He was practically begging her now.
“I was just wondering how…” Her eyes deferred back to the backs.
Dammit.He wanted to open her mind, reach in, and pull out the question.But patience—so he’d heard—was a virtue.
“Wondering what?”
