That fear stopped him.
“Which condition?” he asked.
Her face flushed further. “Ye ken very well which one.”
“Aye,” he said. “I do.”
Her lashes lowered, and embarrassment tightened her fingers in his shirt. Connor hated himself a little for putting it there.
He stayed where he was, since moving away too quickly would make a lie of what he wanted, and he would not give her that.
“I willnae take ye in a room above a tavern, Violet,” he said.
“Oh?”
The small sound cut through him.
“And I willnae take ye while ye are hiding the reasonwhyye changed yer mind.”
Her eyes lifted to his. “I am hiding nothing.”
“Wife?”
“I ken I said I would rethink me condition but ye have to stop calling me that.”
“Then daenae lie while ye are in me bed.”
Her mouth closed.
Below them, a chair scraped across the tavern floor, followed by a man’s brief laugh. The sound reminded him where they were: a locked room above a public house, with cold bathwater beside the fireplace and bitter tea near the bed.
For the love of God, his coat still hung over the screen he had used to guard her modesty. He was half-dressed, and she was wrapped in rough linen and a blanket, and he wanted her badly enough that his hand had clenched into the bedding.
He unclenched his fingers.
Violet looked away. “Perhaps I have only decided some rules are unnecessary.”
“Some?”
“In certain moments.”
“Rules like what?” he asked, his eyebrow raised, curiosity getting the better of him.
She pressed her lips together, then looked back at him with that dangerous tilt of her chin. “During intimate moments, I may like it when ye take control.”
Connor’s breath left him slowly. She knew very well what she was doing. Maybe not all of it, maybe not the full force of it, but she knew enough. Her voice had softened over the admission, and the sound of it went through him with more force than any open challenge.
“Daenae offer me that because ye are afraid,” he grunted.
“I am offering it because Iwantto.”
“Ye daenae ken what I want.”
“Then tell me.”
“Nay.”
Her eyebrows drew together. “Why?”
