Page 24
She stuck out her chin. “What is it, then? This difference.”
Ach, this woman. “Have you made love to a man before, Reina?”
“Of course not. I am unmarried.”
“As am I.”
“But you are a man.”
“A man,” he agreed. “Who knows what it feels like. . .” She was a virgin and should not hear these words. But Galien would say them anyway. Reina had been told too many lies, and he’d not add to them. “To bury himself deep inside a woman. I would want more. You would want more. By the time we reach Bristol Manor, you’d be just as like to have a babe in your belly as you would answers to the questions you seek.” More honesty. “I’ve kissed women before, Reina, without making love to them. And I’ve made love to women I had no intention of keeping by my side. You. . .” He thought of her face when he woke, of his head on her leg, Reina cradling him as he’d done to her the night before. “You would not be that woman.”
Did she understand?
“You have children, then?”
Not the question he expected. “Nay.”
“And yet, you have been with women before.”
Ahhh, yes. “There are ways.” He shook his head. They needed to be on their way. Galien had decided to move on. They must get to the inn. And quickly.
“A man could pull himself from the woman before he spills his seed.”
Galien’s mouth dropped open.
“A woman could soak a cloth in acacia leaves and honey and insert it into her.”
He remembered then. “Joan.”
“Aye.”
“Is that what you wish to happen between us?”
Her answer was as he expected. “Nay. I would have a man hope for children, not try to prevent them, when we are together.”
Ignoring a pang in his chest at her words, he seized on them. “Then why, precisely, are we having this discussion?”
Her voice rose as well. “Because you were looking at me in a way that made me wish you’d kiss me. You do it all too often.”
“Because I do want to kiss you, Reina. Very badly, in fact.”
“I want you to as well.”
They were shouting now. But her admission snapped his restraint. “And when you want more than just one kiss?”
Reina made two fists as her hands moved to her hips. “I will not.”
Oh, he so dearly wished to show her how wrong she was. “Aye, you will.”
“Arrogance does not become you, Galien.”
That genuinely surprised him. “Arrogant? You should meet my cousin Rory if you think I am arrogant. I simply am stating a fact, English.”
“As your own mother is English, I would think saying it as a slur would be beneath you.”
“She knows I have no love for her people.”
“My people, Galien. You speak of my people too.”
