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When he pulled back, his hands did not move. Instead, he looked at her, watched her, as if waiting for something. Reina licked her lips.

“You will be my undoing,” he said.

“’Tis only fair. You already have been mine.”

Galien closed his eyes briefly, released her cheeks, and stepped back. Already she missed the feeling of being so close to him.

“I should not have come here, Reina.”

“I am glad you did,” she said in earnest. “And will admit to you, that is not at all what I expected a kiss to be like.”

“You’ve never been kissed before?”

“Nay. I’ve been betrothed most of my life, if you will remember.”

“I do.” Galien’s smile caught Reina off guard. “I hope your first time was enjoyable.”

It was more than that, and by the way he looked at her this moment, he knew it too. Why then had he stopped?

Because he is too honorable to do otherwise.

Which led her to think of his cousin. “Rory seems. . .” She did not wish to insult him. “The very opposite of you.”

“If I were my cousin, we’d not be having this conversation, lass. If anything, we would be having it in that bed without clothes. After I showed you how very much more to kissing there is than what we just shared.”

Knowing why he stopped, even understanding it, did little to cease the yearning inside her.

“I am sorry, Reina. I vowed to aid you, and I will. Rory will make inquiries, and when we reach Brockburg, the whole of my clan will be mobilized. We leave tomorrow at dawn.”

She nearly stopped him.

Called his name. Grabbed his arm. Told him that he had nothing to be sorry for. That she’d wanted him to kiss her. Wanted more, in fact. But if there was one thing to know of Galien, it was that his honor would prevent her words from mattering. Obviously he desired her. She’d known that for some time.

But desire was not love. And despite that she was beginning to care for the Scot more than she should, despite her deepening feelings for him, even if by some miracle he came to love her, it would matter not.

He was committed already to something bigger than the two of them. Even bigger than the love he bore for his own clan, his own family. And despite the fact that, as the door clicked closed, it was that very cause that came between them, Reina could not fault him for it.

That same sense of honor was one of the very reasons she loved him.

21

RORY

Rory should have gone to bed.

How often had another tankard of ale gotten him into trouble? Too often. And now the throbbing in his head, and the sore jaw, was the price he would pay for his decision.

“You look like hell, cousin,” Galien said.

Rory believed it. “Next time, pull me from the hall, Gael.”

Sitting across from him and grabbing the warm bread Rory had been enjoying, his cousin made no apologies for stealing it. For better or worse, his cousins were nearly as close to him as Rory’s own siblings. And this one in particular was not the cousin Rory cared to pick a fight with. At least this early in the morn.

“As if I could.” He sat back, enjoying Rory’s pain. “Where did you get that?” He nodded to what Rory assumed was a black eye.

“I’ll thank you not to speak so loud.”

Galien laughed. “Where did you get that?” he repeated more loudly than before.