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“Snow is cold.”
She nodded. “I heard that too.” Angling toward him more, she fixed her gaze on his profile. “Do you like the snow?”
“No.”
His answer was so fast, she blinked.
“Why not?”
“Cold. The damn cold that never goes away. No matter how many fires you have burning or the heated bricks in the bed at night, there is just always a bone-chilling cold that never leaves me.” He cracked his neck. “Lucien’s wife, Ciara, grew up with snow. She lived in the mountains and during winter she had a lot of it. Ask her if it is fun.”
“Surely there are fun parts to snow?”
“Stuffing it down Lucien’s back and hitting him in the face with a snowball, yes.”
She laughed and loved the smile he sent her.
“You two must have caused a lot of trouble for your mothers.”
“Our governesses, yes. Our mothers had nothing to do with raising us.”
She flattened her lips. “And is that how you see your children being raised?”
His hands tightened on the reins and she thought perhaps that wasn’t a proper question for her to ask. Phillip stopped them and set the brake before looking at her. And it wasn’t just him turning his head, he faced her on the seat, expression serious.
“Are you needing to tell me something, Fyre?”
His thumbs stroked her skin as his warm hands made her feel safe and protected.
“About what?”
Phillip didn’t speak for a moment, just gazed at her like he was searching for something. Something she didn’t have, and Fyre was not sure she liked that.
“If you are looking to make fun of me, my lord, just take me home.”
“Baby, I am not making fun of you.” He curved his hand around to cup the nape of her neck. “I just forget how honest you are and that you do not play games.”
She didn’t know how to respond to that, so she just sat there quietly. Waiting for him to make it clearer what this thing was she had missed.
He moved his fingers along her skin and she trembled from his touch, wanting more of it. Everywhere. But she didn’t move, just waited.
“Are you carrying my baby, Fyre?”
She heard his question. The words made sense and yet, they did not. “Why would you ask me that? We are not married.”
“Baby, you asked me about how I thought about something in regards to children being raised. We have not been safe during sex. I have not been pulling out of you.”
It clicked, all of it, and she flushed.
“No, my lord. I am not carrying your child.”
“Not yet.” His eyes burned with a fire that should have worried her. Instead all it did was make her wish she was carrying his child already.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Phillip stared at Fyre seated on the blanket with him. They had spent the past hour discussing how they had not been able to get Cara and whomever she was working with. He was frustrated, but he wanted more than just Cara. He wanted the person she was dealing with and the mastermind behind this entire thing, the person or people trying to bring him down and ruin the reputation he had built in Hawk’s Cove.
Fyre sat at an angle from him, her lower lip caught in her teeth, as was common when she was deep in thought.
“Are you still thinking it is a man she is meeting?”
“My gut says yes but you keep insinuating it may be a woman. Why?”
“Cara has always been about money. Part of why she let me live there so long was because she got most of the money I earned, and that was basically her pin money.”
“Still does not explain why you think she is working with another woman.”
“You know how this island used to have slaves.”
His gut tensed but he nodded.
“One of the daughters of an owner and Cara were…together.” She shifted on the blanket, obviously uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation. “Even after slavery was banned from the island, she still got together with the woman. Even after she married my brother. Believe me, she will turn her eyes from the problems of others so long as she is cared for, be it coming from a man or a woman.”
“Shit.”
“She does not know I saw them one day in a barn, but I did.” She wouldn’t meet his gaze. “I know it was not the first time that she cheated on my brother. Men and women alike.”
Phillip scrubbed a hand down his face. “And you have seen her with both men and women?”
“Yes.” She still wouldn’t meet his gaze.
“Fyre. Look at me.”
It took a while before she would.
“What are you not telling me?”
“I am just ashamed. I did not tell my brother because I did not want to ruin his marriage.”
“And he may not have believed you anyway and all you would have done was shove a wedge in your relationship.”
