She could smell the Lalique cologne.
She closed her eyes and sighed.
“I’ll buy you a horse.” Douglas was either ignoring or oblivious to her warring emotions.
His words snapped her out of it.
“You will not!”
One of his hands captured her wrist and fiddled with the diamond watch, a watch the like that no one should wear for a simple stroll in the countryside.
She stifled a groan.
“You like it when I buy you things,” he murmured.
She wished she could move her head so he wasn’t speaking in her ear. His voice seemed to rumble through her like a shudder.
“I do not,” she retorted sharply, lying through her teeth.
His stubbled cheek slid across hers to move her hair out of the way. They were nearing the stables now and she was glad of it. His rough cheek was pressed against her smooth one and it felt nice, too nice.
“You love it,” he whispered.
“You are truly the most irritating man I’ve ever met,” she snapped in order to cover the fact that he was absolutely right. He knew it and, worse, she knew it.
He chuckled, the sound so close to her, she felt it in the pit of her belly.
The children were already back to the stables and were dismounting. Douglas pulled his horse to a halt and quickly swung his leg off so he was down before she could jump down. He grabbed her waist and she knew she could not protest in front of the children as he slid her slowly off the horse, the entire way down just inches from his body. It was enough to be meaningful sexually but not explicit, for the children.
She was back to wanting to clobber him.
That or throw her arms around his neck and promise to marry him.
“Irritating,” she grouched because it was the only thing she could do.
She was imprisoned between his body and the horse. He lifted her face by placing the side of his gloved fist under her chin. If he was going to say something, it was lost as the children interrupted.
“Now you can come riding with us!” Willie called, having helped Ruby down.
She pulled her chin from Douglas’s hand and sidled sideways, away from him and his damned horse.
“Great!” she shouted back to Willie, trying to sound more enthusiastic than she was.
Ruby ran toward her. “You and me need horses!”
She took her niece’s hand and without a backward glance, started leading her to the house.
“We’re a little ways off from that, Ruby-girl,” she said loud enough for Douglas to hear and she knew he heard because she could hear his chuckle.
It took every bit of willpower she had not to turn back and, at the very least, poke her tongue out at him.
Instead, she set her shoulders, mentally shook off the warmth that had stolen into her body, ignoring the ice that she knew was melting from around her heart and headed resolutely to the house.
She still had the scent of his cologne in her nostrils and she knew she was losing ground fast.
In fact, she knew she was just plain losing.
The problem was, it felt like winning.