“I do apologize,” she said. “Let us return indoors.”
“Giving up so soon? Tell me, will you accomplish the dare if you sit in your bedchamber all day?”
“I was not dared to skate.”
“You were dared to take part in a festive house party. Skating is festive.”
She growled. A feral beast lurked beneath her polished surface, teasing him with glimpses, exciting him, making him want more.
“Come, Gee,” he said, “your mood will improve, once you learn how proficient you are at this.”
“Proficient? I knocked you over.”
And kissed him and kissed him and kissed him.
She looked away. Was the red stealing across her cheeks from warm memory or cold air?
He skated toward her, took one of her arms in his and wrapped his other arm around her waist. She tightened, flinched, looked up at him with tight lips.
“I’ll help you around the lake once like this until you get the rhythm of it. Is that allowed?”
She nodded, the set of her jaw one of utmost determination, and they glided off at a snail’s pace, him trying to ignore the feel of her in his arms, and her focused on her feet, the space of ice before them, and her body’s movements. They skated in silence. The sun, trying to break through the thick clouds above, dispersed a faint glow above them, and the ice radiated cold from below.
“Let go,” she finally said. “I’m ready.”
“You sure, Lady Gee?”
A firm nod. “I can do it on my own.”
Ah. Her much-coveted independence.
He let go of the arm around her waist but kept it near, giving her freedom but hovering close enough to swoop in and save her if needs must. He loosened his hold on her hand, and she shook him off, pulling away from him.
He tensed. He couldn’t keep her safe if she was far away, and she was pulling away. He sped up his stride, chasing after her, and side by side, aware of her every wobble, they made a lap of the lake. When they neared the end, or rather the beginning, the place where they’d fallen and she’d kissed him, he sped up, circling her to skate backward in front of her.
He’d never seen her grin like that before. Her entire being blazed with happiness, and so his entire being blazed with pride.
He spread his arms wide when she caught his gaze. “Well done, Lady Gee. How do you feel?”
“I should be asking you that, after that tumble. I feel… incandescent.”
He whistled. “Ready to move to the country then?” Why’d he ask? And why did a tease feel so important?
She laughed. “At least make a visit during the winter.”
Because she reigned in a different world than he did.
In silence, he helped her to the edge of the ice and helped her sit down to remove her skates. He plopped down beside her to remove his own. The near-frozen grass crunched beneath them with every move.
She shivered. “Do you think it will snow?”
He nodded. “Are we really never going to acknowledge what happened?”
She pulled her knees up to her belly, and her skirts pooled around them, the deepest green spilling across the winter-brown ground. She stared forward. “That I’m a better skater than you, and with only one try?”
“No.”
“That I nearly killed you?” She leaned back and peered at the back of his head. “Do you have a bump?”
