Her cheeks flushed, and she bit her lip, making him want to do the same. It was plump and red and begging to be kissed. The lass was going to make him a fool if he was not careful.
“Are ye trying to seduce me, my lord?” she whispered.
He was, because he was supposed to be. And because he wanted to. It was as complicated and simple as that. Guilt consumed him at twining truth and lies together, but he had to press on.
“Aye,” he said, praying she would not demand more.
She frowned. “Ye make me think things I should nae,” she grumbled.
“I can say the same of ye, Lady Ada.” And that was the God’s truth.
She opened her mouth, then clamped it shut as if she thought better of what she was going to say. Instead, she turned and fled across the courtyard, almost as if she were running from him. One dog followed her, but the other, Hella, stayed by his side. Halfway to her stepbrother, she abruptly stopped and swung around, her hair and skirts swishing.
“Hella, come,” she commanded.
The dog looked up at him as if waiting for him to agree. “Go to yer mistress,” he ordered the hound, and when he saw the open gazes of lust on the other men’s faces, he added, “and guard her with yer life.”
He could have sworn the dog gave him a nod, which told him Ada had already managed to make him a little daft. Dogs did not nod or smile.
“She’ll be mine by tomorrow night,” one of the men said from behind him.
Possession strummed through William’s veins as thick as his blood as he turned to face the light-haired warrior.
“Ye think so, do ye, Connor?” another man said.
“I ken so,” the man replied smugly, which caused insults and boasts to be thrown back and forth.
William walked away from the men, noting and counting all the guards around the periphery of the courtyard who likely had been ordered to watch them. He pulled out his sword and began to go through his practice, alternately seeing the man Connor’s face and imagining defeating him, and then seeing Ada’s face and imagining touching her. He’d win. Of that much he had no doubt. What troubled him was that it felt like winning might come at a greater cost than he understood.
