“I don’t thinkIcan do this.”She sucked in a deep breath.“But maybewecan do this.”
“I wish I could kiss you,” he said in a husky voice.“You’re especially kissable when you’re puffed up like a determined adventurer.”
She rolled her eyes.“I’ll puff you up like a—”
He motioned toward their feet.
They were doing it.They haddoneit.They were out on the ice!
“I told you,” he said arrogantly.“You’re braver than you think.”
She was so glad she was out here with him.That he’d helped her conquer a demon.“How did you know?”
“How brave and competent you are?You’ve been completely independent for the past six years.”He skated them around a fallen twig.“You didn’t just learn to fend for yourself.You taught yourself mechanical engineering.You give tours to total strangers.And you even agreed to matchmake a gentleman you didn’t like as a favor for a friend.”
“I didn’t appreciate your presumptuous mouth.”She sent a haughty stare down the bridge of her nose.“The rest of you was somewhat attractive.”
He leered at her.“How do you like my mouth now?”
She tried to hide a smile.“Only when it’s kissing mine.”
He glanced over his shoulder and whispered, “Tell me when they’re not looking.”
Gloria smacked his arm.“Not here, you daft—”
Her breath caught.She had let go of his hands and was skating on her own.Keeping up out of her own volition.She was doing it!
“I’m skating,” she said in wonder.A fit of giggles threatened to overtake her.She grinned up at him.“I’m skating!”
Victory coursed through her.She grabbed for his hands not because she needed them, but because she wanted to throw herself into his arms and kiss him.Hehad made this happen.
Pride shone in his eyes.“Are you sure I can’t kiss you?”
“Don’t tempt me,” she said with a laugh.“The way I’m feeling right now, I might do it.”
He grinned back.“See?You do like adventure!Is there any chance of talking you into getting on a boat with me next month?”
All her joy evaporated as sharp knives of reality crashed back over her.“Next month?”
“Next week, I mean.”He rolled his eyes at his error.“I don’t know how time goes so fast.One minute you’re in a high-sprung racing phaeton and the next you’re on a slow boat to India.”
India.
The ice seemed to tilt.She stumbled blindly.
He caught her.“You’re all right.I won’t let you fall.”
No.He already had.Gloria’s throat went dry.She had been wrong.The danger didn’t come from the ice at all.
It came from the gentleman who held her hands in his.
“—a bucket of good fortune,” he was saying.“I’ve been dreaming of this trip for years.When the man whose travel journals I so greatly admired agreed to act as my personal guide, it was a dream come true.A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that’s finally going to happen.”
Gloria’s stomach heaved.She knew exactly what was going to happen.Once he left, he would never be back.
The sea would swallow him whole.
“You bought passage?”she made herself ask.“Y-you have a ticket already?”
