AFTER THE TRAINING SESSION, COLM WENT TO THE LAKE and washed the sweat from his body, then headed toward the great hall. He was walking past the stables just as Gabrielle led her horse out of a stall. The steed was already saddled.
He stopped outside the gate and watched her. She brushed a loose strand of hair from her face as she closed the gate behind Rogue.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Colm asked.
Startled, Gabrielle glanced in his direction. “Good day to you, Colm.”
If she was trying to get him to waste his time on pleasantries, she was in for a disappointment.
“I asked you a question.”
“I’m going riding. Rogue needs to stretch his legs.”
“And where exactly are you planning to ride?”
“Here and there.”
“Across Finney’s Flat perchance?”
It seemed he could read her mind. “Yes. I thought I would pay Laird Buchanan a visit. I would like to meet his wife. I am related to her, if you’ll remember.”
“No.”
“No, you don’t remember?”
“No, you’re not to leave this holding. You can ride in the hills here, but you will not leave the mountain.” Clasping his hands behind his back, he said, “I will have your word.”
She bowed her head. “As you say.”
Colm turned away from the stables and started toward the courtyard, then stopped. He turned and looked at his betrothed. She stood next to the horse, holding Rogue’s reins and waiting for Colm to walk away. He knew exactly what she was doing. Once he was out of sight, she would head to Finney’s Flat.
“Oh no, Gabrielle. You’re not pulling that on me again.”
“Excuse me?”
He walked back to her. “Don’t play the innocent with me. I know that ‘as you say’ means that you’re going to do whatever you damn well want to do. You will now give me your promise. You will say ‘I give you my word,’ and you will mean it.”
Gabrielle was not about to let him intimidate her. He wasn’t the only one who had something to be cross about. She took a bold step toward him.
“You were supposed to set aside a moment of your time this morning, for I have something important to tell you, but when I came downstairs, you were gone. Did you wait at all?”
He stepped in her direction.
“I couldn’t spend half my morning waiting for you to wake up. Get up earlier, and I’ll listen to what you have to say.”
Stubbornly, she moved forward. “You are an aggravating man.”
“And you have yet to give me your promise.”
“I promise,” she said with a hint of defiance.
They were now so close she felt his warm breath. “I want your promise to set aside some time tonight,” she said. “I must speak to you in private.”
“Tell me now.”
“This isn’t private.”
He put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her toward him. “I don’t know how I will ever get along with such a stubborn woman.”
His mouth brushed hers when she whispered, “I don’t either.”
He meant to give her only a brief kiss, but once his mouth covered hers, his intentions changed. Her lips were so soft and warm. At his insistence, she opened her mouth for him, and the kiss deepened as he wrapped his arms around her and pressed her tightly against him.
For Gabrielle, the world ceased to exist. There was only Colm’s magical touch. She returned his kiss with a passion she hadn’t known she possessed.
He came to his senses before she did and abruptly ended the kiss. He took a deep shuddering breath. She was so dazed she didn’t realize she was clinging to him until he gently pulled away.
Colm had to put some distance between them before he gave in to temptation and kissed her again. He knew exactly where that would lead, and he wasn’t about to dishonor Gabrielle and take her to his bed before their marriage, but she wasn’t making it easy for him to walk away. No woman had ever affected him so deeply.
He grabbed her horse’s reins, pulling Rogue closer to lift Gabrielle onto the saddle. With a slap on the horse’s hindquarters, Colm sent her on her way.