“Stop teasing me!
Jack has heard you talking here in whatever tongue you use.”
He whirled her back to him.
His mouth slanted across hers, his tongue probing into her mouth.
She fought the enchantment that lured her into softening in his arms as she explored the expanse of naked skin that was separated from her by only the breadth of the water clinging to it.
“That is the tongue I use,” he whispered as he brushed her neck with eager kisses.
“You know that was not what I meant.”
“It is the only one of which you must speak.”
“Jack is bothered by your conversations with someone who is not here,” she murmured, struggling for every word as he nibbled on her ear.
“Then he should pay them no mind.”
“Olive is certain you are mad.”
“She is right.”
Pulling away, Linnea stared up at him.
“She is?”
He herded her closer again.
“I am mad.
Mad for you,
unnasta
.
I want you.”
“Nils, not here.”
“Ah, I have ruffled your English sensibilities again.”
He kissed the tip of her nose.
“Give me one good reason why you should not come into the other room with me and be my lover.”
“Jack will be returning soon with the wine I asked him to bring for you.”
He laughed.
“He will wait if the door is locked.
That is not a good reason,
unnasta
.”
“Then let me give you a truly good one.”
She put her hands up to keep him from kissing her.
When her fingers brushed his bare skin, she moaned and brought his mouth to hers.
She needed to be held like this.
She needed the thrill of his touch and the joy of his soul-deep kisses.
His voice was unsteady as he whispered, “Are you arguing against or
for
becoming my lover?”
“I want...”
She ran her fingertips along his stern brows.
“I want what you want, Nils, but there is Dr. Foster to consider.”
He trailed beguiling fire along her neck.
“I do not want to consider anyone but you now that you are here where I had only dreamed you would be.”
“Don’t jest about this.”
She stepped back and turned away before the promise of passion in his eyes urged her to toss aside all good sense.
“If I had not thought the situation was critical, I would not have...”
“You do not need me to tell you that you would not have come here otherwise.”
He ran a damp finger along her arm.
“However, you are more than welcome to play valet for me while Jack is doing a few errands.”
When she looked at him, he gave her his most roguish smile.
“I knew you would be calling on me as soon as you were done with your bath.
Despite your English ways, you seem to find excuses to circumvent them when you feel a need to.”
She sat on the chaise longue.
She tried to keep her eyes aimed at his, instead of letting her gaze wander along his water-jeweled skin.
Each drop accented his undeniable strength.
“I cannot stay long,” she said.
“So say what you came here to say.”
“You should leave
Sutherland
Park
posthaste, Nils.”
He reached for his shirt.
Pulling it on, he said, “I know that.
I have asked you to go with me to complete my quest.”
“No, I mean you should go now.
Today.
Go to
London
.
I will try to join you there as soon as I can, but you should not stay here when you may say the wrong thing and create suspicions in Dr. Foster’s mind.”
He laughed, closing his shirt and reaching for his waistcoat.
“What could I do that would cause any sane man to believe I had lived a thousand years ago and suddenly found myself in this time?”
“I don’t know.
There might be something.
You will have to watch every word you say.”
“As you will.”
“Yes.”
“Linnea, you should know by now that I do not back away from a challenge.”
“This is more than a challenge.”
“Do not let him worry you.”
“But he is worrying
you
.”
He paused in buttoning his waistcoat.
Facing her, he said, “I thought I had hidden that well.”
“Mayhap you have, but I know how I would feel in these circumstances.”
“And how is that?”
“As if, suddenly, I were the prey of a woods-wise hunter.”
Sitting beside her, he brushed a strand of damp hair back from her face.
“
Unnasta
, one is always both the hunter and the prey.”
“Mayhap in your time, but not in mine.”
“No?
I think Tuthill’s attempts to court you would have persuaded you that you are the prey, even as you control the hunt.”
She looked down at her hands, which were clenched so tightly that her knuckles had bleached.
When he put his wide hand over them, she whispered, “I try not to think of it that way.”
“But you are his prey.”
“I know how to handle
Randolph
,” she said more forcefully.
“What worries me is Dr. Foster.”
“He has no reason to suspect I am anything other than what I say I am.”
Linnea came to her feet.
“Nils, you are making every effort to pass yourself off as a man of this time and this place.”
She put her hands on his shoulders.
“You have betwattled my family and friends into believing you are what you say you are, passing off your so-called odd ways as idiosyncracies.”
“But you fear this Dr. Foster will see my ways as what they are.”
“Don’t you?”
He slid his hands up her arms as he drew her down to sit on his knee.
“I have thought about little else since the man was introduced to us.”
His grin returned.
“Except for now when I can think only of how sweet you smell and how soft you are and how much I want you.”
“Nils!”
He laughed.
“Again you sound like the teacher who is disappointed in her recalcitrant student.”
“You must realize the threat to you.
Dr. Foster is going to ask questions about you and this information that you have been spouting.”
“Spouting?”
“Papa has spoken to me of the interesting conversations you have shared.”
“Your tone suggests I should have been more reticent.
It might have been possible if your father’s mind was less keen and his interests less varied.”
“I know.”
She put her hand on his arm, not surprised that it was as rigid as it had been when she had found him on the shore.
Standing, he set her on her feet.
“Don’t you think I recognize that this situation is as dangerous as when I was lying on the beach waiting for death?
If I am shown to be a liar in your father’s eyes, I shall be banished from
Sutherland
Park
.
Then it will be impossible for you to help me in my quest.”
“What has been said has been said,” she replied quietly.
“A wise way of summing up the situation.”
“So what you must do, Nils, if you will not go by yourself to
London
—”
“Going is futile unless you come, too.”
He pounded his fist against his palm.
“You are right.
I have no place to begin the search in
London
without your guidance.”
“You must be prepared to answer the questions Dr. Foster is bound to ask you.”
“Questions?”
“About your research, about what intrigues you about this subject so much that you are willing to leave the comfort of your home to tramp across the marshes and fields to learn more about people who became a part of
England
so many centuries ago.”
“Wise questions.”
She smiled.
“And he will expect intelligent answers from you.”
“I do know a few things about the
Norrfoolk
.”
He chuckled.
“But you know too much about the
Norrfoolk
.”
“What?”
His brow furrowed.
She clasped his arm.
“Nils, he will expect you to prove how you know what you know.”
“I cannot do that.”
“No, but...”
She raised her fingers and began counting on them as she outlined the questions Dr. Foster might ask, along with the answers that might protect Nils.
As Nils started to smile, she hoped he would heed her words.
A tentative knock on the door interrupted her.
As Jack walked in, she mumbled something before she hurried out into the corridor.
She released the breath she might have been holding from the moment she had come to Nils’s door.
Nils would heed her urging to be sensible, but she feared her heart would not any longer.