He smiled sadly. “I understand ye well, I do, leannan. I willna judge ye. I will help ye as much as I can. But donna hold the treasure that belongs to me family. Just… give me the beastie ere it is too late. Please.”
She looked up at him with such gratitude that it made his gut wrench. “I will,” she promised.
He walked to where she was sitting, and looked down at her. “By the bye, did I teach ye to wear yer gown so that ye reveal everything ye have to a man?”
“What?” she asked, her brow dipping in confusion as she looked at her gown.
“No’ yer day gown, then. Yer evening gown—the one ye wore last night,” he managed, unable to think of a word that described how lovely she had looked last night—as captivating as any woman he’d ever seen.
“But you said—”
“I said to give him a hint of what lies beneath, and let his imagination see the rest of ye. Last night, ye left naugh’ to his imagination, and it’s a wonder ye didna wipe his spittle from yer breast.”
That caused her to laugh, and she cocked a brow at him. “I must be confused, for I thought I dressed exactly as you instructed.”
“No,” he said calmly, shaking his head as he eyed her, sprawled enticingly in that chair. “Can ye no’ understand how a man will desire to take ye when ye are so revealing in yer dress?”
“Take me?” she laughed. “What do you mean? He can’t take me.”
“Can he no’? Are ye certain of it?”
“You may hold no esteem for Mr. Lockhart, but he’d not do… that,” she said, flicking a hand at him and turning delightfully pinker. “He’s too much a gentleman to besmirch a woman’s good name!”
“Ach, how ignorant ye are when it comes to men.”
“I’m hardly ignorant,” she said with a tedious sigh. “I suppose I rather knew your mind, didn’t I?”
Now Grif raised a brow. “Did ye indeed? And ye know, then, that there are men who are quite good at giving a woman pleasure without ruining her good name?”
He paused there and worked to keep from smiling. She turned quite red, but brave and curious girl that she was, she merely shrugged, examined the frill on her sleeve as if he were boring her.
“Do ye know what I mean, Anna?”
“I scarcely care, for you are speaking of men with whom I would certainly not consort.”
“Ah,” Grif said as he shrugged out of his coat and carelessly tossed it onto a divan. “Ye believe there are gentlemen who’d no’ do so, is that it? Perhaps I should say it another way, then,” he said calmly, divesting himself of his waistcoat. “What of instances such as now, aye?” he said as he removed his neckcloth and let it dangle from his fingers. Anna peeked at him through the corner of her eye, but quickly averted her gaze. “When a woman as bonny as yerself enters a room, and a man… any man… shall we say me …catches her scent…”
He suddenly leaned over, bracing himself on the arms of the chair, putting his head next to hers, and slowly breathed her in.
Anna did not move, did not breathe, just held very still.
“He catches her scent…” he murmured, moving to the other side of her, taking another deep breath, “and it goes through him like the streams that run down the Highlands, racing along, smooth and clear, crashing into a deep pool of desire in the very pit of him.”
Anna drew a shaky breath at that, and he slowly, surely pressed his lips to her neck, to her warm skin.
“Aye, but ’tis no’ all,” he said, nipping at her ear. “He’ll touch her skin, and it feels as soft to his hand as a baby’s belly, as warm as fire,” he said, and he moved his hand to caress her neck and collarbone. “Now do ye understand?”
“Hardly a seduction, sir,” she said, although there was a wee catch in her throat.
“But then I notice the light in yer hair,” he continued, “and when a strand falls across yer brow, I imagine that it’s as pure as newly shorn wool, just as soft…” he murmured as he lowered himself to one knee before her, reaching for a strand of dark auburn hair that had fallen across her temple, and pushed it behind her ear.
Anna looked at him, her eyes large and luminous, flecked with gold that reminded him of the moonlight reflected off the top of the Highlands. He moved his hand to either side of her neck, held her there, gazing into her face. How had he missed the beauty of this face for so long? How had he missed her luster?
“Do ye see, then, how easily I might kiss ye if I were of a mind?”
She nodded.
“And ye know that if I were to kiss ye, it wouldna end there, aye?”
She smiled, a little lopsidedly, her gaze dropping from his eyes to his lips. “You make it seem as if I’d have no say in the matter.”
“I wouldna take advantage of ye, of course no’. But I’d have ye begging me to go on, lass. Ye’d beg me to give ye all I have.”
Anna laughed, wrapped her hand around his arm. “I don’t think I’d beg you for anything.”
He grinned confidently. “Oh, aye, lass. Ye’d beg me.”