But now, dressed in a light blue dress that reached just past her knees, the sleeves capping just over her shoulders, he could scarcely catch his breath. She’d let her hair down. The long blonde strands fell loosely about her shoulders, trailing down her neck and into the deep crevice between her breasts that were emphasized by the cut of the fabric.
Suddenly Morna’s hand smacked him roughly against the back, reminding him to look up from the lush paleness of her bosom and to speak up like a grown man rather than the young lad he suddenly felt like.
“Grace. That is…well…a verra nice dress.”
He smiled as she laughed, some of his nervousness lifting away as she tucked her hand gently into the crook of his arm. “Thanks, you don’t look bad yourself. Nice haircut.”
“Aye.” He grinned lifting his left hand to touch a small spot on the back of his head, winking at her as he did so. “Only exception being this wee bit here. The lass who trimmed it got rather excited for a moment.”
Cooper suddenly spoke next to Grace’s side, and Eoghanan realized rather ashamedly that he’d not noticed the boy trailing along behind her before. “That’s so weird. What did you do? Tickle her? She’s never messed up my hair.”
Grace glanced up at him a little sheepishly, and he reached down to grip Cooper on the shoulder. “Aye, yer mother did a fine job. I only spoke in jest. Are ye excited about yer trip with Morna and Jerry?”
“Oh yes. So, so, so excited. I’ve never seen a real castle before. Only on tv and stuff.”
Grace stepped away from him, bending over to pick up Cooper and hug him. “I’m sure you’re going to have a great time. Just promise me that you’ll listen to whatever they say, Coop?”
The young lad regarded her seriously. “Of course I will, Mom. I only get rowdy for you, ya know?”
Grace laughed, leaning in to kiss Cooper’s forehead. “Yes, I do know. Thanks for that.”
The boy laughed, squirming so she would set him down. “You’re welcome.”
Once Cooper retreated toward Morna and Jerry, Grace looped her arm around Eoghanan once more, sending his pulse racing in anticipation of their day spent together. “Let’s get out of here,” she whispered in his ear. Gladly, he turned her toward the door.
*
For the first half hour of our drive, Eoghanan remained unusually silent. If I’d not been watching him closely out of the corner of my eye, I would’ve worried that he’d been less interested than he’d first appeared. Instead, I found that it wasn’t a lack of interest in conversation with me, but a rather obvious fascination with the workings of the car that kept him silent.
He watched everything I did closely; from adjusting the mirrors to shifting the gears, he watched with wide eyes, and his mouth kept opening and closing in the same way Cooper’s often did if he wished to ask a question but then thought better of it. And although it appeared as if he tried to hide it, I sensed an unexplainable nervousness about him as I pushed the car to a reasonable cruising speed.
“Do cars make you nervous?”
Eoghanan directed his attention fully to me for the first time since the beginning of the car ride and smiled, shaking his head in a fashion that seemed more about pushing away his thoughts than in answer to my question. “No, though ye do.”
“Me?” The thought that I made him nervous seemed entirely absurd to me, but the confession endeared me to him even more. He had the unique ability to seem completely confident, yet vulnerable, at the same time.
“Aye. Ye are stunning, Grace. I have never seen anyone as beautiful as ye and it…aye, I canna help but be nervous around ye. ’Tis a verra nice feeling.”
“You like to be nervous?” As a mother, I lived in a constant state of light anxiety. I disliked nothing more than being nervous.
“Aye.”
He reached over, laying his hand on my knee—a gesture that sent a shockwave so great down my spine I had to grip the wheel to keep from swerving off the road.
“Nerves, as ye call them, remind me that I can feel something other than regret and worry. I havena felt that way about much of anything in a verra long time.”
“Oh.” I hardly knew what to say in response to him. It pained me to think that he’d lived with such feelings, but he also meant to tell me that I made him feel differently, which was the headiest of compliments.
My entire body hummed with an unexplainable energy anytime I was near him, but in the confines of the car it seemed worse, like the windows would vibrate and shatter if some of the pressure wasn’t released soon.
Glancing out the side window, I spotted a hill scattered with flowers that truthfully, while pretty enough was rather ordinary. I pulled the car over all the same, desperate to put some space between us before I jumped him.
Eyeballs deep in mommy-world since Cooper’s birth, I’d gone far too long without the affection of a man. In Eoghanan’s presence, a gentleman if I’d ever seen one, someone who I knew couldn’t tell a lie by the look in his eyes, a man who actually seemed to like me as much as I did him, well, it was like that part of me, the part of me who wanted to be kissed and touched and loved by a man had been suddenly unleashed after years of captivity.
And I was very, very hungry.
Chapter 12