“You’re going to fire him from Durand?” she asked, straining to mute the anger in her tone.
“No,” he said, glancing into the forest. “From this assignment, though. You’re coming back to the castle at night. His services aren’t needed anymore.”
She opened her mouth to protest his cocky assumption, but he cut her off. “Let’s move before he returns. Kar Kalim is back this way,” he said, referring to his horse. He gestured with his head toward the northwest. Alice nodded, too dazed following their illicit, outrageous tryst to say much of anything coherent.
She followed him, their progress slowed by brush and thick foliage. They finally reached a slight clearing. On the far side of the clearing, Alice noticed a horse path. She saw Kar Kalim tethered loosely to some low-lying bushes. He was even
bigger than Quinn, the horse on which Dylan had given her first lesson last week. His coat color reminded her of Dylan’s eyes—so dark brown it was nearly black and so lustrous it shone. The horse regarded them as they walked into the clearing, his gaze striking Alice as intelligent and regal.
“How did you know where I was?” Alice whispered as Dylan approached Kar Kalim and reached for the tether.
Dylan merely pointed west. Alice stepped back and saw the break in the trees. In the distance, there was a clear shot of a stretch of the beach and a pale blue Lake Michigan.
“You saw me jogging?”
Dylan nodded. “I knew Janocek would be following after a bit.”
“Janocek? That’s the name of the guy you’ve had watching me at night?”
His mouth was drawn in a tight line of dissatisfaction. “As much good as it’s done me. Either I have a highly incompetent security team at Durand, or you’re damn near impossible to guard,” he said, his swift, annoyed glance telling her loud and clear he knew which option it was. “I saw you glance back, like you knew you were being followed. There was something on your face. Rebellion. Then you took off like a shot. I had a feeling you were about to pull something.”
“I don’t like being followed. I don’t like being watched all night, either,” Alice said thickly, finding it difficult to meet his eyes. In truth, she was a little embarrassed. Her actions suddenly struck her as juvenile.
“Then you’ll just have to sleep at the castle every night, won’t you.”
It wasn’t really a question, so Alice didn’t respond. She was too embarrassed to meet his stare. Her gaze clung to his boots and hard jean-covered thighs. The truth was, she didn’t want to be anywhere else at night but by his side. It was just that sometimes, she felt like if she surrendered too easily to him . . .
She’d somehow lose herself.
“I . . . I never got to tell you more about what happened that night. About what I remembered . . . about Addie,” she said, her voice sounding a little congested. She’d surprised herself by bringing it up in this situation. Until that moment—until seeing him again—she hadn’t realized how much she longed to share the incredible experience with someone.
Not just someone. Him.
She started slightly when he placed his glove-covered hand on her chin and forced her to meet his stare. She blinked when she saw the emotion that blazed on his usually impassive expression.
“I want to listen.”
Her lip trembled at his stark honesty. He noticed.
“I’m not what you’re making me out to be in your mind, Alice. I don’t want to control you. It’s a complicated situation, to put it lightly. I’ve told you I was in love with you. Do you believe me?”
She swallowed thickly, trapped in his stare.
“Yes,” she whispered. “I think so.”
“Do you need to hear it more, less . . . or not at all?”
Her heart squeezed unpleasantly in her chest at his expression of grim inevitability.
“It’s not that! Of course I want to hear it,” she grimaced. “I’m just so confused right now,” she mumbled miserably, because she’d withheld the truth. Not the part about being confused. That was pretty much becoming the everyday air she breathed. No, it was that he’d told her he loved her twice now, and it was like a concise rapture on both occasions, a joy too acute for her to truly comprehend or absorb, let alone communicate.
“Do you want to be with me at night, Alice?”
“So much.”
“Then stop fighting it,” he bit out, white teeth flashing.
A small spasm of emotion shook her. She nodded. He dropped the reins and took her into his arms. His mouth captured hers. She sunk into his strength. His heat.