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Dominic grunted. “Gisela!”
With a sharp oath, he wobbled, then keeled sideways. Before she could pull free from his hold, the stable blurred around her. She was falling!
Gisela landed on her back in the mound of straw.
With a loud “oof,” Dominic landed beside her. He’d shielded her fall so she did not hit the hard-packed dirt, she realized with a twinge of gratitude.
Flicking bits of straw from her face, she struggled to rise.
Leaning on one arm beside her, his face a hand’s span above hers, Dominic shook his head. His broad, tanned palm splayed on her belly. “I will not let you run away, Gisela. I will have an explanation.”
CHAPTER 2
Dominic stared down into Gisela’s ashen, frightened face, barely resisting the urge to shake her. Concern and frustration twisted up inside him with punishing intensity. Why did she look upon him as though he were a fire-breathing, maiden-devouring dragon, rather than a past lover?
How different she seemed from the self-confident, sensual woman he remembered.
In the stable’s dim light, he studied her. Her long, golden hair, loosened from its confining leather thong, tangled about her in the straw. Her thickly lashed blue eyes looked huge against her pale skin. Strong cheekbones, more prominent than he remembered, defined her oval-shaped face, coaxing his gaze to slip down to her wide, generous lips, which parted as she sucked in an anxious breath.
He swallowed the bitter aftertaste of regret, for he remembered every luscious nuance of her mouth. How he’d lost himself in the eager brush of her lips.
That seemed an eternity ago.
Clearing an uncomfortable tightness from his throat, he dragged his gaze from her mouth. Meeting her watery gaze, he coaxed, “Tell me why you are so afeared.”
Beneath his splayed hand, her belly rose and fell on a ragged sigh. Layers of woolen cloak, as well as her garments, separated them. Yet, as though ’twere yesterday, his palm remembered the softness of her skin, deliciously pliant beneath his caress and warmed by the meadow sun.
A shudder raked through him.
She must have felt it, too, for her eyes flared even more. With a gasp, she twisted sideways, clearly about to scramble across the straw. Catching her arm, he hauled her back. Meeting her furious glare, he said, “You are not making this easy for me, now, are you?”
“Please, Dominic.” She trembled in his grasp, while her tone became urgent. “I beg you. Do not take me from here.”
Frowning, he reached out to pull away straw dangling from her tresses. “Why do you fear I would?”
She shrank from his touch. Never before had she recoiled from him, a reaction that implied he epitomized danger, not reassurance. Anguish fueled his impatience. When he caught the wayward straw and flicked it aside, voices again carried from the tavern yard. Two men, he discerned, from their brisk conversation.
Gisela shivered.
He gently squeezed her arm. “Are you in some kind of trouble?”
Staring up at him, she rubbed her lips together. For a moment, in her eyes, he caught a glimmer of trust. He sensed she yearned to confide in him. Then, as though catching herself, her gaze again darkened with suspicion.
Resisting the urge to curse like a drunken fishmonger, he let go of her arm. The roughness of her sleeve still prickled his palm. “I cannot help you, Gisela, if you will not trust me.”
Her chin rose to a wary tilt. “How can I be certain you wish to help me? Many years have passed since I last saw you.”
“True, but—”
“Nay, Dominic,” she cut in, pushing up one arm, her eyes blazing with blue fire. “For all I know, you might—”
“—have been captivated by you in the market? So much so that I had to follow you, and then discovered you were my long-lost love? Aye. ’Tis the truth of it.”
“If I may finish,” she said softly, “you might—”
“—still, after all the years we have been apart, crave your kiss.” Refusing to break her stunned gaze, he trailed his fingers down her cheek.
A gruff shout came from just outside the stable.
