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I nod dazedly, agreeing wholeheartedly. I’m still a bit stunned as he starts to gather our things, and I can distantly hear him talking about the rain starting to let up, dictating that we should be going. I hear all of it, but it seems far away because even with everything that just happened—the fire, the magic, all of it—there is another thought that rings louder than all the rest.

Did Lachlan and I almost kiss just now? And what’s more…am I disappointed that we didn’t?

16

Lachlan

You almost kissed her.

You almostbloodykissed her.

I’ve been turning over this fact in my mind for the last half hour, quiet as Key and I continue our trek toward the old Greer castle. I can see it now, just over the next hill—and given that she isn’t peppering me with questions as I am learning she’s prone to do, I can’t help but wonder if she might be thinking about the same thing.

I can’t say what pushed me to throw away every rational thought in my head and lean into her back in the barn. Maybe it was how vulnerable she was allowing herself to be. Maybe it was the atmosphere, the feeling of her delicate body tucked against mine.

Or maybe it’s how fucking beautiful she is, something I wish weren’t so bloody obvious.

I don’t know when it happened—or maybe I do, but just don’t want to admit it—but sometime between Key sitting at my kitchen table begging to help me and leaning against me in a falling-down barn, I seemed to have forgotten all the reasons why I should be keeping her at arm’s length. It’s like now that I can’t drum up proper disdain for her, my brain and body seem to have decided to stage some sort of coup against me, coming to the conclusion that KeyannaMacKay is actually a sensual but somehow also adorable daydream of a woman who I couldn’t have conjured up in my wildest fantasies.

Which, to be fair, has been true since the day I met her—but given thatthenI was able to bury that knowledge under a thick layer of animosity, it was a lot easier to ignore.

I know that there are bigger concerns here than what her mouth might feel like against mine, and I frantically drudge up those reasons as we both traipse along the wet grass, knowing that this drawn-out silence is only making things worse.

“So, back at the barn—”

“Yes?”

The eagerness in her tone gives me pause, and when I turn to look at her, I can see it in her eyes as well. Those emerald depths stare back at me with shining anticipation, and for a moment I’m spellbound, like a sailor caught in a siren’s song. Does shereallyhave to be so tempting?

“I, uh…” I clear my throat. “That trick with the flame.” I ignore the way her expression falls; there’s nothing to be done for it. “Do you have any idea how you did that?”

“Oh.” She glances down at her feet, shrugging. “No idea.”

“Can you think of anything that might tell youhowit happened?”

“I don’t know…It felt like I was heating up, but I mean…You were kind of touching me. And you do run really hot. So I didn’t think much of it until—”

“Until you nearly burned the barn down.”

She rolls her eyes. “Don’t be dramatic.”

“I think when a woman nearly sets my arse on fire, I’m allowed a wee bit of dramatics.”

“Says the guy that turns into a dinosaur at night.”

The bickering is safer territory, and I tell myself I am relieved byit. The softness of the moment in the barn is a dangerous, slippery slope—one I can’t afford to traverse.

“Aye, princess,” I chuckle. “S’pose you’re right.” The castle is in full view now that we’ve crested the hill, and I pause at the top, tilting my head in its direction. “Well, there she is.”

Key looks positively beside herself—her lips parting in a sound that can only be described as some sort of birdcall as she squawks her enthusiasm. And why do I find that cute?

“Oh my God. It’s amazing!”

I cock my head, trying to see it through her eyes, but given that I’ve been here a hundred times, all I can see is the same crumbling piece of history that is a reminder of all the things wrong in my life.

“It’s just an auld pile of rocks, Key.”

She nudges me in the side with her elbow. “Don’t take this from me. We don’t exactly have thirteenth-century castles just lying around in New York.”