“Jillian! Jillian, are you out there?”

Jillian closed her eyes, willing the owner of the intruding voice to hell and farther. She felt the soft brush of Grimm’s lips across hers as he quickly, lightly delivered a kiss that was nothing like the one she’d been anticipating. She wanted his lips to bruise hers, she wanted his tongue in her mouth and his breath in her lungs, she wanted everything he had to give.

“It’s Ramsay,” Grimm said through his teeth. “He’s coming out. Get up off your knees, lass. Now.”

Jillian stumbled hastily to her feet and stepped back, trying desperately to see Grimm’s face, but his dark head had fallen forward to the spot hers had occupied a moment before. “Grimm,” she whispered urgently. She wanted him to raise his head; she needed to see his eyes. She had to confirm that she’d truly seen desire in his eyes as he’d gazed at her.

“Lass.” He groaned the word, his head still bowed.

“Yes?” she whispered breathlessly.

His hands fisted in the folds of his kilt, and she waited, trembling.

The door clattered open and shut behind them. “Jillian,” Ramsay called as he entered the courtyard. “There you are. I’m so pleased you joined us. I thought you might like to accompany me to the fair. What’s your horse doing on the ground, Roderick?”

Jillian released her breath in a hiss of frustration and kept her back to Ramsay. “What, Grimm? What?” she entreated in an urgent whisper.

He raised his head. There was a defiant glint in his blue eyes. “Quinn is in love with you, lass. I think you should know that,” he said softly.

CHAPTER 12

JILLIAN DEFTLY ELUDED RAMSAY BY TELLING HIM SHE needed to buy “woman things”—a statement that appeared to set his imagination to flight. Thus she was able to spend the afternoon shopping with Kaley and Hatchard. At the silversmith she bought a new buckle for her da. From the tanner she purchased three snowy lambskin rugs—thick as sin and soft as rabbit fur. At the goldsmith’s she bartered shrewdly for tiny, hammered-gold stars to adorn a new gown.

But all the while her mind was back in the courtyard, lingering on the dark, sensual man who’d betrayed the first glimpse of a crack in the massive walls around his heart. It had stunned her, bewildered her, and fortified her resolve. Jillian didn’t doubt for a moment what she’d seen. Grimm Roderick cared. Buried beneath a mound of rubble—the debris from a past she was beginning to suspect had been more brutal than she could comprehend—there was a very real, vulnerable man.

She’d seen in his stark gaze that he desired her, but more significantly, that he had feelings so deep he couldn’t express them, and subsequently did everything in his power to deny them. That was sufficient hope for her to work with. It didn’t occur to Jillian, even for a moment, to wonder if he was worth the effort—she knew he was. He had everything to offer that she’d ever wanted in a man. Jillian understood that people didn’t come perfect; sometimes they’d been so badly scarred that it took love to heal them and allow them to realize their potential. Sometimes the badly scarred ones had the greatest depth and the most to offer because they understood the infinite value of tenderness. She would be the sun beating down upon the cloak of indifference he’d donned so many years ago, inviting him to walk without defenses.

Her anticipation was so strong, it made her feel shaky and weak. Desire had shimmered in Grimm’s gaze when he looked at her, and whether he realized it or not, she’d seen an intense, sensual promise on his face.

Now all she had to do was figure out how to release it. She shivered, rattled by the intuitive knowledge that when Grimm Roderick unleashed his passion, it would definitely be worth waiting for.

“Are you chilled, lass?” Hatchard asked worriedly.

“Chilled?” Jillian echoed blankly.

“You shivered.”

“Oh please, Hatchard!” Kaley snorted. “That was a daydreaming shiver. Can’t you tell the difference?”

Jillian glanced at Kaley, startled. Kaley merely smiled smugly. “Well, it was, wasn’t it, Jillian?”

“How did you know?”

“Quinn looked very handsome this morning,” Kaley said pointedly.

“So did Grimm,” Hatchard snapped immediately. “Didn’t you think so, lass? I know you saw him by the stables.”

Jillian gaped at Hatchard with a horrified expression. “Were you spying on me?”

“Of course not,” Hatchard said defensively. “I just happened to glance out my window.”