Trace let her go and turned his horse sharply away, putting a little distance between them before stopping dead in his tracks, his head bowed. And Mara knew something was wrong. Very wrong. She wanted to ask him, but she didn’t want to pressure him into telling her what it was. Maybe when we are alone at the cabin, she thought as she touched her heels to Suleiman’s sides and headed slowly back toward the house. Maybe he will tell me then.
Hoofbeats in the snow, the creak of leather and the snorts of the horses were the only sounds that accompanied their return ride, and Mara searched for an explanation for Trace’s sudden capitulation...and his withdrawal. She had hoped going to the cabin would give him the opportunity to tell her he loved her. But until they resolved whatever the problem was, she knew he wasn’t going to say what she wanted to hear.
* * *
Until yesterday Trace hadn’t touched Mara in almost seven weeks. Hadn’t kissed her the way he yearned to do. The way she yearned for him to do. He hadn’t drawn her against his body, letting her feel the desperate need that clawed through him, knowing in his heart of hearts she felt the same way. He’d refrained from touching her, knowing that was the only way to maintain a professional distance. He hadn’t laid her down and worshipped her body with his, taking both of them to a higher plane where the only thing that mattered was the two of them and the love they shared. Where the only thing that mattered was their two hearts beating as one.
No, he hadn’t done any of those things...except in his mind. And he knew—he knew—he wasn’t the only one dreaming those hopeless dreams. The princess wanted him, too, and she no longer even tried to hide it. The scene yesterday was burned into his mind as he remembered her complete surrender. She wouldn’t have cared about the snow either, he brooded, watching silently as she drove confidently along the highway toward Keystone, the speedometer holding steady a few miles above the speed limit.
The defensive driving lessons he’d given her these past weeks had paid off, and she was no longer a nervous driver. No longer hesitant. Not about driving, or anything else. There was a radiance about her now. She’d been lovely before in an understated way, but now she walked in an incandescent glow whenever he was around. Happiness and confidence in herself as a woman had wrought that change. Whenever he looked at her his mouth went dry with desire and his body hardened in a painful rush. But it wasn’t just lust. He could have dealt with that. It wasn’t lust that made his heart skip a beat when she took a dangerous jump on Suleiman. It wasn’t lust that filled him with helpless foreboding at the thought of walking away at the end of the school year. And it damned well wasn’t lust that squeezed his heart when she turned those loving green eyes on him and smiled.
He knew so much more about her now. She still said almost nothing about her father, but he understood her utter devotion to her brother, who’d been the only loving influence in her life.
“...Andre believed in me, even when I was too much of a coward to believe in myself. My father...there was a time when he tried to arrange a marriage for me, before I went to Oxford. I tried to tell him no, but he would not listen to me. I was so terribly afraid I would have no choice, but...Andre...he stopped it. I do not know how, just that he did. Everything I have achieved I owe to him because he freed me...
“...Winter was always my favorite time of year when I was a little girl, because Andre would descend upon the nursery and drag me out to play in the snow. He could be imperious even then, but never for himself, only for me. ‘Come, dernya,’—that means ‘little treasure’ in my language, Andre’s pet name for me. Overriding all objections—my nurse, at first, then my governess, then my tutors—he would hold out his hand to me and insist I accompany him, with a wicked smile that made me dare anything. He had a sled that flew like the wind upon a certain snowy hillside near the palace, and he would take me with him, laughing all the way...
“...Andre taught me to ride without fear. I think I was only three and he was eight when he first took me up in front of him atop his favorite mount. But even then he was protective of me. I knew nothing bad could happen to me with him there. It is the same feeling I have now...with you...
“...Suleiman the Magnificent, that is his full name, and he has lived up to it. He is the brother of Alexander the Great, out of Andre’s own stables. Alexander won the Grand National three years ago, before he was put out to stud. Suleiman had the potential to be another winner for Andre, just as great as his older brother, but...instead, he was Andre’s gift to me when I obtained my PhD. Never, never, will I forget the first moment I saw him. It was love at first sight, the same way I felt when I saw y—”