Back at the hotel, Ravenna went to her room to get warm, to curl up under the heavy blankets. When David came knocking ten minutes later, he’d been down to the front desk where he’d learned the name of their fair-haired friend.
“Well, what is it?” Ravenna asked, pulling the blankets up under her chin. “Lady Launceston, I suppose?”
“No, not Launceston. Henley, as it turns out.” David settled back on his elbow beside her. “Fiona Henley. Her husband runs some sort of charity downtown. Maybe we can catch him there tomorrow without the help of his charming wife.”
“She was charming, wasn’t she?” Ravenna smiled, thinking of the woman’s impolite manners. “She had such a sunny disposition about her, that’s what I liked.”
“Some people don’t know any better.” Leaning closer, David covered her hand with his. “Listen, I know that I tired you out yesterday, what with your transpolar flight and all, so I’ll let you sleep early. Then we’ll go up to Dublin tomorrow and find this chap Henley.”
“You’re going to bed already?”
With the sudden flame to his eyes, she realized at once what she’d implied; she hadn’t meant to, really she hadn’t, and yet when David’s gaze lowered to her shape beneath the covers, she knew exactly what he was thinking. “Do you want me to stay, Ravenna?”
He is handsome, she told herself. There was something undeniably attractive about him, and he was certainly more her type than any boat mechanic or logger’s son. He’s nobility, for heaven’s sake! Yet even as she struggled to come up with an answer, that awkward, dreaded moment came: His eyes locked hopefully on her lips.
The last time she’d been kissed, at least by anyone other than her grandmother, it’d been in a gymnasium with disco music and strobe lights for ambiance. She hadn’t been kissed—really kissed—since high school in Port Angeles. She doubted she even remembered how to do it. Worse still, she knew she shouldn’t have to remember, that worrying about it should be the furthest thing from her mind in meeting his eyes, in giving in to a flushed, uncontrollable need, one that she should be feeling right now. Why didn’t she feel it?
But while she pondered whether she felt flushed or not, David’s hand pulled the blankets from under her tightly set chin. His gray eyes narrowed with obvious desire. He leaned closer still, and—
He stopped.
“What is it?” She touched his arm. “David? If it seems like I’ve never—”
“You don’t want to do this.”
Ravenna considered his declaration, tried to think of words to negate his fears. “It’s just that…I’m not used to this kind of attention, that’s all.” She dared to slide her fingers up his shirt sleeve, over his slender, muscular shoulder. What had her cousin told her? That she needed to get out of her hermit hole? “I’ve never had a boyfriend, David. Never. Not even a one-night stand.”
“All the more reason to leave you alone.” Pulling out from under her hand, he stood up, headed for the door in somewhat of a suspicious rush.
“But it’s only a kiss. How could you possibly—”
“I can’t explain it, I just know it’s wrong.” Turning the lock, he glanced at her over his shoulder and far away, behind his mask of subtle wanting, she caught again that glimpse of Christian, his dejection, his suffocating dependence upon her, as if she were his only love, the only answer to his destiny.
But before the vision could really take hold, he left.
“David, please come back,” she called as the lock clicked into place behind him. “Stay and talk about this.”
From the hallway, she barely heard his answer. “I don’t think you know what you want, Elizabeth.”