“No way.” He pulled her back down to him. “I’m very good with time conservation. And Lord knows I need to distract you. Though we both know that’s not going to last long.” He pretended to think about it. “Okay, but you gave me a list of the subjects you wanted to talk about…Fiona…Eve…what else? Anything but Bohdan.” He pushed the nightgown off her shoulders. “Fiona. Tell me about Fiona. Why did you decide to talk to Eve about Fiona?”

He was still naked, and he was smiling down at her. He was totally sensual. The brush of gray at his temples, the faint indentation in his chin, those fascinating dark eyes glittering with humor and intensity. She could feel her body stirring again. “It’s not going to work, you know,” she whispered.

“Only if you want it to.” He brushed his lips over her upper breasts. “And it’s okay with me whatever you choose. I can feel something…isn’t quite right. Talk to me. Tell me how I can fix it. That will be good, too.”

She suddenly chuckled. “But not as good. And you’ll do anything to keep me from mentioning Bohdan again.”

“What can I say? I never told you I didn’t like my own way. I’m just a poor, lustful philistine.”

“You’re more than that.” She cuddled closer to him. “I have great taste and I chose you. Don’t insult me. Though I may throw that philistine description back at you later. And I have absolutely nothing against lust.” She nestled her head on his shoulder. “But maybe I will tell you a little about Eve and Fiona because that’s what I’ve been doing to keep myself busy. As a matter of fact, I’ve been going through the storage rooms downstairs and looking for info about Fiona. And I just wanted to talk to Eve about her. Eve because she’ll always be my family, Fiona because I’m not sure she ever really had one. I guess I didn’t want to think about what you were doing with Bohdan.” She added, “And MacDuff has been regaling me with his family mystery stories and that didn’t help. Did you know what an asshole her father was? He came from a background of border reivers, but that didn’t mean he didn’t use it as an excuse to…”

*  *  *

Caleb was fully dressed and bending over her when she woke a little later. “I have to leave you.” He brushed her hair back from her face. “But I can’t go until I see that you’re back inside the castle.” He kissed her long, hard. “So will you get the hell out of here?”

It was over.

She smothered the pain. Accept it and go on.