She did not respond. She merely gazed out the window. It meant he could not see her face. Her pose, perfectly balanced despite her sore ankle, held a serenity that was in stark contrast to his own churning emotions.

Her silence became a dismissal and her posture a repudiation. It amazed him that she could act so indifferently after what they had shared. Then again, perhaps he had misunderstood, and they had not shared much at all.

He reacted to that notion with a furious denial, but he quickly swallowed it. If that was how it had been, it was probably for the best. Hadn’t he always sought out women just like the one being so cool now? Experienced ones, who could enjoy pleasure and then walk away?

He began to leave, annoyed by the hollow sensation growing in his heart. “Nesta, if you have the means to send messages to Carwyn Hir, let him know that I would meet with him. It would be as in a truce, so that we can learn what became of Genith.”

“And so you can also offer him absolution or death?”

“Aye, that too.”

“You assume that I can contact him. You are convinced of my treason then, and have been for some time, I think. You do not have many scruples about the women you bed, do you? Or did you even seduce me out of duty? Perhaps you hoped to trap me into indiscreet confidences with the intimacy?”

If she had kept silent, if she had said anything else at all, he would have left the chamber. Instead his legs took him to the window in long strides.

He grabbed her and swung her around. “That night had nothing to do with what we speak of here. I said it would not for me, and later asked if it did for you. Neither of us was fettered by thoughts of duty or obligations or trades or traps. To say otherwise is unworthy of you, and an insult to us both.”

She looked pointedly at his grip on her arm. “Forgive me. I seem to have forgotten what that night did have to do with.”

Her flippant response infuriated him. “This. It had to do with this.”

He pulled her to him. She squirmed to get away but he imprisoned her resistance in an embrace and silenced her objection with a kiss.

He had sworn to himself that he would not touch her again, but his passion soured in triumph at the taste and feel of her. He sensed her flex of yielding even before it rippled through her and he urged her to join him with his caress. She held back for an excruciating instant before responding in a burst of madness that made him burn so hotly he thought he would die. They might have been back in the lodge again, sealed together, breathing each other’s air and sharing each other’s essence.