edge.
“Hubert!” She cupped her hands around her mouth like a trumpet. “Hyoooo-bert!” She plopped down in the damp grasses and began tugging at her bootlaces.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to look for him.”
Once she had the boots kicked off, she hiked up her skirts, untied a beguiling pink garter, and began rolling the white stocking down the tempting contours of her leg.
Sweet glory.
Gabe shook himself. This would be the moment to avert his gaze, he supposed. Actually, the gentlemanly moment would have been several seconds ago—but he didn’t play by gentlemen’s rules, and peeling one’s gaze from that sort of beauty wasn’t so easily accomplished. He was drawn to the sight the way an otter was drawn to the river.
Once she’d divested herself of both stockings, she stood and gathered her skirts in one hand, holding them above her ankles as she picked her way down the riverbank.
Gabe sighed. He should go after her. Not because he cared about catching Hubert, but because she was likely to stumble on the rocks and break her neck.
“Let him be.” He caught up to her and offered his hand as a means of balance. “You wanted them to have good homes. He’s saved us the trouble and found one for himself.”
“He’s been living with me since he was a pup. He can’t survive in the wild.”
“The wild? We’re in the English Midlands. This is hardly the wild.”
Her demeanor brightened. “I see him. Over there.”
Over by the opposite riverbank, a slinky brown tail disappeared beneath the water’s surface with a splash.
She tugged him by the hand. “We have to rescue him.”
“He doesn’t need rescuing.”
Ignoring him, she lifted her skirts to the knee and dipped her toes into the river.
“No.” Gabe planted his foot on the muddy bank and held her back. “Absolutely not. We are not going into the water.”
She lunged forward.
They were going into the water.
Goddamn, it was cold. By his second step, the river had swallowed him to the knee, sending water rushing to fill his boots. His new, finest-quality-outrageous-sums-of-money-could-buy boots.
Undeterred, she waded farther. Soon she was submerged to her waist. When Gabe joined her, his ballocks retreated so swiftly, he could have sworn they’d taken up lodgings in his rib cage.
He held her firmly by the wrist. This time, he would brook no argument. “Not another step.”
She pointed. “He’s just on the other side. I can see him. You needn’t go with me. If I cross the stream—”
“Are you mad?”
“It isn’t that deep. My head will stay above water.”
“That leaves more than enough of your body to contract pneumonia, consumption, and the grippe.”
“Maybe I’m willing to take that risk.”
“Well, I’m not.” He slid one arm about her waist, tucked the other beneath her knees, and hauled her out of the water, into his arms. Like a damned mermaid. A sparkling, golden-haired, ruby-lipped mermaid. “I can’t lose you.”
I can’t lose you, he said.
I can’t feel my elbows, Penny thought.
She couldn’t help but give a long, swooning sigh.
This man was so dangerous. He had a habit of blurting out these growly, possessive statements, punctuated by intense gazes and capped by displays of sheer virility.
And then he had a habit of immediately ruining them.
“If something happens to you, my—”
“I know, I know.” She wriggled out of his arms. “Your property value will decrease. Goodness. We can’t have that.”
“Don’t complain. If I didn’t have a financial interest in your life, you’d be packed off to Cumberland by now.”
With that, Penny couldn’t argue. “I won’t cross the river. But I’m not giving up.”
She tromped along in the knee-deep water, calling for Hubert.
Gabriel tromped along behind her. “For God’s sake, let the beast have his freedom. He’s a red-blooded … whatever a male otter’s called.”
“Boars. The males are boars.”
“He’ll build his own little house …”
“It’s called a holt.”
“… find a Mrs. Hubert …”
“Otters are polygynous. The boars mate with multiple sows.”
“So he’ll find multiple Mrs. Huberts. Even better. I never thought I’d envy an otter, but here I am.”
She heaved a long-suffering sigh.
“Before long, he’ll have sired a whole crop of otterlings.”
“Pups.” She wheeled to face him. “They’re pups. Stop pretending you know what an otter wants. You don’t know the slightest thing about them.”
“I know that he’s doing what he was born to do. And that you are being selfish.”
“Selfish?”
“That animal is not your possession. He doesn’t exist for your amusement. He has needs, instincts. Urges.”
The way he said that word, in that deep, earthy growl, had chills rippling over her skin.
She swallowed hard. “Urges?”
“Yes. Urges.” He sauntered toward her—as much as a man could saunter in knee-deep water. “But what could a lady like you know about those?”
“Oh, I understand urges. Right now, I have the powerful urge to do this.”
She shoved him hard in the chest, hoping to send him flailing backward into the river.
He didn’t budge. Not a teeter. Not a totter.
Not even a blink.
Penny would not surrender. She took a step in reverse and then tried again, adding the weight of her body to the effort.
This time, he was ready for her. He caught her wrists in his hands, stopping her before she could even make contact.
“Now, now, Your Ladyship. This is most unbecoming behavior.”
“I know that.” She clenched her hands into fists. “You are so maddening. You have a way of provoking me, unlike anyone I’ve ever known. It’s as though I become a different person when I’m around you, and I’m not certain I like her.”
He pulled her to him. “I like her.”
Penny expected he would shortly ruin that statement.
I like her—smoldering pause—potential to increase the return on my property investment.
Not this time.
Instead, he lowered his head until his mouth brushed hers.
Teased her lips apart, until his tongue brushed hers.
And then they tumbled together against the riverbank, and his everything brushed hers.
Gabe didn’t want to want her. But he did. God above, he did. Even though it made no sense. Even though everything in him was against it.
“I