“I’m staying out of this.” Fin raised his hands.
Simon touched Liz’s arm. “We won’t be gone long.”
Liz measured them both with a stare. Fin expected her to say no, she knew it. He didn’t want to lose that look of awe from her son. Well, maybe it was time to turn the tables. “All right.”
“Really?” Simon nearly pounced on her.
“What?” Fin turned almost as quickly as her son did. “With one condition.”
“Anything,” Simon said, grinning ear to ear.
Fin peered through slanted lids.
Liz sent him a sly smile. “I’m going, too.”
Relieved, Simon yelled, “Great.”
Fin said, “No.”
“Excuse me?” Liz took a step closer to him.
“I said no. It isn’t safe.”
“But you were willing to take my son. Why not me?” Fin squirmed under her stare. “Simon will be a man before long. It would do him good to spread his wings.”
“So it’s a sexist thing. Okay for boys but not for girls?”
“Something like that.”
Liz matched him stare for stare. Without taking her eyes away from his, she said to Simon, “Can you give us a few minutes, sport. Fin and I need to talk.”
Once he left, she bit out, “You’re full of shit, you know that?”
“If that’s what you choose to believe.”
“It isn’t what I choose. It’s crap! All of it. I won’t have my son living life thinking women are the weaker sex just because we don’t have that thing dangling between our legs.”
“Is that so?” He made his advance slowly, one step at a time until the heat of his body met hers.
Liz held her ground, refusing to be intimidated.
“It isn’t our sex that makes us stronger, Elizabeth, it is us. The sooner you see that the better off for everyone.”
Her eyes twitched, a slightly nervous tick she had when she was unbalanced and damn if Fin didn’t take notice of it. He cast her a cocky grin, evidence he knew he was getting under her skin.
Drawing her shoulders back, she took a deep breath. “I could have you on the floor in seconds, MacCoinnich, so don’t tempt me.”
“In your dreams, lass,” he challenged, his frame nearly touching hers.
Without thought, Liz brought her knee up. But she didn’t have the edge of surprise, and Fin dodged her blow with ease.
Her anger went to her hands, reaching for him in another aggressive move. He pinned her flailing hands in his grip leaving her useless and incapable of moving. His body pressed up against hers preventing her from doing anything.
Anger for anger. Stare for stare. Their breath mixed as they glared at each other.
His triumphant stance wavered. Her breath hitched when his grin slowly faded. They stood too close. Little fluttering waves of pent up desire blossomed and took root. She needed to back off before either of them did something they would regret.
But she was too late.
“God’s teeth,” he murmured right as his mouth reached for hers.
Bittersweet was his taste. Spice and honey mixed with vinegar. He probed her mouth, she gasped in surprise. He took advantage and slipped his tongue inside.
Where the hell had this seduction come from?
Why couldn’t she tear herself away? Even now her body betrayed her mind when she melted into him.
Fin let loose her hands. Once unbound, she thrust them through the panel of his shirt, needing to feel the smooth texture of his skin under her fingertips. Her fingers fanned up and clutched his shirt.
A bomb wouldn’t have broken them apart, seconds passed, minutes, both of them engulfed in a passion which had simmered just below the surface for months.
When a small voice, sounding shocked and concerned, penetrated the silence, they separated.
“So are we going or what?” Simon’s pre-teen attitude came across loud and clear.
Liz swiveled away to stare at Simon. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Fin watching her every move. She needed to catch her breath.
Simon stood with his hands on his hips. “Well?”
“Get your coat.” Fin told him.
Simon didn’t waste any time before he ran off to the house.
“But...”
“No buts. You win,” Fin said, then went over to the tack room and grabbed a saddle for another horse. “You’re riding with me,” he told her.
“He what?” Tara pulled the brush through her hair a little too quickly after hearing what Lizzy had said. “I said, he kissed me.” “Oh, my God. When?”
“Yesterday, before we went to the village.” Liz flopped on the bed her sister shared with her husband and covered her eyes with her arm. “What the hell was I thinking?”
“Did you try and stop him?”
“If by stopping him, you mean jumping him and damn near ripping his clothes off, then yeah. I don’t know what got into me. I kissed him back. We don’t even like each other.”
Tara laughed, turned back to the mirror, and finished brushing out her long hair.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Puleeeese...You and Fin, Fin and you, everyone saw it coming. I can’t believe you didn’t.”
“What do you mean ‘everyone’?”
“Everyone. Myra asked if you had said anything to me. So has Duncan.”
“That’s not everyone.”
“Duncan told me Ian mentioned you and Fin would be well suited, if you could stop fighting long enough to figure it out.”
Liz stared at the ceiling. “Simon saw us.” A line formed between her brows. “A few minutes longer and he would have to seek therapy when he’s older.”
“You’re not the first mom a kid’s caught kissing a man, Lizzy. Give yourself a break. Simon likes Fin.” “I’ve always kept my private life away from him, not that it’s been too difficult. The men were few and far between over the years. Simon hasn’t so much as met any man I’ve dated, let alone caught me kissing one.” Tara wobbled to her feet, slowly, carrying the weight of her pregnancy, now in its seventh month.
“Did you do that to protect him? Or you?”
“What do you mean me?”
“You’ve never let anyone get close, Lizzy.”
“Some of them got pretty close.”
Tara hit her sister with a pillow, “I’m not talking about sex. I mean here.” She tapped her chest. “In order to get close to you, they would have to know Simon. My guess is you probably didn’t let many of them meet him. I think that’s why you fight so much with Fin. He’s getting close, and he already knows your son. And you.”