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snapped the reins again.
    Obediently, the horses picked up pace and another whistle sounded. “Has anyone ever told you what a mystery you are?”
    “Only you.”
    “Well, it's the truth.” He gave her a light squeeze. “One minute you're as sarcastic as the ocean is deep, the next you're full of wit and wonder. Other times you seem so quiet and uncertain and a moment later you're displaying your skills with no hint of hesitancy or weariness. You truly are a mysterious creature.”
    She twisted her lips. “Has anyone of your sex ever considered those of my sex don’t enjoy being referred to as creatures?”
    Aaron cocked his head to the side. “I’m sure at least one of us has considered it...”
    “But they just don’t care?” she finished for him.
    “I wouldn’t say they don’t care .” He sighed, then idly tapped his finger against his jaw. “No, you were right. They don’t care.”
    “There you are being incorrigible again.” Daphne swatted his shoulder.
    Aaron reached up and caught her hand, then brought her fingers against his lips. “You know you like it.”
    “I do.” Her admission was so low and quiet he wouldn't have known she made it had he not been staring at her lips. He wanted so badly to kiss them. They were pink and lush. Made for kissing. “And I think you like it.”
    “I know I will,” Aaron murmured, closing the gap between them—
    Daphne jerked back with a slight squeak. Was he about to kiss her? The frozen expression on his face, complete with puckered lips confirmed that he was. And she backed off like a ninny. A million thoughts raced through her mind. None of which brought about the right words to say to erase the tension of this moment.
    “Wh-what are you doing?” she stammered, feeling every ounce the fool he probably thought her to be!
    “Wishing I'd be swallowed up by a large hole in the ground to escape this embarrassment.”
    “I hate to tell you this, but I've wished—prayed even—for that many times and it never happens.”
    “There could always be a first...” Aaron offered, the corners of his eyes crinkling.
    Her fingers itched to touch those lines. Instead, she curled them into a ball in her lap to keep her from doing anything that might embarrass either of them. “Ah, but as a well-versed man of the Bible, you ought to know there is nothing new under the sun.”
    Aaron's rich laughter echoed around them. “You are correct.” He gave her hand a light squeeze. “About both.”
    “Both?”
    “There's nothing new under the sun. And—” he cleared his throat, his cheeks turning the slightest hue of pink— “for moving back and stopping me from taking a liberty I had no right to take.” He swallowed audibly. “I beg you, please forgive me.”
    A small measure of relief flooded Daphne to know he didn't interpret her response as anything other than a way to guard her reputation. “I'll only accept your apology if you answer another question for me.”
    Aaron pursed his lips and turned his head from side to side as if he were weighing the positive and negatives of her proposition. “All right,” he said, blowing out a deep breath. “Be gentle.”
    Daphne licked her lips, her mind swimming with questions she wanted to ask him. None of which summed up everything she wanted to know. Aaron seemed so comfortable with her and yet, he'd said she'd brought out the forward part of him. But he'd also said he'd become a “barnacle” to the ladies he thought he could form an attachment. He was also nearly twenty years older than her, but he'd never mentioned children. What was his story? Had he been married before? If so, did he have children, he'd never mentioned them—
    “This must be a clanker of a question if it's taking you this long to think how to word it,” Aaron drawled, flustering her. “Just spit it out, nobody will know how scandalous you are. Well, nobody but me,” he amended with a wolfish grin.
    “Gracious, has anyone other than me ever