Never before had Commander Lothian ridden a horse with someone he cared for the way he cared for Celia.
Sure, there had been situations in which he had to carry someone on his horse because they were gravely injured or in need of a rescue, but he normally drew the line somewhere.
Every interaction with a woman he ever had, he made sure to do it far away from his fief. He wasn't ashamed of his conquests but he never wanted someone to misunderstand that they could have his heart.
As he glanced down at Celia, enjoying the biting cold breeze against her face and closing her eyes when it got too much, he realized that his heart was never his to give in the first place. The woman five years his senior had always had it.
Everything he thought he had overcome was starting to come back to bite him.
