you know.'
She started to back away. 'I'm s-sorry,' she stammered in confusion. 'I didn't mean-'
'Hush,' he said softly. His hands on her nape tightened as he tilted her head up to meet his eyes. 'I'm not an iron man but I'm not a boy either. Of course I want you, but I'm not going to throw you down on the floor and rape you. I can handle it.' He case a mischievous glance down at himself and his eyes were suddenly dancing. 'As long as you promise you won't!'
A little smile tugged at her lips. The man was really outrageous. 'Ill try to restrain myself.'
She was standing here naked as the day she was born actually joking with this impossibly attractive man, she thought in bewilderment. What was even more unusual was that after that first moment of excruciating shyness, she'd felt perfectly natural and relaxed about it. He was such a strange man. Tenderness and violence, mischief and cynicism, virile lust and almost maternal gentleness. Yet she felt as comfortable with him in this moment as if she'd known him for years.
'I trust you,' he said airily, as he reached for the knob and turned off the water. 'You've demonstrated an amazing amount of strength of will in other areas. But I still think I'd better get you out of here and away from temptation.' He whisked her out of the shower stall and wrapped her carefully in a towel before turning away. 'Run along into the cabin while I dry off. You'll find a hair dryer in the top drawer of the dresser and an electric outlet on the wall by the bunk.' He patted her bottom through the terry cloth of the towel. 'Be sure to put on that robe right away. The air conditioning in the cabin is turned up fairly high to combat the humidity.'
'I'll do that,' she said bemusedly as she opened the bathroom door. His streak of possessive protectiveness was constantly catching her off guard and filling her with strange warmth. She was the one who'd always nurtured and protected. It felt very odd being on the receiving end after all these years. Odd… and rather nice.
She was sitting on the bunk, bundled up in the white terry robe and just finishing blow-drying her hair when he padded out of the bathroom. A towel was slung carelessly about his hips, but he was otherwise nude. His hair was still damp but he'd combed it into its former slightly rakish orderliness. Without clothes he looked like the athlete he claimed to be, she thought absently. There wasn't an inch of fat on that lean muscular torso and his legs and arms had a supple whipcord strength that was both symmetrical and graceful. He must have been beautiful when he was skating, she thought dreamily. She would have liked to have seen him then, 'Why did you quit skating?' she asked impulsively.
'I was through with it,' he said as he crossed the cabin to stand in front of her. He reached out a hand as if to test the dampness of her hair, but paused to play with a curl, unwinding it and then allowing it to spring back into its former ringlet. 'It was fun for a while but I've never been known for my stability. There's no use sticking around once something has lost its zing.'
She felt a sudden inexplicable jab of pain somewhere near her heart. No, Beau Lantry would never be interested in permanence or stability. Even on such short acquaintance she should have known that. It was all there in the reckless curve of that beautiful sensual mouth and the flickering restlessness in his eyes.
'I like your hair,' he said. 'It's all soft silky fleece. You're silky all over, your skin, your hair…' His hand dropped and he turned away. 'You're dry enough. Climb into bed and I'll turn out the light.'
She switched off the portable dryer and put it in his outstretched hand. 'On which side do you prefer that I sleep, left or right?' she asked politely.
His lips quirked. 'Under,' he answered, 'or over.' Then as her brow knitted in confusion, his golden eyes twinkled. 'Never mind. It was just a thought. Sleep next to the wall. It will give me the illusion that I have you trapped and helpless.'
'You do have me trapped and helpless,' she murmured as she pulled back the coverlet and slipped beneath it. 'It's no illusion.'
His smile faded. 'That's right, I do.' He strode across the room and tossed the dryer carelessly on the dresser. 'How stupid of me to forget.' His hand brushed the switch on the wall, plunging the room into darkness.
She watched his dark shadow come toward the bunk, pausing only to jerk the towel from around his hips. She felt the mattress give as he slipped into the bed beside her and she drew a deep breath trying to relax.
'Come here, Kate.' He was scooting closer and drawing her into his arms with casual matter-of-factness. 'I want to cuddle you.' His hands were moving soothingly up and down her back. 'You're stiff as a board, sugar.' That faint Southern drawl was dark velvet as he pressed his face into the curls at her temple. 'Just a cuddle, that's all. Relax and let me love you a little.' His lips were teasing, pulling at one tight curl. 'I love your hair. I keep wanting to run my hands through it and play like a little kid. What's it like when it's long?'
'Terrible,' she said faintly. She could feel the heat of his naked flesh even through the thick terry of the robe. 'It's so soft that it tangles at the first breeze. That's why I keep it short.'
'Ummm.' He rubbed his cheek back and forth against it in a gesture that was half sensual, half boyish. 'I think I'd like it long. You'd look sort of wild and gypsyish,' he said. 'Though this is fine too.'
'I'm glad you think so,' she said dryly, 'since I have no intention of letting it grow.'
'We'll see,' he said absently. His hands were plucking discontentedly at the back of the terry robe. 'This thing is damnably rough. I want to get at you.' Then he sighed and drew her closer into the curve of his arm, settling her head in the hollow of his shoulder. 'You're tired, right? And if I'm not going to be on the same level as that bastard who tried to clobber you, I've got to remember, right? Go to sleep, Kate.'
'If you'd rather-'
' 'Do if?' he interrupted. 'Oh, yes, I definitely would. But every now and then I find myself overcome by the code of chivalrous Southern manhood.' His tone was distinctly testy. 'At the most fiendishly inconvenient times.'
'I owe you a-'
'Kate, sweet Kate, shut up.' His hand was combing through her curls. 'I'm quite aware you're ready to lay that silky body on the line and it isn't making it any easier for me.'
'Okay,' she whispered. The events of the evening, together with the emotional upheavals she'd undergone, were catching up with her and she almost collapsed against him. Her voice was a little slurred with exhaustion. 'If it's all right with you?'
'It will have to be.'
Suddenly out of the mists of sleep rapidly enfolding her a fragmentary memory drifted to her. 'Who is Uncle George?'
'What?'
'Uncle George,' she murmured. 'You said Despard reminded you of Uncle George.'
'Oh, no one important. Just one of my more avaricious relatives. I hadn't thought of the old bastard for years before I ran into Despard.' There was a long silence and she was half asleep when Beau began to chuckle. 'Lord, if only Daniel could see me now.'
'Daniel?' she asked drowsily.
'He'd never believe it.' There was amusement vying with the exasperation in his tone. 'Discussing Shakespeare and Samuel Clemens with a naked woman in the shower and then lying in bed pure as the driven snow with that same woman. He'd enjoy the entire episode tremendously.'
'Would he?' She could barely keep her eyes open. 'You're very good friends, aren't you?'
'We've been in a few tight spots together. It has a tendency to breed a certain
