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“Yes,” he said shortly.
“You didn’t have to do that, you know. You could have slept on the couch.” She gave him a tremulous smile. “I don’t bite.”
“Maybe I do.”
“I’m not afraid of you.”
At her shining smile, an ache filled his chest that felt like pain.
Morning had dawned over the beach, streaking pink across the sky over the crystalline waves. A fresh breeze blew through the palm trees overhead, causing tendrils of her blond hair to curl across her beautiful face.
And it was then that he saw it in her face, bright as day. Rose actually cared about him.
The realization jolted him like a kick in the gut. He climbed out of the hammock so quickly that he nearly fell.
“Are you all right?”
“Fine.” He straightened, irritated.
“Why did you leave like that last night?” she persisted, in spite of the clear signals. He didn’t wish to discuss it.
“For your own good,” he muttered.
“What?”
Angrily, he whirled on her. “Just leave it alone. Trust me. You slept better last night without my company.”
She stared at him.
“No,” she said in a low voice. “You’re wrong. I didn’t sleep at all.” Her beautiful face was heartbreakingly angelic as she whispered, “I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”
Their eyes met, and he couldn’t look away.
He wanted her so badly that his whole body thrummed with it. Painfully. Single-mindedly.
He wanted to take her right here on the deserted beach, to rip off her white cover-up in the pale pink morning, to push her naked body against the sand and kiss and suckle and taste every inch of her skin. He wanted to push himself inside her, to fill her completely, to ride her until she forgot every other lover, until she screamed his name.
Standing before her in yesterday’s T-shirt and jeans, Xerxes held himself still. His hands clenched with the effort it took not to kiss her. “Why were you thinking about me?”
“You try to pretend you’re selfish and cruel,” she said softly. “But I keep thinking about you and coming to one conclusion. You’re a good man.”
He gave a low laugh, like thunder reverberating across the dark sky. “I am not good.” Something snapped inside him and he reached for her shoulders, looking down into her eyes searchingly as he whispered, “But you…you are.”
“Oh.” She blushed. “I’m not so very good. I’ve been feeling quite stupid, actually, driving you away from your bed. The couch, I mean.”
She was stammering, embarrassed. As if she had anything to feel guilty about, when it had been Xerxes who deliberately rented the honeymoon cottage to set the stage for easy seduction! “Don’t worry about it.” He looked down at his clothes, no longer dusty but now stiff from dried seawater. “A night beneath the stars is just what I needed.”
She bit her lip. “Still, I feel badly. No more sleeping outside, all right? Come inside. I’ve made you some breakfast.”
“You did?” He paused, then added dryly, “Is that supposed to be consolation, or punishment?”
“I know how to cook!” she said, sticking out her tongue. “The spaghetti was not my fault. I thought the rice noodles would work.”
He could feel the warmth off her body as he looked down at her. The smile slid from her face as their eyes locked, burning through him.
“Are you sure you can trust me?” he said roughly. “To be alone with you in the cottage?”
Looking up with big eyes, she nodded.
