Reckless - By Anne Stuart Page 0,53

your back," she said in a grumpy voice.

"Will you fall at my feet?"

She stared at him, uncomprehending for a moment. She'd already fallen at his feet, handed herself over... oh, he was talking literally, not metaphorically.

"No," she said shortly.

His lids were drooping lazily over his blue eyes, and his smile was small and polite before he released her, turning his back to sit at the little table, addressing himself to the tray of food.

She moved to the side of the tub quickly, dropped the sheet on the floor and slid in. The water was blissfully hot, scented with roses, and her moan of delight was out before she realized it.

The sound caught his attention and he turned to look at her, a cup of coffee in his hand.

"You promised not to look," she shrieked and sank lower in the bath.

"I most certainly did not. I believe my exact words were. 'What if I promise to turn my back?' You said you wouldn't believe me, so I didn't bother making that promise." He hitched the chair around so that it was facing her, and his eyes were alight with amusement. "You should know better than to trust me."

"You're right," she said in a cranky voice. "Just go away, will you? If you can't leave, then go lie down and pull the curtains and let me enjoy my bath in peace."

"You could always turn your back on me."

Good point. Sinking lower, she managed to shift around so that her back was to him, enabling her to rise enough to let her head rest at the edge of the oval-shaped tub. She closed her eyes, and this time she managed to keep the sheer, sensual delight to herself. She heard him moving around behind her, but she ignored him. She'd never seen such a large tub in her life, and it astonished her that she hadn't heard it being filled this morning. But then, she'd been exhausted, sleeping more soundly than she had in months. Sleep had always been an elusive commodity in her life—there were always too many things to think about, too many things to do.

She wasn't going to think about why she slept so well. If it needed that to make her sleep then she was doomed to a lifetime of insomnia.

She leaned back in the tub, spreading her legs slightly, letting the warm water soothe her there. She had a strange memory of Adrian washing her, but that clearly was a dream. The only reason he might have done so was that he was too fastidious to have her again, and after the initial event he hadn't attempted a repeat. So much for magnificent experiences. The steam was rising around her face, and she knew her hair would become even curlier, the bane of her existence, but there was nothing she could do about it. She lifted her arm out of the water. It was faintly pink, but she could still see the smattering of freckles across her shoulder. Had he really called them flakes of gold? Or was that another dream?

He was moving around in the room behind her, doing something, but she wasn't going to think about that. She was going to concentrate on the blissful feel of the warm water moving around her, soothing her, delighting her.

"You're humming." His voice came from somewhere behind her, sounding slightly muffled.

She immediately stopped. She didn't try to deny it – it was a source of embarrassment.

"It's an unfortunate habit of mine." Despite the lascivious delight of the water she managed to find some semblance of her stiff little voice. "I tend to hum when I'm enjoying something. When I'm eating something particularly delicious, when I'm taking a bath, when I'm walking in the countryside."

"I'll have to keep that in mind." His voice was no longer muffled. "You hum when you're particularly pleased with life."

He made it sound as if she was pleased with him, she thought crossly. "No. I hum when I'm enjoying particular physical sensations. I could hardly say I'm pleased with life right now."

"You could say so," he said. "But you won't. You're not honest enough."

"If you think being abducted and ruined is cause for celebration you greatly overestimate the effect of your charm," she said in a pinched voice.

"No one abducted you. You arrived here on your own, came with me without fighting, and you were just as involved in your ruination as I was."

"Hardly. I didn't know what I was doing."

“I’m aware of that. You