He smiled half-heartedly. “Are you going to be all right? Genner will bring you a tray.”
“That would be nice. Yes, I’ll live. I’ve had burns like this before,” she said with a laugh. “The last time I sunbathed, in fact.”
He searched her dark green eyes, dark with pain and the pleasure of looking at him. “Are you in love with me?” he asked suddenly, curtly.
She flushed, but she didn’t look away, “I’m infatuated,” she replied tightly. “Remember? Or maybe I just want an ermine coat and a sports car.”
He only smiled. “No, honey, not you. But if you did, you could have them.” His eyes narrowed, the amusement left his face. He looked surprised. “You could have almost anything you wanted, with no strings attached. All you’d ever have to do is ask.”
“I’ve got everything I need,” she lied. Without him she’d be poor all her life.
“I haven’t,” he murmured, his eyes sweeping over her body like a tangible caress, dark and hungry and bold. His chest rose and fell heavily, his jaw tautened. He turned away with a quick, graceful movement.
“That business meeting I mentioned was on the level,” he said shortly, turning at the doorway. For the first time, she noticed the handsome gray suit he was wearing, the delicately patterned silk tie that complemented it. “There aren’t any other women, Nikki. Not now.”
His tone implied that there would be, and she managed a faint smile. “Don’t work too hard.”
“I’ll check on you before I turn in. Genner can find me if he has to.” His eyes narrowed. “Honey, we can get a doctor...”
“Really, I’ll be fine,” she promised, touched by the very evident concern.
He nodded curtly, even though he didn’t seem convinced.
She was half-asleep when she heard her bedroom door open. The pain had subsided enough to let her drift off, and she was lying on her side with the sheet around her hips, to keep it away from her back. The cream Cal had smoothed over the burn earlier had taken most of the sting out of it, but the sheet was still abrasive.
She felt rather than saw someone at her side, and she opened her eyes drowsily.
“Hello,” she murmured sleepily, with a lazy smile as she saw Cal standing there in a black robe.
“Hello, yourself,” he replied. His eyes drank their fill of her small, high breasts and the bare curve of her waist before she came fully awake and realized that she was uncovered.
Her fingers reached to jerk up the sheet, but he sat down beside her, stalling the instinctive movement.
“No,” he said quietly.
She met his searching gaze levelly, shy with him as she’d never been before, faintly embarrassed at the newness of letting him look at her.
“You have lovely breasts,” he said gently, studying them.
Her breath came quickly, unsteadily. The room was dim, and the sound of the sea nearby was like a lullaby. Her own eyes went to Cal’s broad chest, clearly visible where the robe had fallen away. It was short, only midthigh, and as robes went, it was of little value as a cover. Almost all of his massive hair-roughened chest was visible, abrasively masculine with its rippling bronzed muscles. His broad thighs were barely covered, either, as dark as his chest and sprinkled with curling hair. Nikki had never wanted anything as much as she wanted to touch him. She burned with the hunger, so intent on the sight of him that she missed the narrow appraisal of his eyes.
He reached out and caught her hands, bringing them slowly to the single loop in the belt around his waist.
She looked up, the question, the hesitation, in her wide, pale eyes as time seemed to hang between them.
“You may be disappointed, Little Miss Curiosity,” he said with a flicker of humor in his dark eyes. “I’m pushing forty.”
While he spoke, he guided her hands, helping them to unfasten the robe. With a single, smooth motion he let it fall to the floor and watched her stunned, absorbed face with patient amusement.
Her eyes fell helplessly to the full, blatant masculinity of his big, powerfully muscled body. She couldn’t help staring. It was the first time she’d ever seen a man without clothes at this range, and Cal would have been devastating to an experienced woman. There wasn’t an ounce of flab anywhere. He had the conditioned physique of a professional athlete, all darkly tanned flesh and rippling, sensuous muscle under a rugged carpet of curling hair as dark as