he didn’t think he wanted to hear anything she might have to say.
And nothing he could say apparently made the slightest difference to her.
He had to show her. Had to prove that he had changed. Had to convince her by his actions.
But first he needed a cold shower.
The door creaking open startled him.
It wouldn’t have awakened him had he been asleep. Of course he wasn’t. He’d barely slept, it seemed, since Carin had come to stay. At first he’d deliberately stayed awake to hear her if she needed him to help her, to carry her.
But she didn’t need him now. Not like that.
But he stayed awake anyway. Couldn’t help it. It was too easy to lie in bed and remember lying there with her. Too easy to think about her creamy smooth flesh because he’d been touching it lately.
And all the cold showers in the world didn’t help if the minute you had one, you started once more thinking about the woman who had made you need the shower. So Nathan was awake and restless when the door creaked open and soft limping footsteps came down the hallway.
He stopped breathing. But his heart still thundered so loudly that he wondered if she could hear it.
Was she coming to him?
That had been one of the cold-shower fantasies—that one night she would find her way from her bed to his. Now, hearing her footsteps, Nathan wanted to sit up, to reach out to her. His aroused body ached for her.
The footsteps slowed, then paused at the archway into the living room. He swallowed. He could see her silhouetted in the moonlight as she looked toward him.
Should he move? Shouldn’t he?
Still she stood there, one hand braced on the doorjamb. Nathan took a slow, careful even breath.
Come to me. As she’d come to him all those years ago.
He shifted, made a sound, wanted her to know he was awake.
She jerked and stepped back from the doorway.
“Carin?” He couldn’t not speak. His voice was ragged. “You okay? You, um, warm enough?”
On that long-ago day she’d been cold after the storm and he’d warmed her. God, he wanted to warm her again, wanted to take her into his arms and—
“I’m fine,” she said quickly, her voice sounding raspy. “I…I was just on my way to the bathroom. Sort of using the wall for balance. Sorry if I bothered you.” And she hobbled quickly away.
He stayed where he was, cursed his foolishness. Maybe he shouldn’t have said anything, maybe she would have come closer, maybe…
The water ran in the bathroom, then the door opened and she limped back, quickly this time, and went straight past the archway to the living room. She didn’t pause or look his way.
The door to her room shut with a decided click.
Nathan let out a harsh breath. He flung himself over onto his side. Hell! He tried to put her out of his mind; he tried to forget.
He needed another cold shower, but he’d be damned if he would advertise his distress. He glanced at his watch, sighed, shifted against the sheets, twisted, turned and finally hauled himself up off the sofa.
His body was taut with arousal. He stared toward Carin’s room, willing her to open her door again, willing her to stand there in her shift in the moonlight, willing her to want him the way he wanted her.
But the door stayed shut.
And finally there was no help for it. Nathan eased open the sliding door, grabbed a towel off the railing and went swiftly down the steps, headed toward the beach.
The cool night air did little to assuage his hunger, the colder ocean water into which he flung himself helped only a bit.
He got through the night. But first thing in the morning he took himself off early to spend the morning working on a new project, a sort of architectural history of the island’s houses. It was a far cry from the work he usually did, but he was enjoying it—or he would have been if he hadn’t wanted to enjoy something else—making love to Carin!—more.
If he were smart he would stay away all day, but as lunchtime approached he picked up some conch fritters from Perry at the fish shop and headed home. With a salad and a cold beer, they’d be an unexpected treat. He knew Carin liked them as much as he did and he was looking forward to seeing her grin of delight.
“Hey,” he called as he bounded in the door. “Guess what I’ve