Winter's Warrior (The Wicked Winters #13) - Scarlett Scott Page 0,2
burst forth, uncontrollable and overwhelming.
The devil of it was, without his memory, there was nothing he could do with the feelings churning inside him. He could already be wed to another. He could be anyone. Hell, he still did not know what he looked like. For all he knew, he was bracket-faced, and a goddess like Caro would never look twice at him were she not nursing him back to health.
“I am not accustomed to you being able to move about with such freedom,” she said, averting her gaze as she placed the tray upon a table. “I am well pleased to see you out of bed.”
Greedily, he watched her every movement, admiring the way her gown clung to her bosom, the swell of her hips, the creaminess of her skin. He should probably return to the bed and cover himself, but he did not want to move, lest she flee.
Over the last few days, as he had become increasingly coherent, his mind clearing and his body regaining strength, she had been more skittish than usual. On edge, it seemed to him, as if there were some burden weighing upon her.
“Have you told your siblings I am here?” he asked her, wondering if the secrecy surrounding his presence was what had her so prickly or if it was merely him.
Over the course of the time she had spent tending to him, she had revealed they were staying in her family’s gaming hell, The Sinner’s Palace. Although her family’s guards had helped her to bring him here to her rooms, they were loyal to her and had kept her secret. Her very protective siblings would not have been pleased to know their sister had brought a stranger into their midst. One she was hiding in her private room, in her bed. He still had not discovered where she was sleeping.
Now that he was well enough to hoist himself out of bed, he had to address the question. It was deuced unfair for Caro to be deprived of her own chamber because of him, a stranger she had rescued from death. He owed her a debt of tremendous magnitude.
“I will tell them soon,” she said, moving so that her back was to him as she fussed with the items on the tray. “I was waiting until you were well enough. I’ll not have an injured man forced to endure an inquisition.”
She spoke well for a woman who lived in a gaming hell.
Or at least, he thought she did. There were some things which seemed to make sense in his foggy mind. The notion of this soft-spoken, gentle, intelligent woman in the East End was not one of them.
“You will tell them today,” he said. “I’ll not keep you from your rooms any longer. I am well enough to go.”
But as he said the words, a wave of dizziness hit. He stumbled to the side. Christ, mayhap he had done too much, too soon. Or perhaps it was the question of where he would go when he left his temporary lodgings here. He was no one, with no money, no memories, no name.
Caro was at his side in an instant, her arms around his waist, guiding him back to the bed. “You still need time to heal.”
Her sweet scent teased his senses. Floral, he thought. Lavender? Rose? He had not asked, and his muddled mind could not be sure he even knew the distinction between the two, though the words appeared readily enough.
He forgot he was naked as a babe as she helped him to settle on the mattress.
Until he glanced down at her and realized she was carefully looking in the other direction, the flush still kissing her cheeks. “Thank you,” he said, aware of the manner in which his large form must tax her smaller frame.
But she was resilient, Caro, and capable, too.
With a stern air, she flipped the bedclothes over his lap. “You are not strong enough to be wandering, but next time I will be certain to announce myself before entering, and you, sir, will be certain to be clothed.”
It was a reprimand, he knew, but coming from Caro, it possessed little bite. He wondered what sort of man he was. Honorable or a rogue? A gentleman or a scoundrel? Was he kind and considerate? What if he had a woman at home? He had never considered that possibility before.
His body certainly had a mind of its own, and it wanted the woman before him.