The respect was real and the warmth of her touch—that was real too.

He’d grown much fonder of her than was wise.

He shifted his weight from his bad leg, and she lifted her head, clearly startled to find him standing there. Her eyes narrowed and her thin lips compressed before one corner crooked up in a wry smile. She didn’t like to have been taken by surprise.

He could read her so easily, that first small shock followed by a leap of joy and then…wariness. But there was joy there, shuttered, but there. He held on to that.

Glancing down at his shirt, she flushed like a child caught stealing a biscuit from the cook. She neatly fixed the needle in the fabric and then set it behind her on the seat as she rose.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt. You can finish your work.” He looked pointedly at his shirt, and she moved her body ever so slightly to block his view.

“It can wait.” Closing the distance between them, she touched his chest as he bent his head to kiss her.

It was a gentle kiss, a bare brush of his lips on hers. It worked, as he’d hoped it would, to lure her closer. It had been that way from the very beginning between them. Him recognizing her need and using that knowledge ruthlessly against her. Her…well, maybe he wasn’t the only one laying traps. That was yet to be seen.

Her sweet lithe body swayed toward him. Her breasts pressed to his chest, and her slender arms wrapped around his neck. Steadying her with a hand to her hip, he slid the other beneath the weight of her hair. His thumb stroked the tender spot just below her ear, and he smiled as a shiver ran the length of her body.

She made a small noise in the back of her throat like she was swallowing back a cry, and he pulled her harder against him, deepening the kiss. He liked when she didn’t hold back, when she cried out his name, when she was so far gone she was beyond words. That shy hidden sound was like a whip at his back urging him on. He hadn’t returned to his room to ravish her, but there was time if she was willing.

The wariness in her eyes when she pulled away somewhat cooled his blood. “What are you doing here?”

“These are my rooms,” he said mildly.

“But you’re never here this time of day. Is anything wrong?”

“I wanted to see you.”

Most women he’d known would have preened. Lorel only narrowed her eyes.

He laughed. “What? You don’t believe me?”

“No. That’s not it. I—” She shook her head and gave him that tipped smile again. “Come with me. I was just about to eat. Let’s go out onto the balcony. It’s a beautiful day.”

Taking the tray from the table, she led him out toward the balcony where the sun was high. Light glinted off the water in the distance and made shadows in the hills. Lorel’s dark eyes warmed to amber in this light.

He leaned against the stone railing.