“I can wait. Barely.” He pushed her away and reached for the striped blanket she’d shed when she’d come to him. “You were very generous, and I hope that generosity will continue, but I won’t take you for granted. Right now I just want to take care of you. I find I like the idea of doing that very much.” He draped the blanket around her and fastened it over her breasts. “You didn’t finish your tea before. I’ll get you a fresh cup.” He got to his feet and walked over to the fireplace. “Just stay there. I’ll be with you in a minute.”

She watched him move naked around the room, remembering how every one of those sleek muscles had felt against her body. Graceful, tough, totally sensual. Lord, he was beautiful.

“Come on. Over to the fire again.” He was standing in front of her, lifting her to her feet. “Your tea is ready, madam.” He settled her on a large, cushy pillow before handing her the tea. Then he stretched out beside her with his own cup cradled in his hands. “Comfortable?”

“How could I help?” She frowned as she saw a large pot of water set to one side of the hearth. “What’s that? I didn’t notice you going to fetch it.”

“I think we might both be a little blurred right now. I thought after you had your tea, I’d heat water in case you wanted a bath. I’m still feeling guilty about depriving you of that steam bath.”

“Well, it had a good result down the line.”

“But not for you.”

“That’s not true.” She smiled as she raised her cup to her lips. “The result down the line was that I got exactly what I wanted, even though it wasn’t the steam bath.”

His eyes narrowed on her face. “It was a result I wasn’t expecting. What triggered it?”

“Is it bothering you that I was aggressive?” She met his gaze. “Is that why you set me up for a heart-to-heart discussion here by the fire?” She nodded. “Yes, that’s it. You’re always probing, trying to get to the truth of any puzzle. Did I make you uneasy?”

“You almost blew my mind,” he said flatly. Then he added, “And you’ll remember I didn’t allow you to be aggressive for more than a heartbeat or so before I was dragging you down on the floor and inside you. You could hardly call that being overaggressive.” He paused. “But you mentioned something about being intimidated by me, and I just wanted to make certain that it wasn’t something that I’d done that had forced you into a corner that—”

“Forced?” She was looking at him in bewilderment. “How could you force me?”