“Actually, yes.” Now her gaze traveled down, slowly, over the damp chest where her locket glittered, the flat belly, the narrow hips he swagged in the towel. “But right at the moment, I’m not thinking tidy.”

“Is that so?” One look from her did more to warm his blood than an ocean of hot water. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking the very best thing to do with a man who has just come in from a storm is tuck him into bed. Come with me.”

He let her take his hand and draw him through to the bedroom. “Are we going to play doctor? Because I think I could get really sick if it was worth my while.”

She chuckled, then tossed back the quilt. “In.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Before he could twitch off the towel, she did it for him. But when he grabbed for her, she evaded, then gave him a nudge onto the bed.

“You may know,” she began and, picking up matches, walked around the room lighting candles, “that in lore and legend witches often served as healers.”

Candlelight swayed, and it shimmered. “I’m starting to feel really healthy.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.”

“I’m counting on it.”

She turned to him. “Do you know what I’ve never done for anyone?”

“No, but I’m riveted.”

She slowly lifted the hem of her sweater. She remembered the day she’d stood, poised like this, on the sunny back of his inlet.

“I want you to watch me.” Inch by inch, she peeled the sweater up her body. “And want me.”

If he’d been struck blind, he would have seen her, skin glowing in delicate light.

She slipped out of her shoes in a kind of graceful dance. Her simple white bra cut low and sweet over the subtle curve of her breasts. She lifted her hand to the center clasp, watched his eyes follow the move, then she deliberately left it fastened and trailed her fingertips down her midriff to the hook of her slacks.

His pulse began to thrum as the fabric slithered over her hips, down her legs. When it pooled at her feet, she stepped out with that same fluid ease.

“Why don’t you let me do the rest?”

Her lips curved and she stepped closer, but not close enough. She’d never set out to seduce a man before, and wasn’t ready to surrender the power.

She could imagine his hands on her as she ran her own up her body, as his breath rushed out of his lungs.

With that faint and knowing smile on her face, she flicked open her bra, let it slide away. Her breasts already felt full, and tender. She peeled the panties over her hips, stepped free of them. She was already wet.