“Fine. We’ll fight about it later. Where’s the menu? God, I could eat a cow.”

“I know the feeling.”

She ordered a steak au jus, rare, with mashed potatoes and gravy, broccoli, and half a loaf of wild rice bread. “This is going to be really expensive,” she warned him. “Are you sure I can’t…?”

“Quite sure. It’s such a relief to be with a woman who eats.” He sat beside her on the bed and sighed. “I’ll never understand the American custom of starvation. You’re the richest country in the world, and the women don’t eat.”

“Hey, not guilty. As you can see by the size of my ass.”

“Tempting. Let’s see how well you do with your dinner first.”

She glanced uncertainly at him and caught his low-lidded look. It seemed incredible, but the man was actually turned on at the thought of her nontoned ass. His words hadn’t been enough to convince her, but his thickening brogue was telling.

It was all very strange. Not to mention marvelous. And oh-so-slightly alarming.

Chapter 5

She did very well. Polished it all off and then ordered ice cream. He watched in pure delight. And thanked God again he was nowhere near his Change.

Keeping his hands—and mouth!—to himself was beginning to be a sore task. It hadn’t been a problem when she’d been so miserably ill, but she was obviously feeling better…he could hardly talk to her; his tongue felt thick in his mouth. She was just so—just so adorable—alive and sexy and fragrant. When he’d tugged on one of her glossy curls, it had taken nearly everything he had to keep from plunging both hands in her hair and taking her mouth.

He’d been wild with worry for her and hadn’t left her side for a moment since she threw up her lunch on his shoes. He was going to see that chef ’s head on a pike—or his name on a termination slip—before the sun set again.

“That’s better,” she sighed, patting her mouth with a napkin. It was a lovely mouth; wide-lipped and generous. When she smiled, her upper lip formed a sorceress’s bow. He had to concentrate very hard on not sucking that lip into his mouth. “Now about my imminent departure. Not that you haven’t been a perfect gentleman. Because you have. Yes, indeedy! But, bottom line, I haven’t known you for twenty hours.” She stood and began pacing. “So I’m definitely not sleeping in your hotel room. Anymore, I mean.”

“S’dona sleep,” he teased, catching her hand and pulling her toward him. Her dark gaze caught him, held him. A line appeared between her eyebrows as she frowned. He kissed the line.

“Now listen here, Grabby McGee…ah!”