“The nasty-looking one in your boot. I like this one better.”

He made a shallow cut, and a curling strip of wood fell to the table.

“Did your father give it to you?” She spoke slowly, sleepily, and it made him hard.

He opened his fist and stared at the pearl handle, remembering. “No, my lady.”

She raised her head a little at that. “I thought I was to call you Harry and you could call me George?”

“I never said that.”

“That isn’t fair.” She was frowning.

“Life seldom is, my lady.” He shrugged his shoulders, trying to relieve the tightness. ’Course, the tightness was mostly in his balls, not his shoulders. And shrugging sure as hell wouldn’t help that.

She stared at him a minute longer, and then turned to look into the fire.

He felt the moment her eyes left him.

She took a breath. “Do you recall the fairy tale I told you, the one about the enchanted leopard that was really a man?”

“Aye.”

“Did I mention that he wore a golden chain around his neck?”

“Yes, my lady.”

“And on the chain there was a tiny emerald crown? Did I say that?” She’d turned back to him again.

He frowned at the cherrywood. “I don’t remember.”

“Sometimes I forget the details.” She yawned. “Well, he was really a prince, and on his chain there was a tiny crown with an emerald in it, the exact green color of the Leopard Prince’s eyes—”

“That wasn’t in your story before, my lady,” he cut in. “The color of his eyes.”

“I did just tell you that sometimes I forget the details.” She blinked at him innocently.

“Huh.” Harry started carving again.

“Anyway, the young king had sent the Leopard Prince to get the Golden Horse from the evil ogre. You do remember that part, don’t you?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “So the Leopard Prince changed into a man, and he held the emerald crown on his golden chain . . .”

Harry looked up as she trailed off.

Lady Georgina was staring into the fire and tapping a finger against her lips. “Do you suppose that was the only thing he was wearing?”

Oh, God, she was going to kill him. His cock, which had started subsiding, leaped up again.

“I mean, if he was a leopard before, he couldn’t very well have been wearing clothes, could he? And then when he changed into a man, well, I think he’d have to be nude, don’t you?”

“No doubt.” Harry shifted on his chair, glad the table hid his lap.

“Mmm.” Lady Georgina pondered a moment more, and then shook her head. “So he was standing there, evidently in the nude, grasping the crown, and he said, ‘I wish for an impenetrable suit of armor and the strongest sword in the world.’And what do you suppose happened?”

“He got the armor and sword.”