He rose. Nesta stood near the door, barely illuminated by the dim fire. The faint glow made little golden lines and lights on her shadowed form. She still wore the gown from the garden. Perhaps she had not been sleeping either.

They looked at each other, and the twenty paces separating them instantly filled with the sensuality that her arrival promised. The air grew thick with it, and each breath he took made his desire sharpen.

She did not move for a long while, and then she turned her head to look around, as if she was surprised to find herself in this strange place.

He waited for her to decide if she had made a mistake in coming. Not that it would make a difference now.

She strolled to the fire, and the light made her beauty more distinct with each step. “The chamber appeared empty when I came in.”

“I was lying over here.”

From her new position, she could see the pallet at his feet. “You prefer the floor to a feather bed?”

“Sometimes. I can see the sky out the window from the pallet.”

“Why not move the bed so that you can see the sky in comfort?”

Because when I was a youth, it was not a window but a hole in a thatched roof that I looked through, and it was not a feather bed, but a pallet on a dirt floor that I lay on. “That puts one too high. I prefer to look up to the sky, not over to it.”

She cocked her head, as if thinking about that. Her gaze took in his nakedness, slowly and completely.

“You are undressed. I disturbed your sleep.”

“I was not sleeping.”

She turned to pace slowly in front of the fire while she examined its dying light. “You are magnificent, standing there with the moonlight flowing over your face and chest, and your dark eyes lit with tiny fires. I have told myself that it is your beauty that makes me weak with you, so I must look away now, since there are things we must agree upon if I am to stay much longer.”

“You have terms?”

“I do not negotiate a surrender, Marcus, only a brief truce. That is the first thing that must be understood.”

“I told you in the garden that I understood that.”

“I know what you said, but I think that you really believe it will be otherwise.”

Maybe he did. Eventually. Ultimately. In the least he counted on her not minding as much when he defeated her. “I do not believe that.”

“I wonder.” She kept her gaze to the fire even though her sight appeared inward. “I also do not want any love talk. If we do this, it is for our simple pleasure. If we pretend it is more than that, being true to both our duties and each other will become impos—difficult and painful.”