“Nothing new, I’m afraid. Except, of course, that she thinks Kimball is after me, too, and that, considering the amount of money he has, she might have slept with him. And that she’s worried. She’s afraid she’s just stuck here because she wasn’t a very nice person. She loved living—and she’s just watching everyone else live.”
“It would be nice if she could help,” Thor said. “But maybe she will. Somehow.” He wondered what kind of wisdom it was to insist that he keep watch over her by being here, in her room. So close. She stood just feet from him and, looking at her, he felt his lips burn...with the memory that she had kissed him. The slinky bathrobe covered her completely, yet draped around the curves of her form evocatively. Some women might have known just how they looked. He didn’t think it was any kind of a ploy with Clara. She had thrown the robe on to open the door. It was her own robe, silky, comfortable.
Clara Avery didn’t need any kind of a ploy. She stood so close he could breathe in the delicate tease of her perfume.
“Well,” he said, determined that his voice wouldn’t be too husky, “you should get some sleep. And I’ll doze a bit here and there. I’ll take the chair from the dressing table and just put it by the door.”
“You need to sleep, too,” she said. “More than I do. I have to say, though, that I will sleep better with you in here.”
“Good,” he told her.
They still both just stood there.
“Amelia gave you nothing else?” he said.
“She told me that I should sleep with you,” Clara said, smiling drily. “Actually, she said I should sleep with one of you. And I explained that I’d known Jackson and that he was married and she wasn’t sure that would have bothered her, and...anyway, the upshot is that you’re the one she really thinks I should be sleeping with. She would have.”
“Oh,” he said. “And what did you tell her?”
“I tried to tell her that I wouldn’t sleep with anyone just because of circumstances.”
“No. You wouldn’t, would you?”
She shook her head.
When she spoke again, her voice was low and soft and as silky as the robe.
“I would sleep with you,” she said. “Not because of circumstances. But because...”
The simple sound of her words sent something electric sweeping through him, arousing him ridiculously. They weren’t even touching.
He smiled, coming a step closer to her.
“You would sleep with me because...?”
“Because you are...you,” she said softly.
He loved the way she said it.
He took another step.
“Great answer,” he told her. “Very seductive.”
“It’s my answer. I mean, Amelia would have slept with you because of...being afraid, I believe, whereas...”
“What makes you think I would have slept with her?”
“I think she believes it’s easy to persuade any man.”
“Really? That doesn’t say much for men.”
Clara smiled. “I don’t think she meant it as an insult. Just biology. But I don’t believe that I... Well, I don’t think I’m quite as...persuasive.”
“Hm. And you were doing so well with your Southern charm, mollifying Kimball.”
Another step closer.
“I’m sure Amelia would have done better,” she said.
“Ah, well, I’m not so sure I would have slept with her. Honestly.”
“Oh?” she said softly, looking at him.
“No. Not even if we had met under normal circumstances, I mean. She’s not...”
“Your type?”
“I don’t think I have a type. She just isn’t someone I would have felt attracted to.”
“Ah.” She was quiet a minute. “And me?”
He smiled at that, taking the last step and taking her into his arms. “Do you really need me to answer that?”
“Actually, yes,” she told him.
He ran his knuckles down the soft side of her cheek, looking into the sky blue pools of her eyes.
“Am I attracted to you?” he whispered. “Actually, yes.”
She smiled. A huge smile. “So...does that mean that if I kiss you, you could help, as well?”
“Yeah, I could try that.” He paused, serious for a moment. “You know, we don’t have to sleep together, even kiss. I intend to protect you with my dying breath, whether we sleep together or not,” he told her.
His knees, he realized, were trembling. He hadn’t felt like this in forever.
He hadn’t let himself. Caring for people seemed to put them in danger.
But this, he couldn’t stop...
“Oh, my God,” she murmured, and she moved closer to him, so close that he could feel the heat and shape of her against him, causing the trembling in him to stop and a heated constriction to begin.
“I’m not good at this, am I?” she whispered.