Thankfully Bethany finished her bath in short order.
Keeping his back turned, Robert pushed aside thoughts of her enticing body and what every splash and gasp that sounded behind him signified. He forced himself, instead, to think of other things. Like whether or not the men who had attacked Bethany and her brother were part of the marauders who had been wreaking havoc upon his lands.
For months now he had traveled from one estate to another, attempting to capture them, always arriving a day or a sennight too late. There had been no deaths thus far. But crops and huts had been burned. Cattle had been stolen or slain.
Who were the bastards responsible? Why did they target him and his people?
Robert and his men had just returned from parleying with his nearest neighbors. None had suffered the slaughtered cattle, burned huts or terrorized serfs that he had. All were on good terms with him and had offered to aid him by sending out patrols to ensure the malefactors did not access his lands by crossing their own.
’Twas not enough, though. He wanted to capture the blackguards and have done with it.
Robert’s anger and the glacial temperature of the water that buffeted his body at last succeeded in dampening his ardor.
Until Bethany spoke behind him.
“Here’s the soap.”
Staring at the opposite bank as though it held the answers to all of life’s mysteries, he reached behind him and felt the block of soap drop into his hand.
Hard like a stone with streaks of varying hues of green crisscrossing it like veins in marble, it too puzzled him.
Vigorous splashing heralded her exit.
“Would you mind if I used your tunic to dry off?” she asked.
He looked without thinking and nearly lost his hold on the soap. All of his heedful concentration had been for naught. His overly chilled body defied the laws of nature and instantly turned hot and hard.
If he had thought Bethany pretty before, she was no less than stunningly beautiful now. Moonlight bathed her pale clean skin, so much more exposed now that the blood and dirt had been washed away, bestowing silvery highlights upon it and accentuating shadows and hollows that begged to be explored. Standing there, shivering, her knees clenched together to preserve warmth, her arms crossed tightly beneath her breasts, plumping them up for his ravenous inspection, her hair straggling down over one shoulder…
She looked utterly irresistible.
“The tunic?” she prodded, her teeth chattering audibly.
He blinked. “Of course. You are welcome to it. There is another in my pouch that you may don for warmth.”
“Thank you. Now turn back around and don’t look until I tell you to. I don’t want you to see me naked.”
Doing as she bid him, he bit back a groan.
Mayhap he should send her back to camp alone after all. That might be the only way he could walk out of the water without embarrassing them both.
Chapter Six
Robert took so long to bathe that Beth began to wonder if he weren’t part seal. Seated on a cold stone, she didn’t know how he could stand the icy temperatures. Even covered in his dark tunic—which fell to the knees on him but reached her feet—she still shook like a leaf in high winds.
“You’re going to get hypothermia if you don’t come out of there soon,” she cautioned, squeezing water out of the braies and hose he had tossed onto the bank.
Like him, she had failed in her resolve not to peek. And, wow, he had a magnificent body. Granted, she could only see him from the waist up. But his face and torso alone were enough to heat the blood in her veins. Broad shoulders that looked strong enough to carry any burden. Well-developed pecs. Rippling, washboard abs. Biceps that bulged with muscle.
Put those together with his handsome face, which now glistened with moisture in the flashlight’s beam, and he was absolutely beautiful.
“You’re turning blue,” she called, striving to sound normal.
“I shall come out now,” he announced.
More reluctant than she cared to admit, Beth turned her back.
Water splashed and clothing rustled as he emerged from the river and rubbed himself dry.
Well, at least I’m feeling warmer, she thought, then cursed her vivid imagination as her mind conjured tantalizing images to match every sound that reached her ears.
His hand abruptly appeared before her. “Shall we go?”
Startled, she glanced up.
He had hidden all of that lovely muscle beneath the fresh shirt and braies she had seen in his pouch, along with his boots. Both his pack and hers hung from one shoulder. His armor and their damp clothes dangled over his arm.
“Beth?” he prodded.
“Yeah?”
“Shall we go?” he repeated.
“Oh. Aye.” Placing her hand in his chilly one, she stood, took two steps and tripped on the hem of his tunic.