Hidden Riches

more, and was always disappointed if more wasn’t available. But it was so hard to settle, she thought, and secured the belt. So Goddamn hard to settle.
    She opened the door, letting out a flow of steam and scent. He was standing at the window, looking out at the rain. The room-service cart was beside him, set for two. He’d already poured himself a cup of coffee from the pot and was lifting the cup to his lips as he turned to her.
    It was like a fist in the solar plexus, watching her come into the room. The bath had brought color back to her cheeks, yet her skin had that soft, fragile glow brought on by exhaustion. The hair she’d pinned carelessly up was damp from the steam. And quite suddenly, the air smelled only of her.
    He’d dimmed the lights, not for romance but because he’d thought the softer light would comfort her. In it she looked fragile and lovely, like a flower under glass.
    He forced himself to bring the cup the rest of the way to his lips and drank deeply. “Dinner’s here,” he said as he set the cup aside. “You’d better eat while it’s hot.”
    His eyes weren’t blank now, she noted. Nor were they disinterested. It was more than desire she saw in them, more basic, more needy than lust. It was hunger for woman. For her.
    “You’re trying to make things easier for me.” Why hadn’t she realized that before? she wondered.
    “I got you some fuel, that’s all.” He started to pull out a chair, but she was crossing to him. Her arms went around him, her body pressed close, she buried her face against his neck. She made it impossible for him not to offer whatever he had in comfort. He held her like that, his hands stroking her back, and watched the rain stream down the window.
    “I was scared,” she murmured.
    “You don’t need to be.” His grip on her tightened fractionally, then relaxed again. “Nothing’s going to happen to you.”
    “I was scared of more than that. I was scared that you wouldn’t be here to hold me like this when I needed you to. Or that if you were, it would be because it was a part of the job you couldn’t graciously avoid.”
    “You’re being stupid. I don’t worry about doing anything graciously.”
    She laughed a little, surprised that she could. “I know. I know that. But you see, I got in your way.” She tilted her head back so that she could watch his face, so that shecould see what she needed to see there. “Pushing you to feel things you can’t afford to feel if you’re going to do what you have to do. Wanting you to have feelings for me you don’t want to have.”
    “I don’t know what I feel for you.”
    “I know that, too.” She lifted a hand to his cheek, smoothing away the tension. “Right now you want me, so we’ll make that enough.” She touched her lips to his, gently, gently deepening the kiss. “Make love with me.”
    Need coiled in his gut. “That isn’t what you need now.”
    “Yes, it is.” She drew him toward the bed. “Yes, it is.”
     
    Later, she curled against him, steeped and sleepy. He’d been so gentle, she thought. He’d been so patient. And, she knew, he’d been absorbed. It hadn’t been only she who had forgotten, for that one stretch of time, why they were there. He’d given everything she’d asked for, and had taken everything she’d needed to offer. Now she listened to the rain and let her consciousness hang suspended just above sleep.
    “The food might be cold,” Jed said. “But you still need to eat. You looked ready to keel over when we walked in here.”
    “I’m feeling better.” She smiled when he linked his hand with hers. He was doing things like that more often, she thought. She wondered if he realized it. “Tell me what we do next.”
    “We go to New York in the morning.”
    “You said ‘we.’ ” She cuddled closer. “You’re making progress, Skimmerhorn.”
    “Just saving myself an argument.”
    “Uh-uh. You like having me around. You might as well admit it.”
    “I like having you in bed. Most other times you’re a pain in the neck.”
    “That may be, but you still like it.” Dora pushed herself up, ran a hand through her tangled hair. “You did make me feel better.”
    He skimmed a fingertip over her nipple. “My pleasure.”
    She laughed and shook back her hair. “Not just that—though it was exceptional.” Smiling gently, she rubbed her knuckles over his chin. “I like having you around, too.”
    He caught her wrist, held it. “Maybe you