“Come in!”
The door opened and revealed Aaron. She resisted the urge to look at the bureau, as though to check that the letter was not visible. She did not look, but nor did she move away from it. Instead, she firmed her jaw and lifted her chin, trying to look dignified.
I will not face him looking afraid, showing weakness.
Aaron entered the room, and Catherine felt the familiar thrill that accompanied him. It shimmered through her from somewhere deep within, ending at her fingers and her toes. Her scalp shivered as though he were running his fingers through her hair. She clasped her hands together in front of her stomach.
“I feel that a proper apology is owed,” Aaron began awkwardly. “When we were...interruptedby McKay, I felt... irritated, and I think you took the brunt of that.”
She thinned her lips. “I thank you for your apology. I did, and it was not just.”
He bowed his head in acknowledgement, and when he looked up again, his eyes were sharp on her face. Catherine felt that she would liked to have stood in the light of his eyes forever. To be studied, stared at, scrutinized. Did he study her face or her body? Did he imagine her without her clothes? The notion shocked her but also excited her.
Perhaps he does not because he has already studied my naked body. Perhaps he looked when he was not supposed to. Or when he was beneath the water.
“I was about to say that you look pale. But suddenly you are flushed,” Aaron said, stepping closer, “are you feeling quite well?”
“I am in no need ofmedicine,” Catherine interjected sharply.
She suddenly wondered if this visit was to administer another dose of his cure-all. Of poppy juice. She wanted to trust him. She wanted to let go of the crippling doubt and paranoia. But it clung to her back like a spider.
“I did not say that you were. Merely commenting on your sudden color,” he defended.
“I was remembering the pool in the woods,” she replied, honestly.
She was rewarded with a slight flush to Aaron’s cheeks. He looked beyond her to the window.
“Perhaps it is a touch too warm in here,” he muttered.
He strode past her, passing close enough that when she breathed in, she could almosttastehim. Taste his cologne, his soap, the slight bitterness of tobacco and coffee. It all combined into a distinctly rough, masculine aroma that had uniquely become him. She suddenly yearned to nestle her face against his naked chest. To breathe him in as her lips moved soundlessly against his taut skin…
He opened the window and stood there for a moment, breathing deeply.
“PerhapsIshould be the one asking if you are well?” she said without turning around.
“The air is somewhat stuffy in here.”
“Yes.”
“I have asked McKay to bring the breakfast things here. We were supposed to be breaking our fast together, were we not?”
Catherine’s appetite had vanished with the stomach cramps, but she felt a flash of hope at the offer. She turned at once, smiling.
“That is most welcome. I had been looking forward to sharing breakfast with you. Perhaps we can steer our conversation away from subjects likely to cause... friction?”
She meant it wholeheartedly, but the comment earned a pointed look from Aaron.
“Indeed. And what might those subjects be?”
The one subject Catherine most wanted to discuss with Aaron. Their childhood past. But that was the one subject she could not discuss with him, the one subject which seemed to cause thewall between them to be raised higher. To cause the frost that sometimes seemed to thaw from Aaron to become glacial ice.
“Anything that you do not wish to be discussed?” Catherine offered diplomatically.
“That could cover many things.”
“Tell me, and I will do my best to avoid them.”
Aaron opened his mouth, then took a breath instead of speaking. He stepped closer, looking down at Catherine before taking her hands in his own.
