That, he suspected, would be the harder war to win.
One he would eventually lose.
Chapter Six
She’d made twogross miscalculations.
One, that the storm had passed. Certainly, it had. But another had immediately started to brew in its place. And two, that she was safe. She was most decidedlynot. But the danger that gathered here was a danger of another kind. Both the storm and danger had one name.
Giles Bishop.
Which was why she had to reaffirm some things. She’d half expected the man to hunt her down, but he hadn’t. Never mind.
She didn’t bother to knock.
She breezed into his room, adjacent to hers. And stopped short. Steam rose from where he lounged in a bathtub. Steam wasn’t the only thing that rose. The man did, too, startled, leaping to attention.
“Alyssia?”
Lawd.
Her gaze tracked down the wide expanse of his chest, the muscles that contracted there before stopping at his manly bits. It didn’t lower from there, couldn’t lower, really, although she did register that he also had strong thighs while she was gaping at histhat-section.
Hands covered his unmentionables.
Her gaze slowly retraced their journey back up his chest. Only then did she notice two nasty scars on his torso and several lighter ones on his arms. Their eyes locked.
One of his brows arched. “Had your fill?”
Heat burst across her cheeks. “You could have locked the door!”
“You could have knocked,” he countered smoothly, water sliding over his shoulders as he slowly sank back into the tub. “Was there something urgent you wished to discuss or did you come for the purpose of admiring your husband’s body?”
“Admiring? I most certainly was not!”
“That’s a shame, really. I was hoping you might.”
“And why would I do that when what we have between us is a marriage of convenience only?” Alyssia countered.
“That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy pretty sights.”
Arrogant man, calling himself a pretty sight. She refused to dignify such an outlandish statement with a response. Did he think to scandalize her? Did he believe she’d run off in simpering fashion because she’d laid eyes on the figure of a man?
What nonsense.
She strode over to his tub, lips hitching up when his eyes widened even though it was only for a mere second. She leaned in, unapologetic, and cast a deliberate glance into the water. A hand obstructed her view. Still a rather breathtaking view.
“Alyssia,” he snarled.
She chuckled. “What? Can tease but cannot be teased?” She retracted her gaze, hoping he couldn’t hear the sound of her heart threatening to jump right into that tub with him. “We have matters to discuss.”
“Then I’ll join you afterward.”
“I don’t know,” Alyssia said, her gaze ran over his chest. “It seems the perfect spot to ask about your plans.”
His face went blank for a moment before his eyes narrowed. “You mean our plans?”
She shrugged. “Whatever you wish to call them.”
