God help him! He didn’t even want to think about it. She could bring him to his knees.
Perhaps she already had. What he felt for her was like nothing he’d ever felt for a woman before.
Did he love her? He didn’t know if he was capable of that kind of emotion. But her belief in him made him want to be the kind of man who could stay by the hearth, and maybe for now that was enough.
He closed the door, putting temptation firmly behind him. Barely a moment passed, however, before he heard a soft knock. Steeling himself, he opened the door. As he’d expected, Cate stood there in her dressing robe.
“You’re up late,” she said.
“I could say the same for you.”
“I was waiting for you.”
His mouth quirked. “So I gathered. But you shouldn’t be here.”
“I know,” she said with a cheeky smile, flouncing in anyway. “But it’s been so busy the past couple of days, I haven’t had a chance to talk with you alone, and I wanted to give you something.”
Suddenly, he noticed the way she was holding her robe tightly in front of her chest as if she were hiding something. Something like a naked body? His eyes must have flared.
She rolled her eyes, guessing his train of thought, and laughed. “I’m afraid I’m wearing a very thick, very old chemise under here, given what happened to the last one.”
He grinned. “I’ll buy you a dozen chemises.”
She quirked a brow. “The more to rip apart?”
“How did you guess?”
She laughed and opened her gown. “Sorry to disappoint you, but that isn’t what I brought you.” Taking out the linen bundle that had been tucked in front of her, she handed it to him. “It’s this—for Christmas,” she explained.
“What is it?”
“Why don’t you open it and see?”
After untying the strand of silk ribbon she’d wrapped around the bundle, he carefully unfolded the linen, revealing a linen tunic embroidered with scrollwork in gold and scarlet thread around the neck and—when he held it up—sleeves. Inspecting the embroidery closer, he realized the design wasn’t scrolls as he originally thought. “They’re arrows,” he said, stunned.
She blushed, nodding. “It’s to wear under your armor.”
It was perfect—he couldn’t believe how perfect. He was touched. The stitches were exquisite. He frowned. “You did this?”
His voice must have revealed his surprise.
“Idoknow how to sew.”
He lifted a brow. They both knew she found needlework torturous.
“Well, I do.” She wrinkled her nose. “Very well, Ete did most of it. But I did come up with the design. And I did this part right here.” She pointed to the back of the collar, where the stitches were quite a bit more uneven.
He grinned and pulled her up in his arms. “It’s perfect. Thank you.”
He kissed her. Softly at first, and then, as always seemed to happen, with far more passion than he’d intended. When he drew back, they were both breathing hard. It took her eyes a moment to focus. His bed loomed too damned close. It would be so easy to push her back…
“I have something else for you as well,” she said.
“Hiding other treasures under that gown, Caty?”
She laughed. “You never know. But this one is under the bed.” When he drew back, she explained. “John helped me carry it up here earlier.”
He bent down and dragged out another bundle, this one sturdy, about six feet long, six inches in diameter, and wrapped not in linen, but in hides of leather. “What do you have in here, a caber?”
