Touch Me

He smiled. "Want to sleep, do you?"

She eyed her maid, who snored softly. "She looks much more comfortable than I feel."

"First you need to eat some beef and biscuits."

She looked at the salted beef in Drake's hand and shook her head. "I can't eat anything."

"Your maid did."

"She wasn't as sick as I am."

"You want to feel better, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Then eat." He offered her the beef.

She ate. It tasted surprisingly palatable. Not good, but not terrible either. It's saltiness made her thirsty, however. Drake must have read her mind because he offered her the spiced ginger tea.

She took a couple sips and then he pulled the tea from her. "You need to eat some biscuit, too."

"I know I said I didn't need a nursemaid, but you make a surprisingly good one."

He didn't smile. He just met her eyes and what she saw in his made her take a hasty bite of the biscuit.

"I don't feel like a nursemaid when I'm with you, Thea."

"You don't?" Her voice squeaked.

"No."

"What…" She cleared her throat. The biscuit was too dry. "What do you feel like?"

His mouth came to within a breath of hers. "A man."

"May I have some more tea, please?"

He laughed and moved back. "Yes you may, little coward."

She would have argued, but for once she could not deny his words. He was right. She was a coward. The look in his eyes and the way it affected her terrified her. She took several more sips of the tea.

"This is really quite good. Whose recipe is it?"

He stood and began to pull her wrapper from her. She was too tired to protest the liberty.

"My mother's."

"She must be a very wise woman."

"About most things, yes."

"What isn't she wise about?"

"My father."

Thea yawned and did not resist when Drake tipped her sideways so that her head rested on the pillow and then lifted her feet onto the bed. "That's interesting. My mother wasn't wise about my father either. I guess we have something in common."

Drake drew the light coverlet to her chin. "We have more than that in common."