That man, Kay thought wildly, needed a keeper.
She glanced around once, then twice, but there was no one else volunteering.
Chapter Twelve
“Mitch, I am not going to catch pneumonia. For heaven’s sake-”
Paying no attention whatsoever to her grumblings, Mitch finished wrapping Kay in his robe, grabbed her damp pants and socks and the rest of her clothes, and pointed a scolding finger at her. “Now you just stay there,” he ordered, before deserting the living room.
She muttered darkly to herself and took her freezing bare toes abruptly over to the fire, trying to turn up the cuffs of the navy robe she was swaddled in so she could at least see her hands. Honestly.
Not that Kay had any appreciation for bossy, overbearing men, but there was a cheeky smile on her face as she curled up on one of the huge pillows by the hearth. Mitch’s living room was a wonderful place to be on a frigid evening. The white stone fireplace took up one entire wall, and the massive fire he’d just built was roaring away. Who needed furniture? Dancing shadows played on the richly painted walls and cathedral ceiling, sparking endless imaginative fantasies…knights in their drafty old castles, deserted haunted houses, princesses locked in towers…
Mitch pushed open the door with his foot, carrying two steaming mugs. “Are you warm?”
“If you put a few stones on the floor, we could probably have a sauna in here,” Kay said mildly.
“If you think I’m ever going to listen to you again, you have another thought coming. ‘Just one more hour, Mitch,’ said the lady with the frozen toes. If I’d known…” Mitch handed her the mug of hot cider and bent over to place yet another log on the fire. Tongues of flame shot up the chimney, sending a fresh wave of shadows on the walls.
“You were pretty good, once you got your skating legs back,” Kay remarked, not wanting to go overboard lest the praise should go to his head. Mitch had been doing flips and jumps within two hours.
“It’ll take more than one time on the ice.” Mitch pushed several more pillows behind her back. “Used to be a forward on a neighborhood hockey team. At the time, I thought I was pretty hot stuff… Now you look comfortable.”
She shot him an amused grin. Finally, he was satisfied, now that she was languishing back on the pillows like a sultan. Or sultaness. Most sultanesses, on the other hand, weren’t buried in oversized navy blue robes, folded over three times at the cuffs.
He settled down next to her, wrapped a hand around her bare foot to ensure that it had reached the boiling point, and took a sip of the well-aged cider.
So did Kay. The warm, tangy liquid slid down her throat, adding to a feeling of incredibly lazy well-being. The fire’s heat had long since thawed her freezing limbs. Mitch was overdoing the caretaking role a bit, but she knew it would pass. A little overprotectiveness was natural to males of the species, particularly when they first claimed their own territory. And Kay felt very claimed, relishing the way Mitch’s dark eyes checked in every second or two, as if he needed to be certain she was still there.
She was definitely there. Whether he knew it or not, she was humming “All My Tomorrows” under her breath. For a moment, Mitch faced the fire, and though flame and shadow captured the character lines on his face, he was relaxed, a softer Mitch than the one she’d first met, and much more open.
He turned toward her, and the sudden vibrancy in his eyes made her catch her breath. “What are you thinking?” she asked softly.
“Of you.” He uncoiled and sprang up, his eyes never leaving hers, and then a slash of smile brought a mischievous look to his face. “Of something I’ve been wanting to do to you from the very moment I met you.”
“Which is?”
He shook his head. “You’ll have to wait a minute.”
With a lithe step, he disappeared from the room again. Kay took a last sip of cider and set down the mug, thinking wryly that he could bottle his restless energy. He hadn’t been able to sit still from the instant they’d woken up that morn-that afternoon.
Her mind flickered back to their time on the skating rink, to watching Mitch fumble and grope and get back on his feet after countless falls. Most people would have given up. Most people didn’t have Mitch’s determination, that intense drive of his to fight for what he wanted, to achieve what he expected of himself. After two hours he’d remastered those skills he’d once had, but she had no doubt he’d have pushed himself further if she hadn’t pleaded cold.
A brooding softness touched her features as she stared into the fire, until she heard the sound of Mitch’s step behind her again. Glancing up, she was startled to see him carrying a blanket and a soft felt knapsack, both of which he plopped down next to her. “You’re about to get Cochran’s super-duper lecture on garnets,” he told her. “Unfortunately, you have to strip to get it.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s necessary. Trust me.”
“I do trust you. I just-”
“There’s no need to look wary. I haven’t got that kind of energy left, as you should know. Besides, why on earth would you jump to that conclusion just because I want you to take off your clothes? You’re not cold?”
“I didn’t say I was cold. I’m sweltering. I just-”
“Well, then.” He tugged at the sash of the robe, and then snatched at the voluminous sleeves. His movements were most efficient. Soon, she had nothing on but a pair of silk panties. The rest of her clothes had not been all wet when they’d first come in; he’d just insisted they were. “Now,” he said firmly, and then didn’t do anything at all, just let his eyes drift over her firelit flesh. “Now,” he repeated vaguely.
“The super-duper lecture,” she prompted him.
“Ah.” He unfolded the blanket and installed her on it with the pillows behind her. She watched, half smiling, as he perched on one hip next to her and reached for the knapsack. “This is a very serious business,” he told her.
“I can see that.”
“You’re going to have to listen very hard. Exams for this class are extremely difficult.”
“Already, I can see that I’ve had professors who were easier to please. No one, for example, ever required that I attend class in this particular condition.”
Mitch grinned, dug into the knapsack and pulled out a handful of gems. Very gently, he dropped them on her bare flesh, and then brought out another handful. Pushing aside the sack, he stretched out next to her and slowly started to rearrange the jewels-on her neck, her bare breasts, the flat, warm satin of her stomach…
“All garnets…” He cleared his throat. “All garnets are of the species almandite, found only in rocks of metamorphic origin… Actually, they’re made up of silicate minerals.” One ruby-red stone toppled from the tip of her breast to the crevice beside it. His eyes stole up to hers as he replaced the gem. “This first part of the lecture is kind of boring. Want to skip it?”
“I am not,” Kay assured him breathlessly, “bored.”
Neither was Mitch. He’d dreamed of showering her skin with gems. The reality was far more potent than the fantasy. The fire itself would have been enough, the way the flames added a luster and softness to her bare flesh. The stones had their own fire, and with every breath she took, thousands of scarlet and gold and emerald streaks darted over her breasts and throat and stomach.
The effect was not what he’d expected. The sensual look of her cloaked in jewels-that he’d expected, even the lush, erotic surge that sent heat all through his body. But he had not realized that the richest of stones would fail to compete with the warmth and fire and allure of the woman herself.
“Mitch-”
“Yes,” he said swiftly. “Garnets come in all colors. Witness-” His knuckles grazed her breasts as he plucked up a single stone and lifted it to the fire for her to see. “The standard dark ruby-colored garnet. The birthstone type. Pretty enough?”