“You can’t even believe I could want you,” he said in a half whisper. “That I am alive enough, healthy enough—” “No—” Without thinking, she caught at his arm. He stiffened. “James, that isn’t at all what I meant—” He curled his fingers around her hand where it lay on his arm. His own scorched her skin, as hot as fire. And then he turned her and drew her toward him. They stood face-to-face, chest to chest. His breath stirred her hair. She felt the fever rising off him like mist off the Thames; sensed the pounding of the blood through his skin; saw with a strange clarity the pulse at his throat,
...more
