Cordinas Crown Jewel by Nora Roberts

on him. It meant nothing that she’d been angry and insulted and aroused all at once. Why if a man had behaved as she had, Camilla would have been first in line to condemn him as a brute and a barbarian.
    She’d made him kiss her, taking advantage of the situation and her physical advantage. That was unconscionable.
    She would have to apologize, and accept whatever payment he wanted for the offense. If that meant booting her out of the house on her ear, he had a perfect right to do so.
    She hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
    It might have been an embarrassingly female cliché, but she stationed herself in the kitchen, only an hour after dawn, and prepared to fix him a lovely breakfast to soften him up.
    Of course, she might have to adjust that to lunch, as he hadn’t come back into the house until after three in the morning. When she heard him come in, she hadn’t started breathing again for ten minutes, half expecting him to burst into her room, haul her out of bed and pitch her out of the window then and there.
    Not that he hadn’t responded to her advance, she reminded herself as shame continued to prick. He’d all but devoured her like a man starving. And if he hadn’t tried to drag her closer and caused himself pain …
    Well, she supposed it was best not to think of that.
    She had coffee brewed, juice chilling. She’d made batter and filling for apple-cinnamon crêpes from scratch and had a generous slice of country ham waiting. Now if the bear would only lumber out of his cave.
    Minutes later she heard the creak overhead that told her he was up and about. She had to wipe suddenly damp palms on her slacks before she turned to heat the griddle for his breakfast.
    *  *  *
    Because Del was also replaying the scene in his head, he was in the foulest of moods as he showered. Part of him was furious with the woman for putting him in such an impossible position. The other stood back in amazed disgust at his reaction.
    He’d had a beautiful woman come on to him in a staggeringly open and avid way. A gorgeous, sexy, unattached woman had grabbed him in the middle of the night and kissed his brains out.
    And he’d stormed out of the house in a huff.
    What was he, crazy?
    Careful, he corrected, annoyed with the internal debate. He had no problem with casual, healthy sex between consenting adults. But if there was a casual bone in Camilla’s body, he’d dance a jig naked in the middle of the road to town.
    The woman breathed complications.
    Besides the fact, he reminded himself as he dressed, he didn’t have time for fun and games. He had work to do. And when he did have time,
he
made the damn moves.
    Not that it hadn’t been … interesting to have that step taken out of his hands, momentarily.
    The woman had a mouth like a goddess, he thought. Hot, persuasive and potent.
    Better not to think about it. Much better to decide what the hell to do about it. As far as he could see, there were two choices. He could pretend it never happened, or he could fire her, drive her into town and dump her.
    The latter, it seemed to him, was the safest bet all around.
    He was halfway down the stairs when he smelled coffee. The siren’s scent of it weakened his resolve. He could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times in his adult life he’d woken to the aroma of fresh coffee.
    Then he caught the scent of grilling meat.
    Plays dirty, he noted. Just like a female.
    The minute he stepped into the kitchen, she turned, coffee mug in hand. Rather than hand it to him, she set it on the table. She didn’t smile, but her eyes met his and stayed level.
    “I want to apologize for my behavior.”
    The tone, judge-sober, threw him off stride. He figured the best move was to keep his mouth shut—and drink the coffee.
    “It was,” she continued, “completely indefensible. I took advantage of the situation and abused your hospitality. I couldn’t be more sorry for it. You’d be perfectly justified in throwing me out. I hope