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She poured herself a cup of coffee and sat for a minute, deciding what to do for the forty-five minutes until he returned. She finally decided on a bath in the big soaking tub since that would take absolutely no energy and would be more comfortable when Jude wasn’t in the room.

After she filled the tub and added the fancy bath oil provided with the room, she got in to soak and shave, then relaxed with her coffee. She’d brought her book into the bathroom but didn’t pick it up. Mostly she lay back and mentally rehashed the past few days.

Things were going well overall. Jude had been grumpy yesterday morning, but he’d been hiding a headache. As soon as he took his medication and slept on the flight, his mood had improved.

She’d made a big fool of herself in the train station, getting overwhelmed and upset by the press of the crowd and then not having the basic fortitude to push her way through the wave of bodies. Jude had been forced to rescue her, and he hadn’t even acted frustrated or impatient about it. He’d taken the blame on himself, although the fault was entirely hers. She still got a little shiver when she recalled the deep authority of his tone when he’d demanded those soccer players get out of the way so his wife could get through.

She’d never had anyone take care of her like that before.

Yesterday, after they’d gotten to Paris, he’d been in a mild, relaxed mood. He’d been glad to get some more writing done and seemed to enjoy the food and ambience of the city.

It was important to Eve that he have a really good time on this trip. Hopefully he wouldn’t have too many headaches.

She got out of the bath by seven forty-five so she wouldn’t still be soaking when Jude returned. She brushed out her hair, rubbed on lotion, and pulled on one of the soft white bathrobes provided by the hotel. She was inspecting the clothes she’d hung in the closet yesterday, deciding what to wear, when the door to the room opened and Jude came in with a gust of motion and hallway air.

He wore shorts and a T-shirt and was soaked with sweat. He stopped abruptly when he saw her.

“Hey,” she said. “Did you have a good run?”

“Yeah.” His eyes ran up and down her body. Maybe he was inspecting what she was doing, but the gaze felt more interested than that. He sniffed the air.

“I took a bath,” she explained. “But I’m done now, so the shower is free whenever you want it.”

He didn’t move for a minute, just kept looking at her.

She tried to think of something to say, but nothing came to her. Her stomach twisted in nerves and an odd sort of anticipation.

Then Jude finally said, “Okay” and walked into the bathroom. After several seconds, she heard the shower turn on.

Brushing away the weirdness, she picked out her favorite dress to wear. A light, comfortable peasant style in a rose-and-taupe fabric with pretty smocking on a band beneath the breasts. She didn’t put it on yet. She’d left her deodorant in the bathroom and still needed to use it. Instead, she laid the dress across the foot of the bed and went over to the room service cart to refill her coffee and pick out a croissant.

Jude didn’t take very long in the shower. She was only halfway through her croissant when he came out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist.

She almost choked on a sip of coffee as her eyes landed on his long limbs and bare chest.

“Sorry,” he told her, evidently noticing her response but misinterpreting it. “Forgot to bring my clothes into the bathroom.”

“That’s okay,” she managed to say in a purposefully relaxed tone. “It’s your room too. You can wear whatever you want.”

He chuckled, using both hands to squeeze some of the moisture out of his hair. The move highlighted the rippling of hisbiceps and triceps and the breadth of his chest. “You wouldn’t say that if I decided to stroll around totally naked.”

“I don’t think I’d mind that too much.” She had no idea why she’d said it. She was usually in much more control of her words than that.

But maybe part of her wanted—for once—to be bold. To ask for what she desired.

He grew still, his arms still upraised in the middle of tying off his wet hair in a ponytail. He stared at her, only his eyes moving, searching her face and then straying down to the skin exposed by the V of her robe.

Her cheeks flushed hotly. Damn it. She’d embarrassed herself again. Why couldn’t she manage to be cool and smooth and sexy like other women? Even when she tried, she could only blurt out ridiculous comments.

Finally Jude said, “Are you being serious?”

She gulped. “Y-yeah. I was. Sorry if I made things weird.”

“You want to…” He still hadn’t lowered his arms or changed positions.

“Well, yeah.” She frowned at him, a surge of impatience overwhelming her embarrassment. “Is it really so strange? Did you think I’d only want to have sex once? Surely it’s not so shocking that you’d stand there staring like I grew a second head.”

He lowered his arms and cleared his throat. “Honestly, I had no idea what you were thinking. You aren’t exactly easy to read.”

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