Free Florida Knight by Blair Bancroft

pin.
    “Just because you’re—“
    ”Don’t say it!”
    “I can’t wear these things!”
    “It’s that or tights.”
    “I wouldn’t be caught dead in tights.”
    “Even Bubba wears these.”
    “Bubba? Bubba the giant?” Michael stared down at Kate’s blond braid as she pinned the hem on the long full pants.
    “Yes. He looks as if he belongs in one of those Arabian Nights movies. The ultimate guardian of the harem.”
    “Somehow I can’t see Bubba as a eunuch.”
    “He might as well be one,” Kate sighed. “I don’t think he and Mona will ever be able to afford children.”
    Michael snapped his jaw closed over the words on the tip of his tongue. Fighting over a pair of pants suddenly seemed childish. Well, hell, if Bubba wore them . . . Of course, if Kate was pulling his leg . . . Michael pictured her long, long legs in transparent harem pants, hanging below a waistline low enough to reveal her belly button, a skimpy Genie top, a perky hat and veil. Oh, yeah, that’s where harem pants belonged. Definitely.
    “Michael. Michael!” Kate the Pragmatic burst his fantasy. “You like the shirt and tunic, don’t you?”
    “Uh–they’re great,” he mumbled. He’d never admit it, but the black tunic with gray and silver trim and the full-sleeved black shirt, which Kate called a Renaissance shirt, were pretty darn sexy. He’d frowned over the ruffled neck, but Kate had simply laughed at him. He was expected to dress up for Feast, she informed him in the no-nonsense tones of a mother addressing a reluctant pre-teen.
    “Now that I’ve got your height right,” Kate said as she sat back on her heels, checking the pants hems, “I’ll run up another pair. Something in a fancier fabric for Feast.” She gave him another assessing look. “A silver medallion, I think . . . on a long chain. That will be perfect.”
    “I am not wearing jewelry!”
    Kate looked up, batted her lashes. “You don’t have time to get your ears pierced before the weekend?” she inquired sweetly.
    “Kate Knight, you’re not going to live that long.”
    “Maybe you’d prefer a necklace of bears’ teeth.”
    Michael considered. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”
    “I was joking. We’re not outfitting you as a barbarian. You’d have to wear fur, and that just doesn’t suit the climate. Don’t worry,” Kate added as she rose to her feet, “I’ll find something you can live with. My storage shed is full of stuff. That’s what I do, remember? When I’m not just enjoying LALOC, I design and sell costuming.”
    “Okay, okay, I stand corrected . ” Michael sighed. “That’s what you’re here for. To turn the reluctant cop into a knight errant.” Trouble was, it wasn’t going to work. Then again, Kate wasn’t trying to pass him off as a White Knight in Shining Armor. Sensible woman, she recognized futility when she saw it.
    “You can change now,” Kate told him, nodding toward the bedroom. She avoided looking at Michael as she fussed with her scissors and pins. Avoided thinking about him in her bedroom. Undressing in her bedroom. She’d made the mistake of looking up once during the pants fitting. All the way from the floor, up the full length of him. Past the full black pants, the incredibly sexy black shirt, th e glimpse of equally dark curly hair peeking through the long slit in the shirt front, up to the craggy face, the uncompromisingly short straight black hair. Her insides churned. She thought about the feel of him, the clean , head-spinning male smell of him . W hen she’d tightened the elastic at his waist , h er fingers had fumbled over the blasted safety pin.
    It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. She’d gotten by all these years. Not one of the highly macho LALOC knights had ever made her feel like this. She didn’t want to feel like this. There was no room for feminine softness in her life. She’d had to feed him, that was an instinct she couldn’t ignore. Sex, however, could be repressed. She was