The smile fell from Iris’s face.“But the extraction.The process to extrude the oils takes time.”
Time that they did not have.Heloise had felt as if a ticking clock were looming over her ever since she’d begun this charade with Ethan.Now, however, there was something more to it.Yes, she had worried when she’d begun this whole thing that she would not be able to accomplish all she needed to.After all, Lord and Lady Ayersley’s anniversary ball was coming fast, the need for that blasted jewelry like an ever-tightening noose about Julia’s neck.She rubbed at her own neck, thinking that such an analogy was much too close to what could actually happen to Julia if that jewelry wasn’t recovered in time.
Now, however, in addition to that, the end to her affair with Ethan was coming fast, causing a dull throb of pain in her chest.Which was ridiculous.She didn’t love him, after all.She had not begun this affair out of any affection for him.This newfound intimacy with him was the means to an end, and nothing more.
Even so, that ache grew, making it hard to breathe.
“Oh, this is awful,” Iris sighed.“And I was so excited I could finally help.”
They stood there for a time, each mired in her own troubled thoughts.But Iris, bless her, was not one to admit defeat so easily.In the next moment her eyes flew open again, her pale brows drawing together in the middle with a surprising amount of determination.
“I may not have the time to extract the oils myself,” she declared.“But give me a day, two at the most, and you shall have what you need.”
Ethan didn’t know what to expect several days later when, instead of going over the nearly completed boxing venue with him upon her morning arrival at the club, Heloise informed him in no uncertain terms that they needed to visit his rooms immediately.Or, rather, he hoped for a particular outcome, one including the use of his bed for the next several hours.And no clothing.
As luck would have it, therewasa no-clothing portion of her plan.Unfortunately, he soon learned that he was the only one participating in it.
“Get in,” she ordered, pointing to the steaming copper tub set up before the hearth.
Hot anticipation filled him as he imagined her, bared and lovely, skin glistening with water, limbs entwined with his.“As long as you join me,” he murmured, reaching for her.
But to his confusion and consternation, she danced out of his way.“Oh, no you don’t,” she declared, wagging a finger at him, a mischievous smile on her face.“I have put entirely too much effort into this for it to be pushed asideso swiftly.”
What the devil was she talking about?It was then he finally took stock of his surroundings.Much to his surprise, the hot bath was not the only thing she had prepared.Not only was there a carefully folded stack of clean towels and a basket holding several small glass vials by the hearth, but the curtains were drawn tight against the morning sun, plunging the room into shadows.His nostrils flared then as he caught a whiff of something new in the air, a sweet floral scent permeating the place.
He looked at her then, at her beaming smile and the sparkle of excitement lighting her eyes.She had done this for him?Something previously petrified in his chest, the one bit she had failed to reach in his week of knowing her and the days he’d been taking her to his bed, began to soften.
“What’s all this?”he asked through a throat strangely thick with emotion.
“It has concerned me,” she said, reaching for him, pushing his jacket and waistcoat from his shoulders, “that you still deal with pain in your scars all these years later.And so,” she continued, deft fingers loosening his cravat, “I had the incredible astuteness to ask my very dear friend—who is a lauded botanist, mind you—to concoct something especially for you, something that will soothe and heal your scars and give you some relief.”
He stared at her, devoid of speech.No one in his life had ever done something like this for him.Ever.Not even his mother, God rest her soul, who’d had too many troubles and too much to worry over to ever coddle him and his brothers.Oh, he’d known she loved them.But she had never been a demonstrative woman, even before her husband had left her alone with three young children and broken her spirit.Theway she had expressed her love had been by making certain her children were clothed and fed, and there it had ended.And he would never think badly of her for it.
This, however, was entirely new, a caring he had not ever thought to receive in his life.
Heloise, who must have sensed a shift in him, stilled in her removal of his clothing, her gaze finding his.She scanned his face intently, as if seeing something there for the first time.
“Ethan?”His name came out quiet, almost a whisper, asking so much in that one word.
Looking for answers he was nowhere near ready to give.
Stepping back from her touch, he took over where she had left off.But weren’t his fingers shaking as he sat and removed his boots?A fact that troubled him much more than he liked.So much, in fact, that he reverted to gruffness with her, a kind of shield.Though he knew deep down there was no shielding his softened heart.No, she had already infiltrated that traitorous organ, touching him in ways he had never thought another could.
“What is that smell?”he demanded, as much to distract her as anything, her with her curious eyes that saw too much.He sniffed the air, scowling at the steaming bathwater as he stood and removed the last of his clothing.
“Lavender,” she answered, busying herself with preparing the bed for God knew what.He swallowed hard, tearing his gaze from her.When she bent over, that damned delicious arse of hers outlined by her skirts, he was tempted beyond belief.And, as he was now fully naked, that was not the ideal state to be in.Clearing his throat, he clasped his hands in front of his groin.
“Lavender?”His scowl deepened.“I’m not some debutante that needs lavender water added to their bath.I need a good, strong soap and nothing else to get me clean.”
“Which is probably why your scars bother you so,” Heloise said patiently as, done with whatever the hell she’d been doing, she turned to face him—only to pause, eyes widening and traveling down his body.Which did not help his state of increasing arousal.
But she was made of stronger stuff than he was.Instead of closing the distance between them as he was damn close to doing, she smiled firmly and pointed to the tub.“Let’s get you in that water, shall we?”
He paused, eyeing the fragrant bathwater with distrust.He had never in his life smelled of flowers, and he wasn’t about to start now.
Heloise, however, was having none of it.She planted her hands on her hips, cocking her head in mock disappointment.“You are acting like a child.”
“No, I’m not,” he grumbled.Which, no doubt, only served to make him look even more like a petulant child.
