Heloise sighed dramatically.“Just trust me in this, won’t you?”she begged.
It was a playful comment, made for the express purpose of getting him in the tub.For some reason, however, it gave Ethan pause.He gazed at her, that damned softening in his chest spreading through his whole body as a realization came over him.Before he knew it, he spoke that realization, the words pouring from him as if they could not be contained any longer.
“I trust you in everything.”
It shook him how much he meant the words.When they’d first met, he’d been so certain he could not trust her.He’d gone into this affair as a way to keep her close and watch over her, had ordered Keely to look into her background.He’d considered her an enemy from the start.
Now, however, after a mere week, he found his feelingsfor her were quite different.
Heloise’s gaze turned warm at his words.So warm he felt the comforting heat of it across the distance between them.
In the next moment, however, she pressed her lips tight, straightening her shoulders into an unforgiving line.
“I will not allow you to distract me,” she declared, pointing to the tub with a shaking finger.“In.”
Shaken himself at their peculiar exchange, Ethan quite forgot to continue fighting her and stepped into the water.It enveloped him as he settled against the copper wall of the tub, and though he would rather die than admit as much after his spectacular balking, it felt like a warm hug.Without meaning to, he sighed and let his muscles relax.
“There,” she said brightly from somewhere behind him, “doesn’t that feel lovely?”
“It would feel lovelier if you were in here with me,” he mumbled, only half teasing.“But is lavender water truly necessary?”
“Lavender has healing properties,” she replied.There was the sound of her rustling and moving about.But with the sweet floral scent surrounding him and filling his lungs and the warmth of the bath seeping into his muscles, he found he didn’t care what she might be doing.Suddenly she was beside him, a bar of soap and a washcloth in hand.“It will do much to soothe your skin, as will the Epsom salts I added.And,” she continued, holding up the soap so he might see the bar of milky white sprinkled with pale purple blossoms, “this will help as well.No more rough, damaging soap for you.”
He considered it before turning to study the other items she had laid out by the hearth.His suspicion had eased much, to be replaced with a deepening interest.“Yourbotanist friend provided all this?”
“She did,” she replied, dipping the soap and washcloth in the water.He watched her strong hands work the soap into a creamy lather against the washcloth, transfixed.He was tempted to grab her wrist and urge her into the tub with him.From the way she had gazed at him, her eyes hot on his body as he’d stood before her in all his nakedness, he didn’t think it would take much effort on his part.
But this wasn’t about that.His chest warmed again as he thought of all she had done here for him.No, this went beyond the physical.
It occurred to him that this was veering dangerously into a deeply emotional connection.He had never in his life experienced something of that sort with a woman.Oh, he’d had the odd affair, with women who were content with a quick tumble, never wanting anything more from him.And he had never wanted anything more from them.
But with Heloise…
Before he could finish that thought—thank God, as he didn’t think he was at all ready for where it was heading—she moved behind him, hands on his shoulders, gently pushing him forward, hands splaying over his scarred back.And then—
Nothing.Her hands remained motionless, the only movement the slightest curling of her fingers against the ridged flesh.He stilled, his head tilting slightly to one side in silent inquiry, even as tension began to thread his muscles.She had never had cause to see his scars quite so clearly before.Did they disgust her?God knew they had disgusted women before, though those women had done their best to hide that fact from him.
But the moment was gone in a blink, her hands soon moving against his back as she gently swept the soapywashcloth against his skin in large, slow circles, not a bit of hesitation in her touch.And it was, quite simply, glorious.The rest of the world melted away then, the tension in his shoulders easing, his head falling forward onto his bent knees.For some minutes she continued her ministrations, the healing suds bathing his abused skin.They were both silent, the playfulness of a moment before gone, a subdued intimacy taking its place.An intimacy he had not expected, and that was further deepened as her husky voice washed over him.
“I hope the men who did this to you were given their just deserts in some way.It would be too unfair if the universe left them unscathed.”
He let loose a rough chuckle, muffled as it was against his knees.“Oh, I did not wait for the universe to act.I took care of them myself when I had the means to.”
Her hands stilled in their washing.“What do you mean?”
It should be an easy question for him to answer.He did not feel any guilt over what he had done, after all.The men had deserved every bit of retribution he had piled on their heads.
But he found himself pausing.Would Heloise think him a monster for it?And why did that idea bother him so much?
He frowned into his knees as she resumed the slow circling of the washcloth on his skin.
“You will think me cruel if I tell you.”
“I sincerely doubt that,” she said, the words light yet with a peculiar tightness to them.“Considering what they did to you, I rather think they deserved whatever they got.”
“I know they deserved it,” he replied gruffly.“I took away everything they treasured and had them sent to debtors’ prison.They are mere shells of the men they were.And I’m glad of it.They will never be able to do to another whatthey did to me.”He turned his head to the side again, this time almost in defiance.“I’m glad I did what I did, and I would do it again a thousand times.”
Would she denounce his actions now, declare her disgust at his cruelty?He half expected she would.Even he, who had been the one to suffer at the hands of those men, at times cringed back from the memory of how far he had gone in his revenge all those years ago.
