The fact was he’d wanted her.
From their very first encounter, he’d been drawn to her, but now, he saw it for what it was.
Desire.
Desire to speak with her.
Desire to be in her presence.
Desire to touch some part of her.
Desire to please her…to spoil her.
Desire to kiss her—properly.
Desire…
To besomething morewith her.
So, he’d seen desire through to its natural resolution.
And botched it.
He flung the sheet away and swung his legs off the bed. He couldn’t lie still another second with this frustration steaming inside him.
At the washbasin, he dipped a cloth into cooling water scented with some herb or another and wiped his face.
He could sit at his draftsman’s table and work. A pencil put to paper always settled and focused his mind on straightforward problems and the clear solutions that followed.
However, as he squeezed the excess water from the cloth—he could use a quick wash while he was at it—he felt them.
Eyes upon him.
He glanced over his shoulder and found Beatrix curled onto her side, watching him, no mistaking the appreciation in her eyes.
“That was…” But she didn’t seem to have the words to finish the sentence.
He didn’t think he could bear to hear them, anyway. She might say something likewondrous, and he wasn’t in the mood for well-intentional lies.
It hadn’t been wondrous.
At least, not for her.
Truly, she didn’t sound as outraged as she should.
“Yeah,” was all he could say as he returned to the bed, cloth in hand, an idea forming. Before he could reconsider, he asked, “May I?” He was holding up the square of linen, his intention clear.
A complicated beat of time passed. Then she nodded, and relief washed through Dev.
A chance at redemption scented the air, and he wouldn’t bungle it this time.
He lowered onto the bed beside her, and she rolled onto her back. Her eyes never left him.
“It will be cool on your skin,” he said before smoothing the cloth along her arm, waking a trail of goose bumps. Her nipples tightened into hard buds, and it was all he could do not to lean down and take one into his mouth.
His cock came to life.
This cloth, meager as it was, was all that stood between his skin touching hers.
