The servant left to give her privacy, and soon she’d piled her robes upon a rock and was standing stark naked in the middle of the cavern, her arms wrapped around her middle as she crept to one of the steaming pools … ensuring first that there were no eels inside.
Only softly glowing golden runes, their shapes morphed by the rippling water.
A sigh left her lips as she dipped her toes in.
And then she decidedly dove in, submerging herself beneath the soothing waters.
She came up feeling immediately refreshed, washed clean and –gods, her muscles felt instantly loose, all the knots and bumps and bruises painless for the first time in weeks.
She leaned with her back against the warmed stones, the water bubbling gently around her.
She’d just closed her eyes, allowed herself to relax into the moment, the water barely covering the curve of her breasts when she heard footsteps.
And she looked up, horrified, to findArawn.
Standing half naked in the steam, with only a small towel around his bare waist.
‘Away!’ Ezer yelped and submerged herself up to her neck in the hot waters, praying the steam on the surface hid every bit of her bare skin. He just stood there awkwardly, wide-eyed as a deer faced by a hunter in the woods. ‘Look away!’
‘I’m sorry,’ he blurted, and turned away so fast his towel slid further down his hips. ‘I didn’t see anything.’
Butshecertainly could. She could see the small of his back, the rippling muscles, the steam clinging to his scarred skin …
‘What are you doing here?’ she asked.
He was staring at the wall.
He was so damned close to a torch it nearly licked the top of his pale white braid. ‘I tried the stone twice today, and you didn’t answer.’
‘Because I didn’t want to!’ she yelped.
His voice softened. ‘I came to check on you.’
‘Congratulations, you’ve checked on me. You can go now.’ She reached for a towel, but it was too far away.Gods be damned.‘Don’t turn around.’
She would die if he saw her naked.Hadhe seen her naked?
She lunged out of the water awkwardly, hissing as she scraped her bare stomach upon the stones. She gripped the fabric and pulledit to her, covering herself before she’d even fully climbed out of the water.
‘Oh, comeon,’ she groaned as she looked down at the towel.
‘What?’ Arawn asked. ‘What is it?’
‘Nothing of your concern,’ Ezer growled. The towel was too damned small. It hung not even halfway down her upper thighs, revealingfartoo much skin.
She needed to get out of here.
‘Are youdecent?’ he asked. ‘The torch is going to melt my face if I don’t back away, Minder.’
‘Decent enough,’ she said, damning the servant now for having taken her clothes. She’d take the raphon stink over this … thismoment,both of themhalf naked and alone in the dark.
Arawn turned, his face almost pained from the heat.
They locked eyes for a second before he cleared his throat and looked away again.
But she saw enough.
Her jaw dropped.
