He lifts his occupied hands and glances at the door. “Do you mind?”
Munching on an enormous bite of rye, I hurry across the room and drag the heavy slab open for him, unprepared for the sight that awaits. In fact, I swallow my lump of food and blink, certain I must be hallucinating or dreaming.
There’s a landing. And another set of stairs. They lead to a mass of rocks below the lighthouse, at the edge of the tor, lit up by three blazing torchlights and a flaming brazier. And there, nestled inside those rocks, under a sea of stars, is a small, steaming pool of bright blue water.
I turn back to Alexus, flabbergasted.
“Go on.” He winks and flashes a playful smile. “I promised you wine and a bath days ago, and I always deliver.”
My excitement is uncontainable. I stuff the rest of the bread in my mouth and hurry down the stairs. Alexus follows—I can feel his smile through the rune—and his starlights suddenly appear, safeguarding my rushed steps.
On my left there’s the lighthouse, which is beautiful enough. But on my right lies the mouth of a small cave, yawning around the bright blue pool. The lightly steaming water somehow glows with its own light. Above, the black sky is full of silvery stars, not a cloud in sight. And out there in all that darkness lies the Malorian Sea. The moonlight shimmers on its surface, its waves pounding the rocky shore.
Awestruck, I pass the brazier and a lone lounging bed with plush cushions, and bend down at the pool’s edge to slip my hand into the balmy water. I glance at Alexus as he carries our wine and food toward a flat rock that extends a few hand widths over the pool. Two bathing linens, a small tray of seashell-shaped soaps, and a clear glass cruet filled with purplish liquid have been neatly arranged there, waiting.
Alexus planned this. He had Drae do all of this for us. For me.
“It’s a thermal pool,” he says, joining me. His leathers creak as he squats at my side. “Part of the geography here. Thermal pools are hidden in caves along the coast. This one drains to the sea and refills from a crack in the earth somewhere beneath these cliffs.”
My parents talked about the caves and thermal pools, similar to the hot springs south of Hampstead Loch where my father found his brimstone. But I don’t recall mention of this stunning light.
“How is it so blue?” I sign. “So incandescent?”
“The heat seeping from the earth reacts with something in the algae that creates the azure color and makes the water glow. The algae offers healing properties, and the warmth… Well, there’s nothing like a hot soak.”
He reaches over his head and tugs off his shirt, then stands and toes off his boots. Like the seductive sorcerer he is, he holds my gaze as he unlaces his trousers and drops them, along with his brais, before kicking the garments aside. There’s nothing remaining save for the iron key around his neck, which he sheds as well.
My mouth waters. It hasn’t been that long since I last saw him naked, but it feels like an eternity. I memorize it all. Those broad, round shoulders and that powerful chest, the corded muscles of his arms, the hard, rippled plane of his abdomen, the V-shaped dip of sinew aiming toward that absolutely perfect cock, hanging long and heavy between his legs.
“You are cruel,” I sign, my face warming, my core tightening.
His laugh drifts between us as he holds up his hands in mock defense. “I swear, I’m not trying to be. It isn’t like I’m denying you anything you want.”
He wades into the water, down the wide stone steps. The muscles of his tapered back and rounded ass flex with every movement, and I have to admire the view. When he reaches the deepest end, he disappears beneath the surface. I watch him swim for a few moments, then I glance at the gibbous moon.
Alexus might not deny me what I most desire, but nature and time already have. At least until I find some birthbane.
When Alexus reappears, he wipes the water from his face and beard and heads toward our food and wine. I allow him a moment to arrange our dinner and settle on a slab that acts as a seat in the water, his light, golden skin wet and glistening under the firelight.
After a long drink, he pops a couple of pieces of fruit and bread in his mouth and stares across the pool at me, a wicked look on his face. “Are you coming in? Or are you just going to sit there and watch me?”
“What is the harm in watching?” I sign. I often think about our first night together. The watching in the window. How exciting it felt.
How much he liked it.
He shakes his head. “Not a damn thing, you little vixen. But if you blushed before, I promise you, you’d be absolutely scandalized if you could see me now.”
I’m so impossibly tired, and yet I cannot fight the smile that stretches across my face, or the need to make certain he’s telling the truth. Hungry for more than just Alexus, however, I procure a few bites of fruit and cheese and a long sip of wine to dull the ache in my stomach.
Then I stand and unfasten the toggles of my jacket.
Alexus watches me closely from beneath a hooded stare, holding his mug of wine. With a sly smirk on my face, I lay my jacket aside and strip off my tunic. My boots and socks are next. I kick them out of the way and peel off my trousers and underpants, until I’m standing in nothing but my stays.
Alexus’s heated gaze skims down my body, but he returns his attention to my hands once I begin untying the strings holding my stays together. “I’m fairly certain you’re the one who’s cruel,” he says. “A part of me could watch you undress all day. But a more eager part wants you to hurry up.”
I laugh and step into the warm water, still unlacing the ties.
One step. Two steps. A pause.
