He stopped in the doorway, taking it all in. “This is… excessive.”
“I know.” She moved to the tub controls, adjusting the temperature and starting the flow of water. Steam began to rise immediately, curling through the air. “When I was young, I used to pretend this was a lake in some magical forest. I’d float in the water and imagine I was somewhere wild and free.”
She turned back to find him watching her with that intense focus that always made her breath catch. “And now?”
“Now I don’t need to imagine.” She slowly began unbuttoning her blouse. “Now I have mountains and cabins and a Vultor warrior who saved my life.”
The fabric slipped from her shoulders, pooling at her feet, followed by her trousers and then her undergarments. She stood naked before him in the rising steam, letting him look his fill.
His eyes blazed gold.
“Ember.” Her name was a growl in his throat.
“Yes?”
He crossed the distance between them in two strides, his hands finding her waist, pulling her against the solid heat of his body. “You should know better than to tempt me.”
“Should I?” She reached up to trace the strong line of his jaw, feeling the tension coiled beneath his skin. “I think I know exactly what I’m doing.”
He made a sound that was half laugh, half groan. “You’ve become dangerous.”
“I learned from the best.”
His mouth found hers, and for a while there was no more talking.
He shed his own clothes impatiently, his hands returning to her skin almost before the fabric hit the floor. She let herself be lifted, her legs wrapping around his waist as he carried her towards the filling tub.
The water was hot—almost too hot, but perfect against skin that had been denied such luxuries for weeks. They sank into it together, the steam rising around them like a veil, and she gasped as the heat engulfed her.
“Is this what you wanted?” His voice was rough against her ear, his hands mapping the curves of her body beneath the water as he settled on the bench beneath the water with her on his lap.
“Part of it.”
She shifted in his lap, feeling the hard length of him against her core, and watched his eyes flutter half-closed with pleasure. The power of that—the knowledge that she could affect him so profoundly—was intoxicating.
“And the rest?”
Instead of answering, she rose up on her knees and reached between them, guiding him to her entrance. His hands tightened on her hips, a growl rumbling through his chest.
“Ember.”
She sank down slowly, taking him inch by inch, savoring the stretch and fullness of their joining. The water lapped around them, warm waves created by their movement, and she braced her hands on his shoulders as she began to move.
“This,” she breathed. “This is what I wanted.”
He let her set the pace at first—slow, deep rolls of her hips that drew groans from both of them. His hands traced restless patterns across her skin, following the curve of her spine, the flare of her hips, the swell of her breasts as they broke the surface of the water. Each touch left trails of fire in its wake.
But patience had never been his strongest virtue. Soon his grip tightened, lifting her, driving up into her with a force that made her cry out. The water churned around them, sloshing against the sides of the tub, and she clung to him as the pleasure built—a coiling tension in her belly, spreading outward with each thrust.
“Look at me.” The command in his voice was irresistible.
She met his gaze—those golden eyes blazing with possession and desire and something deeper, something that made her heart ache with its intensity. He was beautiful like this, all control stripped away, nothing between them but skin and steam and the desperate rhythm of their joining.
“Mine,” he growled.
“Yours,” she agreed breathlessly. “Always yours.”
The word seemed to snap something in him. He surged forward, pressing her back against the edge of the tub, changing the angle in a way that made stars burst behind her eyes. His mouth found the sensitive spot below her ear, teeth grazing skin, and sheshattered—pleasure crashing through her in waves that left her trembling and gasping and completely undone.
