Then, I drained the tub, refreshing the water and adding further scented soap to soak into my skin.
My nipples peaked like twin summits of the Skala Mountains as I rubbed myself again.
Goddess, it felt so good. Wetness seeped from my center. I trailed a hand down my stomach, finding my clitoris and pressing. A gasp fled my lips. Hips bucking, I rubbed lower, lower, until I cupped my core.
Water sloshed as I rode my hand, pleasure rising quick and fast like a tidal wave.
I sank one finger inside. Then two as I realized how open and ready I already was. Curling them and pressing the heel of my palm into my pelvis, I pleasured myself.
Vaeron flashed into my mind. His long, calloused fingers. The defined planes of his muscles.
My walls clenched and fluttered, like they were moving in time to a melody crafted only for us.
I shouldn’t have been thinking about him. Shouldn’t have felt the lightning crackling through my veins, driving my ecstasy higher.
And yet, his was the only face I saw.
I moaned, long and low, vibrating the stone.
Thank the Goddess our room was on the top floor, and no other shared the expansive space.
Tension coiled inside me. Sparks danced behind my eyes. I was so, so close…
The exterior door opened, and I froze.
Our bond tautened as Vaeron stepped closer. My hand flew away from my center, and I quickly reached for a bar of soap, frothing it furiously.
He stopped in the archway, the shadow of him spilling into the room. “Are you almost done?”
I could have sworn amusement threaded his tone.
“Just about,” I replied, my voice far too breathy. Internally, I kicked myself.
“Shout when you are,” he crooned, his voice all velvet and steel and doing nothing to cool off my burning insides.
I dragged in one shuddering breath, then another, trying to calm my racing heart and desperate center. Both refused to yield. I pulled the plug, gurgling overtaking the thrum of blood in my ears. I hoped the water would drain the color from my face too.
Reaching for a stack of bath sheets, I tugged one free and wrapped it around my hair. The second I secured around my body, the ends dampening from the leftover bathwater. But I could not allow Vaeron to see me naked, not when the bond roared like a starving beast behind my ribs and my center still pulsed with need.
“Ready!” I called out, the cheeriness suspiciously forced.
Vaeron strode into the bathing chamber, fuckingshirtlessthis time.
I flicked my eyes to the ceiling, like I could peer through the wood and the leaves to the sky.
Goddess help me.
He was trying to tease me, wasn’t he? He knew exactly what I’d been doing.
The smirk he wore said everything. And as he prowled to the back of the tub, he reveled in the thrall of knowing. Trying to hide the tremor in my body, I raised my arms, allowing him to hook under them and lift me.
My mate settled me onto a mat at the base of the tub, water running off in rivulets. Yet he didn’t release me. In fact, he stepped closer, heat radiating off his skin. My breath hitched as something hard pressed into my backside.
Our bond fucking celebrated like it was the night of the new year.
I wanted to strangle it.
Vaeron slid down my body with agonizing slowness, a hand resting on the curve of my waist to steady me. A soft bath sheet pressed against my legs. I nearly jumped away from my mate at the tender touch. He eased across each inch of my flesh, careful not to brush my broken knee.
