“Forgive me…I was thinking about my husband. I miss him so terribly.”
Nodding with empathy, the maidservant heaved a small sigh and returned to the bed while Tira sank deeper into the new tub…which made her smile faintly in spite of her heartache.
A tub more than large enough for Errol, who had been forced to kneel in the smaller one, his back so powerfully muscled and his buttocks taut?—
“Och, you’re shameless,” Tira whispered to herself, but why wouldn’t she desire her husband? The past was blessedly behind her and she shivered now whenever she thought of him kissing her, his lips so tender and warm. Their last night together had been spent holding each other close…though Errol had insisted she wear a nightgown to keep his own desire in check?—
“Are you ready for a towel?”
Tira had started, the maidservant’s voice breaking into her heated thoughts. She shook her head, saying over her shoulder, “Not yet, but I need another sliver of soap. This tub is so big I canna find it…”
Groping around her feet, Tira heard the bedchamber door open and the sound of footfalls before closing again, but she didn’t think anything of it for the maidservants that came and went while assisting her.
“Och, never mind, I found it.” Rubbing the sliver between her hands, Tira worked up enough lather to rub her face, though at once her eyes began to sting. “Oh, no, the towel, please!”
She gasped with relief to have one handed to her, murmuring her thanks as she wiped the soap from her eyes only to hear what she would swear was a masculine chuckle…
“That tub looks big enough for two. Would you mind if I join you?”
“Errol!” Tira’s eyes still stung, but now from tears of joyful relief as she stared up at him, her heart leapt to her throat.
She didn’t think, only reacted—and stood up so suddenly in a spray of droplets that she nearly slipped until he caught her, his hands around her waist steady and strong.
“Och, wife, dinna injure yourself when I’ve returned tae you hale and whole!” Errol laughed again and Tira giggled, too, so elated to see him that she felt giddy as she threw her arms around his neck to hug him—every wet inch of her.
He hugged her as tightly, still laughing when he pulled away to look into her face, only to suddenly grow sober.
“Och, Tira, you’re so beautiful…and shivering, too. Settle back down into the tub and give me a chance tae look at you.”
She did, plopping down into the warm water that helped to still her chattering teeth even as the look on Errol’s face made her heart beat faster.
Bold admiration melded with a quiet intensity…his gaze moving over her as if seeing her for the first time—och, it occurred to her then that he had never before seen her unclothed!
She felt her nipples pucker when his gaze came to rest upon her breasts halfway immersed in the water, and now her shivers had nothing to do with feeling cold—ah, God, she felt afire.
Errol didn’t say anything, only began to undress in front of her, Tira’s eyes widening as she glanced behind her.
“The maidservant is gone, lass. We’re alone, just you and me.”
Tira sucked in her breath as she met Errol’s eyes, and watched in heart-pounding fascination as he stripped in mere moments to step naked into the tub.
She looked up at him standing above her, the powerfully muscled beauty of his body making her jaw drop and Errol to chuckle again.
Yet he wasn’t laughing when he sank down and pulled her close so that she straddled him, the larger tub still not quite big enough for both of them.
“Can you reach the soap, Tira?”
Soap? She stared at him almost uncomprehending…her senses reeling from his closeness and the hard bulge pressing at the heart of her thighs that made her breath seem to snag in her throat.
“I thought mayhap you would help me bathe. I was going tae stop at the barracks, but I couldna wait another moment longer tae see you—och, here it is.”
Errol held up the sliver of soap in his dripping fingers, but Tira wasn’t thinking about bathing at all…her gaze focused upon his lips.
Without hesitating another instant, she leaned against him to cradle his stubbled face with her hands and press her mouth to his in an impassioned kiss that made him groan, his steely arms enveloping her.
Water sloshed from the tub as he shifted beneath her, making Tira gasp against his lips when she felt him thrust insideher…neither she nor Errol able to deny their desire for each other any longer.
Her flesh still slippery as she opened herself to him, moaning into his mouth as his tongue sparred with hers even as his body seemed to swell and grow harder deep within her.
