But…was he?
A splash behind me.
“Rowena, lass! Cease yer dithering!”
And I found myself smiling as I stepped out of my gown.
True to his word, Vrogul’s back was to me, so I felt bold enough to pull my chemise off before stepping into the water. Issa said ‘twas her father who’d added these stone steps down into the pool—for his elderly mother to be able to access the water, she’d said, which I thought was adorable. They were handy, and I was able to quickly lower myself into the steaming water in order to hide my body.
Are you certain youwishto hide it from him?
Nay. Nay I wasn’t.
But was I expected to?
“Are ye in?” he rumbled, turning for the soap he’d left on the ledge. “Good. I need to speak to ye, and I might as well do it while washing yer hair.”
He’d said it so matter-of-factly, it took me a moment to catch up.
“Washing my—what?”
“Yer hair, lass. ‘Tis the stuff growing out of yer head. Ye’ve been huffing and pulling on that braid for days, and I’ve been dying to run my fingers through it.”
“I—”
Oh.
I stood there, holding my braid over my shoulder, staring at him.
When Vrogul grinned, his tusks gleamed, and I remembered the way they felt against my skin.
His expression slowly changed; nostrils flaring, lids lowering slightly.
“Och, lass, dinnae tease me so,” he murmured, the water forming a vee behind him as he moved steadily toward me. “Ye’ve already tormented me near out of my mind.”
Had I been a weaker woman, I might have backed up at the hunger in his eyes, which now gleamed bright green. But I raised my chin, my breath short in anticipation.
“Torment? I am the one who has to sleep beside you, thinking of?—”
When he reached me, I bit down on my words, but Vrogul didn’t stop coming. Instead, his hands went to my hips and he lifted me, the soap forgotten. I was smaller than him, aye, but he lifted me eye-to-eye with him, and it seemed so very natural to wrap my legs around his waist as his hands supported my arse.
“Thinking of what, lass?” he growled, lowering his mouth to my shoulder—nay, my neck.
‘Twas instinctual to tip my head back, to allow him greater access. When his tusk nipped at my skin, I gasped and writhed against him, my bare cunny sliding against his hard stomach beneath the water.
The sound he made was somewhere between a groan and a growl, with a low rumble coming from his chest when my arms went around his shoulders.
“Thinking of this,” I gasped in confession, which turned into a moan of my own as his mouth moved down my throat.
Then he was lifting me again, just enough so he could reach my breast with his mouth, and I used one hand to eagerly heft my nipple toward his lips. What had I been concerned about? All previous thoughts and worries flew out of my head as I rocked against him.
Vrogul made the most delicious noises when he sucked and licked and murmured words I couldn’t understand. He shifted his stance so he was lower in the water, one hand supporting me as his other…
Dear God, his other hand!
His fingers found my core beneath the water, one knuckle sliding between the pearl of my desire and his hard body. When that pressure found me, I groaned out loud and nearly lost my hold on him, falling back to drape over his arm.
But he kept me safe.
