“You can bathe first,” he said after the servants left them alone. “I’ll wash your back for ye.”
“I can manage on my own, thank you,” she said, giving him an amused smile.
Finn stretched out on his side on the bed, propped his head on his elbow, and watched her through the steam rising from the tub between them. This bath would be his undoing. And he was looking forward to it.
“You’re not staying in this room while I bathe,” Margaret said. “You can wait in Una’s chamber.”
“If the household is to believe we’re newlyweds, I’m afraid I must stay.” He gave her a wide smile. “Una is a wonderful nursemaid, but a dreadful gossip.”
She rolled her eyes. “Turn around then and promise not to look.”
“Ye can’t mean it,” he groaned. When she did not relent, he reluctantly rolled onto his other side and faced the wall.
“Wait,” she said, causing his hope to rise—along with his cock. “Could ye unhook my gown first?”
He leaped to his feet. After sweeping her hair to the side, he slowly unfastened the first hook. Who knew the nape of her neck could be so irresistible? He had to fight the urge to press his lips there. As he slid his fingers along her skin from hook to hook down her back, her breathing grew shallow, and he smiled. He was not alone in being affected by their closeness.
“With all your experience,” she said, “I thought you’d be quicker at this.”
“Some things are better savored,” he breathed in her ear.
She shivered beneath his fingers as he slid the gown off her shoulders, and he thought perhaps she would let him wash her after all…
But, alas, she turned around holding the loosened bodice over her breasts and said, “I can do the rest myself.”
He heaved a loud sigh and stretched out on the bed again—facing the wall. The next half-hour was pure torture as his imagination filled in what he could not see. He heard the rustle of her gown as she slipped it down her body and the softwhooshas it hit the floor. His pulse raced as he envisioned how the candlelight would reveal her silhouette beneath the thin fabric of her shift.
What would she do next? Probably sit on the stool and remove her stockings with one long leg crossed over the other. He was already breathing hard when he heard her step into the tub. His heart nearly stopped at the sound of another softwhooshand he envisioned her pulling her shift over her head and tossing it on the stool.
She paused then, making him wonder if the water was too hot. Things were certainly too hot where he was. In his mind’s eye, he saw her standing in the tub with the steam rising up her long, slender legs. Knowing how modest she was, Margaret would be holding one hand over the juncture between her legs and her other arm across her breasts, which only had the effect of adding to the allure of the image.
Before he could continue his mental journey over her naked form, she sank into the water with a deep sigh. He hoped to make her sigh like that many times before this night was over. Mesmerized by the light trickle hitting the tub of water, he imagined her squeezing the sponge. She would run it down her arms and then along her throat, causing beads of water to stream down the valley between her breasts with their tips rosy from the heat.
The next time, she would let him bathe her, and he would kiss those rosy tips…run the sponge down the length of her leg…suck on her wet toes…pleasure her with his hand and watch her come. Aye, it had to happen. He was sweating and lightheaded from all the blood rushing to his cock when her voice interrupted his daydream.
“Oh my, that was lovely.”
She had no idea.
“’Tis your turn,” she said. “The servants left another bucket of hot water. I’ll pour it into warm the bath up for ye.”
What he needed was a dip in an icy loch. Nay, he needed her with him in the tub. Or on the bed. Or on the floor. Or against the wall.
When he turned around and saw her, his heart did a flip in his chest. She had donned the simple night shift the servants had brought for her.Though it revealed nothing but her pretty bare feet and ankles, just knowing she was naked beneath it nearly killed him. And she smelled like heaven.
Jesu, he was not strong enough to survive this.
###
“I don’t mind if ye wish to watch me bathe.” With that devilish glint in his eye, Finn unfastened his belt, let it fall to the floor, and started to pull his tunic and shirt over his head.
Margaret whirled around before she caught an eyeful of brawny, naked Highlander. Though she was tempted to watch him bathe, Finn would take it as encouragement that she would do what she absolutely could not allow herself to do tonight.
Still, she could not help but wonder if he was as beautiful without his clothes as he was with them. If she turned her head to look out the window and happened to catch a glimpse of him from the corner of her eye, that would not be the same as actually watching him…
“You’re peeking,” he said.
“I’m not,” she said, and fixed her gaze straight ahead again. “I was concerned ye might be flooding the floor.”
