Crossing to the bathroom, I release his hand to get the bath going. With as huge as it is, we’ve got a while before we can get in.
“Between you knowing Malcolm and what happened the last time I was in Khalida,obviouslyI was upset when we arrived. Yes, I meant it; don’t make me regret trusting you. But I didn’t mean you had to prove you could dismantle Malcolm’s entire cult of lemmings and chop his head off in a week. I meant it would kill me if there was some grand reveal in the future that you were actually friends with him and this was all a sick joke to lure me in. If I walked into this castle and it was a trap, that you’d never let me leave.”
Meeting his stormy gaze, I take a deep breath, stomach in knots. “I meant don’t make me fall in love with you, only to rip my heart out.”
His entire body stiffens, staring at me like he’s second guessing if he heard me right. Almost as if he’s shaking himself out of a brain fog, he takes a few seconds to get his head on straight, catching sight of himself in the mirror and scowling. “Why don’t you grab some towels while I shave this mess off?”
Hiding my smile, I give a brief nod of agreement and snag a couple towels off the shelf, bringing them within reach of the bath. Since it’s only halfway full, it gives me plenty of time to explore the cabinets. Rifling through various jars and containers, I find some epsom salts that have a hint of elderberry scent to them, pouring a hardy amount into the bath, and pick out some shampoo and soap. By the time I’ve stripped and am stepping into the water, I can feel Raiden’s gaze burning into my back.
Steam curls on the surface as I sink to my collar, hot water lapping at my stiff muscles. Acting like this isn’t a big deal even though I’m dying inside like a virgin on her wedding night, I lean back to wet my hair while watching him from the corner of my eye.
“It’s kind of a waste running a bath this big for one person, you know.” I lift my hand out of the water, letting a few sparks dance across my palm and evaporate the droplets with crackling pops. “It’ll be fun, trust me. Like bathing with a toaster.”
The amused breath that escapes him has me internally preening in victory, but my thoughts screech to a halt as he reaches behind his head to pull off his shirt in that gracefully sexy way only men can seem to pull off. I may have instigated this for his benefit, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t enjoying my front row seat at the strip show.
He takes the leather tie out of his hair and sets it carefully on the counter before returning to strip off his pants. Heat pulses between my legs at the sight of the tribal dragon head mark on the V of muscle beside his semi-hard cock, my gaze shamelessly locked on it as he joins me in the water. Ducking under to wet his hair, he surfaces and swipes a hand over his face, looking worlds better already. He cracks his neck from side to side and reaches for the shampoo, but I dive forward, stealing it out of his hands.
“Let me.”
He scrunches up his forehead, but I simply raise an eyebrow and wait him out. A few seconds later, he backs down with a sigh and pivots, sitting on the bottom of the tub in front of me. Working the shampoo into a lather, I massage it into his scalp, cutting through days worth of grime. Slowly, the rigid tension eases out of his body, and I give myself a mental pat on the back for finally starting to get the hang of this mate thing.
Maybe I can’t pitch in financially for the time being, but I can contribute in other ways, which alleviates my guilt, and humors their desire to provide for me. Plus, the long-overdue change of pace for Raiden, being the one to take care of him for once? It’s a heady feeling, and I see what he meant about finding satisfaction in it.
He sinks under the surface to rinse, then I work a little conditioner into the length of his dark hair in comfortable silence. I barely have the bottle on the ledge beside me before he has an arm wrapped around my lower back, stealing my seat on the bench running along one side, and pulling me down onto his lap. “My turn.”
As his fingers massage my scalp, I close my eyes with a hum of satisfaction, surrendering to his touch. With a steady hand at the nape of my neck, he guides me back to rinse out my hair. How he knew I hated being underwater, I can’t even hazard a guess, but that’s just... Raiden. He sees far more than I want him to, obsessive in his attention to the littlest of details and signs I didn’t even realize I was giving off. It’s as terrifying as it is endearing, but that’s a pretty good definition of the man himself, and not really something that he can change, nor do I want him to.
Raiden doesn’t look at my limitations as something inconvenient to tolerate, he considers each one he finds a success. Another piece of the puzzle on how to keep his mate happy and comfortable.
He doesn’t push for an explanation, either. Just pulls me back onto his lap and threads his fingers together over my stomach, letting me rest my head on his shoulder. “Tell me about how it went today.”
Weighing my words, I settle on, “I realized that maybe you guys aren't the exceptions to the rule, and I've only met assholes before you came along. Not surprising since I avoided shifters in general, but everyone I met today was friendly.Not just to my face, but the people I was watching on the street that didn’t know who I was or that I was even there, too. You built something amazing here, Raiden, and I understand why you work so hard to protect it.”
He presses a kiss to my temple and murmurs, “It’s the little things, I’ve learned, that make all the difference. Yes, the people that will go to bat for you when push comes to shove are important, but the ones that will give a stranger directions are the singular interaction that can sometimes mean the difference between putting someone on the path to redemption instead of destruction.”
Not wanting to burst his bubble, but needing to be honest, I tentatively add, “I’ve got to admit though, the parts I saw were still too ‘utopian fantasy land’ for me to take at face value. Where’s the rough side of town? The seedy underbelly that crawls out of the shadows at night, the drug traffickers? Jack’s proof enough that there are some shady things going on beneath your nose, and it makes me worry what else is lying in wait, preparing to strike the second I let my guard down.”
Tightening his arms around me, he tenses, choosing his words as carefully as I am. “I’ll admit that it’s not as perfect as I thought it was, but after you brought Jack’s deception to light, I’ve already set plans into motion to remedy the situation.”
“And those would be?”
“Everyone’s getting reassessed. It’ll be time consuming, but I think I can streamline the process by having Kodiak vet a small team we can trust and then putting them in charge of the task. Obviously many residents have less than savory pasts and came here to escape those lives, so it’ll be difficult to be completely sure about anyone. But people with certain red flags we can put on a security watchlist to keep a closer eye on their activities and do random drop-in checks on.”
“That’s a solid plan.” Reclining into him, I sigh. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help. Heck, it might actually keep my paranoia in check if I get a behind the scenes peek at everyone’s dirty secrets to prove they’re not brainwashed robots. Maybe I’ll even get lucky and stumble across something I can blackmail a few of them with if necessary.”
The tension leaves his body in a rush, pulling me impossibly closer and nuzzling the crook of my neck. “You’re perfect. I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I’m selfish enough not to question it.”
I snort. “Far cry from perfect, good sir.”
“Perfect for me. For us.”
He leans over to grab the body wash and squirts some onto a washcloth, beginning a slow, steady path from my shoulder down one arm, meticulous over every inch of skin. Finishing the other arm, he moves onto my chest, keeping his touch respectful, but my body hasn’t gotten the memo. Nipples hardening at the abrasion from the cloth swiping over them, I shift my thighs together as he moves lower, across my stomach and down my right hip.
“Not that I’m complaining, but I have to ask,” he begins, trailing off in his hesitation.
If it wasn’t for the elephant in the room in the form of his erection digging into my ass that we’re apparently not mentioning, his sudden shift in tone would have my hackles up. Instead, I squirm to get ‘more comfortable’ on his lap and wait patiently for him to gather his thoughts.
Hissing in a sharp breath, he tightens his grip on my thigh to force me to sit still. “What brought on this sudden change? Did something happen today?”
