Page 505 of Reign

I glance at Luciano. “You built me a water bed?”

“No.”

“It appears suspiciously full of water.”

“It contains water,” he concedes. “But it’s not a water bed.”

“What makes it different?”

“It cost more than several water beds.”

I stare at him.

“That doesn’t make it different.”

His mouth almost curves, but something restrains it.

That’s when I notice how carefully he is watching me.

Luciano is nervous.

The realization moves through me slowly because it makes no sense. This man walks into rooms full of armed men without changing his expression. He’s threatened my brothers inside their own home.

But his fingers tighten once around mine before he releases them.

At the top of the steps, he slips out of his shoes and places them beside the wall. Then he crouches in front of me.

“What are you doing?”

“Taking off your shoes.”

“I can do that.”

“I know.”

He removes them anyway, setting them beside his before rising and offering me his hand.

We descend the steps.

The platform is soft beneath my feet. Every surface is padded, including the steps and the low ledge surrounding the recessed space. There are no sharp corners. Nothing hard enough to hurt me if I stumble.

Luciano settles onto the mattress first. It dips beneath his weight, the movement sending a slow ripple through the water inside it.

“Lie down,” he says.

I narrow my eyes. “You have been waiting all morning to say that.”

“I said it several times this morning.”

“True.”

The answer finally earns me a smile.

I climb onto the mattress and lower myself onto my back. It gives beneath me without swallowing me, warm water shifting around the shape of my body before gradually becoming still.

“Oh.”

Luciano lies down beside me.