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“Do you plan to watch me all evening, or will you be enjoying this bath?” he asked the copper tub before turning his eyes up to me.

“How did you know I was watching?”

“Little bug, I would know the feel of your eyes on me from a thousand yards away. Plus, you moved around in that chair like an overly excited pup. Speaking of pups, where is Goose?”

I made my way to him since I had been discovered peeping on him as he worked. “You said no one could enter this room but you and I. I assumed that meant Goose, too, so I had him stay in the warrens.”

“Mmm, wise little bug. I’m not sure if he would be able to slip through the wards as an extension of you or not. He seems to defy most of the things I know about kin’tha or even failinis.”

I reached for the laces at the side of my dress, and he smacked my hands away. “Allow me to pamper you the way you deserve, Sóna.” Gentle hands rested mine on his shoulders as he knelt to take the slippers from my feet, massaging each one in turn before setting them down.

My fingers curled in his long hair. I had longed to plunge my fingers into his hair since I first laid eyes on him, and its silken slip did not disappoint. Even the golden threads in his hair, though they looked like true metal, were silky and pliable.

He rose, dragging his fingers up the sensitive length of my legs, and began untying the laces. “I can be as tender and gentle as I can be brutal, little bug.”

The laces came away, and he tipped my chin up to look into my eyes. My heart was racing. Every breath seemed too shallow to fill my screaming lungs as he looked into my eyes, looked through me, and into me. “Know this above all other things, little bug. I would never do anything to harm you on purpose. And there can never be anything you could do that would make me renounce that. Do you believe me?”

“No,” I whispered, unable to hold the truth back with the full weight of his gaze on me and his gloved thumb slowly stroking my bottom lip.

“You will.” A tender smile played on his lips, as if he was looking forward to the challenge of proving it to me. “One day, you will.”

He didn’t seal his pledge with a kiss, though it felt like he had wanted to. He merely towered over me, watching the way the candlelight danced across my face and caught in my eyes. Eventually, he bent and drew my dress up and over my head, followed by my chemise until I stood there with nothing but the string of beads dangling from my waist.

Rolling them in his fingers, he watched me for a long while. I wondered if he knew I knew what they were. I wondered if he had guessed that I knew when I had snapped them in the bedroom that day.

“I should get you a proper chain for these,” he mumbled off handedly as he pressed them against my skin, the sensation of the heated metal rolling against the tender flesh of my lower belly making me bite my lip. He abandoned them quickly after taking my fingers in his hand and guiding me delicately up and over the tall wall of the tub, ensuring I did not slip.

The bath was the perfect temperature, hot enough to make me ease down into it but not so hot that it scalded me.

“It was too cold last time. Is this hot enough?” he asked, tipping his head to one side.

I hated that I loved the way he wanted to know what my bath preferences were. A thousand nights of baths and making love in the candlelight could be in my future for all the effort he was putting into finding out.

“I couldn’t find the temperature controls. This is perfect, though.” I managed to ease my bottom down into the water and sighed with delight at the way every single one of my muscles seemed to relax in an instant.

“There are none. It is controlled by magic. Which means I will have the great pleasure of drawing and preparing your baths for you.” He grinned, mischief glittering in his evergreen eyes.

Oh, if only that were true, Raven.

I said nothing to his claiming of future baths. He had only a few days left of my time, and I would not scratch at him. I would hoard every little piece of happiness I could with him before I made him my mortal enemy.

His leather-gloved hand played in the water idly as he watched me. Peace and contentment floated on the rich perfume of the bath and enveloped both of us.

I tipped my head back and let my eyes slide shut as I enjoyed the heady mixture. It was not a brew that I often experienced, and I wanted to savor it.

“What does it mean?” The deep pitch of his voice rumbled across the water, and I pulled one eye open to see what he meant.

His eyes were fixed on the livid pink etching that was quickly becoming a deep scar in the top of my thigh.

“It’s a number.”

“Yes, I know what numbers are, Sóna, but none of the other humans have numbers on them. And this one is fresh, still healing. I know the hallmarks of a repeated wound when I see one. Your flesh does not scar easily. I have tried already.” His brows pulled down and concern warred with irritation at the idea of pain finding me without his touch.

“No one is hurting me, Raven.”

“Good. I would hate to have to skin Silvertree alive for allowing that. So, why are you carving this number into your thigh?”

“It’s a reminder.”