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“Oh—umm, okay, thanks.” She walks toward the opening, peering inside.

“Careful, the water might seem a little hot at first, but I promise it feels amazing once you get used to it.”

Adelaide nods, and I leave her alone, making my way to a nearby stall to give her privacy. To give myself some space to remove my own clothing to wash up. It’s a risk letting my guard down, leaving her alone. But I won’t have time to come back before tonight, plus… I can think of worse things than chasing her naked.

Standing just on the other side of the archway, I place my hand on the slippery stone and listen for any sounds of distress. All I hear is the steady fall of water rushing over warm tiles. No doubt she’s enjoying the hot water cascading over her as it drips down from the fire rocks and onto her perfect body, the hot spray turning her creamy skin pink.

I step under the water and wash myself with the bar of waxen evergreen, thinking of her hands caressing her own body with slippery suds, slowly falling over her breasts, before continuing to her trim waist and long legs. I inwardly groan, letting my head rest against the stone with a thud, and unable to avoid it any longer, I stroke myself once. Then twice. And again, until I can’t stop. Until I’m nearly there, imagining I’m standing behind her, water pouring over our joined bodies. The heat relaxes some of the tension still lingering in my muscles, while dark thoughts of her have the opposite effect.

A shriek rings out, bouncing off the cavernous walls.

“Princess! Are you okay?” Not thinking, I rush around to where Adelaide stands with her back to me, her long black hair free from the braid and clinging to her wet skin. It reaches all the way down past her waist, hiding her naked backside from me.

“Riven!” she screams. “What are you doing here?” She twists, looking over her shoulder, trying to hide her breasts with her slippery hands. It’s then I realize that I’m also naked. Her hazel eyes drop down to where my hardness is on full display and then back up at me with shock and desire.

She likes what she sees.

That makes two of us.

“I’m sorry. I— I thought something was wrong.”

“No, just the water got really hot for a second. It’s fine now.”

Reaching over the bench, I grab a dressing cloth and wrap it around my waist, trying to contain the evidence of my raging desire as I walk toward her to inspect the temperature of the water.

“It feels fine to me.”

“Like I said, it’s fine now.”

“If the water is so hot, then why are you shivering?”

Standing over her, I look down into her upturned face. She’s watching me closely, her perfect lips parted, her doe eyes watching me.

“What?”

I lean closer, my lips hovering over hers, and repeat, “I said, why are you shivering?” inhaling the intoxicating scent of jasmine that surrounds us. She turns to face me, our bodies nearly touching, but I keep my hands to myself. I brace one on the wall behind her, the other still holding my towel closed, desperate to find something to do with them, to keep myself from reaching for her.

“I’m fine.” Her breath mingles with my own as she replies.

Water drips from her soot-colored lashes as she peers up at me, silently challenging me.

Tempting me.

I can’t stop myself. I carefully reach to caress her shoulder… slow and easy like approaching a spooked animal in the wild.

With the back of my hand, I stroke her collarbone, tracing over her shoulder, then lower down her arm, with practiced patience.

She leans into my touch, her porcelain skin flushed red from the hot water, matching the ruby she wears around her neck even now. I should have taken it that night and put it with the rest of her things. But she kept clinging to it in her sleep, and even I’m not cruel enough to take away the last piece of a place she will never return to.

Her fate is sealed, as is my own.

I might never get another chance.

Just one taste.

Steam billows around us. Before I know what I’m doing, I lean forward.

As if sensing me, her wide green eyes rimmed in flecks of brown and gold open and stare up at me expectantly. Her full, ruby lips part with a breathlessness that matches my own, begging to be kissed.