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“Oh, I expect they did.” His eyes travel over me, unhurried and wholly male. “I just didn’t care much.”
Such simple words have my stomach fluttering.
I should feel scandalised. Instead, I’m far too pleased by the thought of him arranging comforts for me and not giving half a damn who saw it.
Still, I lift one brow. “You mean to ruin me, then?”
“Oh Trouble, I mean to ruin you in the carnal sense, not your name.”
He pushes off the wall and comes toward me, stopping a breath beyond my reach.
“But I’m not here to do anything you don’t want,” he says. The humour has gone quieter now. “If you want the bath and peace, say the word. I’ll leave, and I’ll keep my hands to myself.”
The look in his eyes makes it plain that my dismissal would be torturous.
“But if you don’t,” he adds, voice dropping lower, “I’d think I’d enjoy washing the day off with you.”
I wish I had it in me to think of something clever to say. Something worthy of the bold creature who teased him senseless and left him hard for it earlier.
All I manage is, “You look exquisite in my room.”
Alex gives a small, amused laugh. “So do you.”
My whole body warms.
I glance at the bath again, because it’s easier than looking at him for one breath more. “You truly had this drawn for me?”
“I did… I knew you’d be out there taking care of everybody else before you took care of yourself.”
That does me in a little more.
I look away, too full of feeling for comfort.
“Well,” I say, aiming for light and missing by a fair distance, “that was inconveniently thoughtful of you.”
He smiles then. Not the wicked one. Not the hungry one. Something gentler.
“I can be thoughtful.”
“I hadn’t noticed,” I lie.
“That’s because you spend half your time making trouble and the other half running from me.”
I laugh under my breath. “I came back, didn’t I?”
“Not fast enough.”
There’s no help for it. I smile.
And the moment I do, his attention fastens on me as though my smile is something he’s wanted all day, and now that he has it, he means to keep it for himself.
He reaches up at last and tucks a loosened strand of hair behind my ear.
Such a gentle touch.
Such ruin in it.
“I meant what I said,” he murmurs. “About keeping my hands to myself, if that’s what you want.”
