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I drive her higher, relentless, until her body tenses, thighs quivering around my head. When release takes her, it does so completely. She goes taut all at once, then breaks with a cry that leaves her trembling, tight walls pulsing around my fingers, flooding my mouth with her release. I lick her through it, prolonging the waves until she’s a limp, panting mess.

As she slides onto my lap in the water, boneless and sated, the hard length of me pressed into her soft belly, a sharp knock echoes through the door.

We both freeze.

“Come back later,” Róisín calls out, her voice husky but pointed.

There’s a pause. Then a familiar voice comes through the wood, smooth and infuriatingly composed. “Unfortunately, that will not do.”

My heart is pounding, erection still half-hard despite the interruption.

“Don’t move,” I murmur to Róisín.

I hop from the water and snatch up a length of linen, knotting it hard at my waist as I force myself back into some semblance of composure. Róisín watches me with wide, glittering eyes, caught somewhere between annoyance and amusement. I make for the door, dripping all the way, and crack it open only wide enough to risk one eye.

There stands Mannie, far too pleased, wearing a knowing smirk like he timed this perfectly.

“If you’ve come to leer, I’ll have to decline the request.”

His smile deepens, but he lifts both hands in a show of innocence so false it would be insulting if it were not so familiar.

“Tempting as that you make that sound,” he says, “I’m here on actual business.”

“You’ve come to ruin my evening. You could at least have the decency to look ashamed of yourself as you ask things of me.”

I lean harder into the narrow gap of the door. “Speak quickly. You truly have interrupted the experience of a lifetime.”

Behind me, I hear the water shift as Róisín straightens. “What kind of business?”

“The kind that can’t wait until morning.” For once, there’s less mischief in him than usual, though not nearly as little as I’d prefer.

My hand tightens on the edge of the door.

“Can you speak plain for once?”

Mannie tilts his head. “I would rather not hold this conversation through a crack in the door while you stand there half-naked and murderous.”

“Give us a moment,” I mutter.

Mannie bows his head, absurdly gracious. “Take two. I feel inclined to be charitable tonight.”

I shut the door in his face before he can say anything else.

When I turn, she’s pushing wet hair back from her face. The softness of a moment ago has gone taut with attention. She’s flushed from the bath, and beautiful enough to make thinking difficult, but whatever warmth had settled over the room has shifted now, thinned by the sharp intrusion of duty.

“Well,” I say.

“Well,” she echoes, sounding deeply unimpressed. “Why do we keep getting interrupted?”

I can’t help the laugh that escapes me then, though frustration is heavy in it. Crossing back to the tub, I lean down and gather her up into my arms, water streaming from her skin as she comes against me with a soft sound of surprise. She settles there easily, one arm looping round my neck, her annoyance only dulled by how pleased she looks to be held.

“Because,” I murmur, brushing a kiss to her temple, “the world is cruel, Mannie is worse, and neither seems inclined to leave us alone.”

She tips her head back to look at me, lips still pushed out in that sulky little expression that does nothing to make resisting her easier. “It’s intolerable.”

“Aye,” I say gravely. “An outrage… I reserve the right to kill him later.”

She chuckles, but remains steadfast in her displeasure, which only makes her more lovely. I shift her higher in my arms, unwilling to put even a small distance between us.