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He doesn’t let me walk in on my own, even though I’m perfectly capable. One arm stays around my back, the other beneath my elbow, keeping me steady through the house.
“I can stand on my own, you know. I’ve been managing it for a very long time.”
“I know you have,” he murmurs, steering me into the bathroom without loosening his grip. “Has anyone ever told you how much I like having my hands on a man like you?”
“Not quite this much, but I’m not asking you to stop.”
He brings up the bathroom lights and turns on the shower, testing the water while I lean against the doorframe in his jacket.
“That wasn’t your driver, was it?” I watch steam begin to gather over the glass. “The partition was up when it hadn’t been before. He kept himself out of sight. And he called me sir. Your people never call me that.”
“No. Although the messages were mine. The car was mine. That asshole behind the wheel sure as hell wasn’t.” Ash takes the jacket off me and starts on my shirt. “Dad got into the booking after I made it, swapped the driver, and left everything else untouched. Same pickup, same destination, so nothing fucking flagged. Seren’s already on him. I came in after you through the west service gate, gave you ten minutes, then went looking for you. I thought you were exactly where I wanted you until I heard another man talking in those trees.”
By the time he finishes, I’m naked, and the room is thick with steam. He guides me toward the shower, keeping one hand around my arm. “Come on, puppy. Let’s get you clean and warm.”
Heat closes over me almost painfully at first, loosening the cold from my skin as muddy water curls around my feet and disappears down the drain.
“So you really thought it was still us? That I was in there running from you because I wanted you to catch me?”
“I did.” He turns the water a little warmer without letting go of me. “That’s the part I can’t get out of my head. You were down there, calling for me, and I was still enjoying myself.”
That settles somewhere deep enough that I don’t answer.
“I should have given you the driver’s name.” His hand stays at my waist beneath the water. “I wanted you surprised. I made it harder for you to tell when the surprise stopped being mine.”
I look at him, but he’s already dropping to one knee, running both hands slowly down my calves, turning one ankle and then the other, checking every scrape before working his way back up. I run my fingers through his damp hair, the short strands soft and warm beneath my palm, as he keeps touching me like he needs to make sure every part is still here.
When he stands again, his hands slide over my waist and around my ribs before one arm settles across my chest, pulling my back against him beneath the water. For a while, neither of us speaks. Mud runs off me, brown, then clear, and feeling comes back into my fingers with a painful throb. Another shiver runs through me, and he tightens his hold.
“Let me take care of you.” Starting at my shoulders, he washes me while the water runs over both of us. My arms. My back. Reaching back up, he turns me round and combs the mud out of my hair with his fingers, massaging my scalp until my eyes drift shut on their own. Then his thumb finds my face, carefully circling the cut on my cheekbone without touching it once.
“That’ll need cleaning properly.”
“Later.”
“Later,” he agrees.
His hand goes down my chest. Then lower, over my stomach, and stops with his palm flat and warm just below my navel, until I shiver.
“How much of you still hurts?”
I let out a slow breath. “Some of it.”
“Which parts?”
“Don’t do that. Don’t ask me that while your hand’s there.”
“While my hand’s where?” His voice drops, rough around the edges. “Which parts, puppy?” His palm slides down my stomach and closes around my cock. “Here?”
That rough note, the first slick pull of his hand, it... Light, it does me in. My body answers before I’ve decided anything, and my hips push into his fist.
Of course he feels it, laughing low against the back of my neck as he strokes me, the water making his hand glide slick and easy, like he’s got all night. “There’s my puppy.”
“You’re a bastard.”
“Mm.” His teeth graze my shoulder before nipping at the skin, his hand never slowing. “You’ve been hunted through a forest half the night. I bring you home and put one hand on you, and look what happens.”
“Shut up.”
