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She pulled off his coat, and he ripped her gown in his haste to take it off—not that it mattered, because she never wanted to see these clothes again. In fact, she made him dump everything, including their boots and undergarments, outside the door.

“I’ll have to stay in this room forever,” Dom said, his voice an aching growl. “I can’t walk down the corridor to my chamber stark naked.”

“I’ll lend you a chemise,” Torie said, giggling. “Into the tub.”

“You first.”

She shook her head. “Conquering heroes are bathed first. I’m sure that’s what happened to Odysseus, once Penelope recognized him.”

Dom’s eyes took on a wicked glint that she was beginning to recognize. “As I understand it, Greek heroes were bathed and then rubbed in oil.”

“I can rub you all over,” Torie said. Her eyes slid over his heavily muscled thigh. “It would be a pleasure, as long as you don’t mind smelling like jasmine.”

“Better if I anoint you,” he said, eyes somber and laughing at the same time. He began kissing her again, his tongue slow and sweet. In the end, Torie tumbled into the tub first and Dom rubbed her all over with soap, exploring every curve and dimple until she was putty in his hands. His deep voice crooned promises that would have sent a respectable matron into hysterics.

Soon she was desperate for him, moans erupting from her mouth, her eyes squeezed tightly shut so that she could concentrate on the wicked hands going everywhere. Tweaking her nipples, running between her legs, teasing her here, then there, until her skin felt as if it were on fire.

“Open your eyes, Torie.” Dom’s voice turned to a rough command. “I need to know if you’re too sore to make love.”

She rolled her head on the bathtub’s curved back. “I’m fine.”

“Torie.”

She opened her eyes. “I could be better.” She gave the word a suggestive emphasis.

He frowned. “Please keep your eyes open.”

She tensed as a large finger pushed inside her, but the soreness melted away, and a wild cry broke from her mouth. Dom froze.

“No, no,” she gasped, catching his wrist so he couldn’t leave her, couldn’t move that finger. “It’s good, it feels so good.”

He began talking again, words tumbling out in that harsh growl that she was learning to love—no, she pushed the question of love away. He was saying what he wanted and expected from her, what she wanted and expected.

A second broad finger joined the first, pushing deep, and pleasure wrenched her hips into an arc. He bent over the tub, kissing her mouth in a swiping caress, and Torie threw her arms around his neck, heedless of sloshing water. Dom’s free hand curved under her arse. His fingers moved deeper, flexing, and that was it.

Heat shot down her body, sparking through her limbs like lightning as she contracted around his fingers. In a daze, she caught a growled “ravenous,” but was he talking about him or her?

Slowly, the pleasure drifted off, and Torie came back to herself, whimpering as his fingers withdrew because she still felt empty and needful.

She lay with her head back on the tub, breathing in gasps, boneless, her body languid with pleasure. Finally she opened her eyes. Dom’s huge shoulders were bent over the bath, one hand effortlessly supporting her body.

“Not enough,” he whispered roughly. “Not enough for you, was it?”

His other hand was soothing her now, gliding over her skin under the water, caressing her breasts, her nipples, the curve of her belly, the tender folds behind her knees.

“No,” Torie whispered, her voice rough because she may have screamed. She couldn’t remember, hadn’t known.

Dom straightened, plucking her out of the bath as if she weighed no more than a child. Torie wasn’t thinking straight, her mind fragmented between memories of pleasure and an aching wish for more.

She slung a wet arm around his neck. “It’s your turn to take a bath.”

“I’m sorry,” he rasped, his voice hard. “You’ll have to take me as I am.”

“I like the way you smell,” she reminded him.

He put her gently on her back on the bed, and Torie expected him to brace himself on his elbows.

Instead, he pulled her legs to the edge of the bed and went to his knees, pushing her thighs apart. Torie gasped and raised her head. All she could see was tousled hair and fingers gripping her thighs as he licked her.