“Then I will guard your privacy.” Urian wanted her to be happy in a way that was foreign to him, and this hot spring was relaxing to him. He admitted, “I merely want you to enjoy a place that I love. And if that means that I stand here with my back to you, and we speak while you relax, it is enough.”
ChapterSeventeen
Katherine
There was something delicious about control, and something even more so about Urian. He made her feel like breaking every rule she thought she had to live by--rules not only about who she was, but about what options she had.
Other faeries are going to be here tonight.
That ought to make her feel afraid. Instead, she felt like she knew she would be safe just because he’d be at her side.
“Katherine?” Urian’s back was to her still, and she found herself feeling bold in ways that felt scandalous. She was twenty-four, not a child. She knew she aged differently because she wasn’t entirely human, but there was no doubt in her mind that she was beyond ready for the promises he was holding out to her.
She kicked off her shoes. “Stripping.”
“Wonderful idea.” He paused, as if listening. “May I join you?”
“In the water? Not yet.” She stepped closer to him, pulling her shirt off and handing it to him, reaching one bare arm around him. “Hold this?”
He took her shirt.
“And this?” She unfastened her bra and held it to him.
Again, mutely, he took the piece of clothing.
Pressing closer, she whispered, “Don’t turn around.”
Urian nodded.
Katherine unbuttoned her jeans, slid out of them. “I’m wearing only my panties, but I think . . . I think I’ll keep those on, Urian.”
“Because . . .?” His voice was harsher, deeper now, and Katherine felt a thrill that it was because of her.
She put a hand on both of his shoulders, leaning into him. “Because I’m not ready to be naked with you. Yet.”
He reached up to hold her closer to him, so her nearly-naked body was pressed against his back. “I’ll be waiting.”
“Anxiously?” She reached out and caught his chin, turning him so he was looking at her face.
He didn’t resist. “Eagerly.”
“Good.” She grinned. “Am I terrible if I ask you to get in the hot spring with me?”
“Not at all,” Urian assured her. “Would you like me to wait until you’re in the water, hidden from my view?”
She paused. Being exposed to that shadowed gaze felt more like throwing fuel on a carefully burning fire than she was ready for, but she wanted to be fair, too. “Kind of . . . but I want to see you.”
He swallowed audibly before asking, “Explain?”
“Naked. I want to see you.” Her voice trembled, but she wasn’t going to hide her interest. She was what she was, and that was a faery that was born to incite lust. Whatever mortal side she’d had sheltering her seemed to have fled when she met Urian.
When he didn’t speak, she added, “I don’t have half the control I did before I met you, Urian. I thought . . . I thought I was more mortal than not, but right now . . .”
“Tell me when to turn around,” was all he said. He brushed a kiss over her knuckles and released her hand.
Katherine took one step away from him, before turning and walking to the hot springs. She slid into the hot water with a sigh that was as much for the water as the glimpse she had of Urian’s now-naked back. A back ought not be that alluring, but she fisted her hands to resist the urge to touch, to trace every line of muscle on the dark skin that he’d exposed.
“Urian?”