She smiled, and I found myself smiling back, rather dopily, I had no doubt. I also had no doubt that my eyes were embarrassingly white right now.
“Thanks for telling me all of that.”
Her thanks made me uncomfortable. Because it seemed to me that I had done really nothing of note at all. Certainlynothing worthy of her gratitude. I grimaced and scratched at my jaw.
“You can ask me anything,” I said once more. “I’ll always give you the truth. You deserve to know who-”
Who you might marry.
“-whose roof you’re under.”
“I appreciate that. And speaking of the roof, and the building, and all that good stuff,” she said. “The hot water…”
She was back to this again. She’d mentioned the water before.
“Yes?”
“What do you think my chances are,” she said with a little laugh, “of getting a warm bath?”
10
SHILOH
The bath was nothing but a big tub Rivven usually used for laundry. And yet it was utter bliss. He’d placed it in front of his big wood stove in the kitchen and had begun dutifully filling it with pails of water from the sink’s tap immediately after I’d asked. I’d offered to do it myself, knowing that he’d already had a long day of chores and likely needed rest. But he’d seemed as painfully confused about the suggestion as he had been about me helping with the dishes.
So eventually, I just gave up and let him do it.
There hadn’t been any other dishes to wash. And the rest of the kitchen was pretty damn spotless. So I’d had nothing to distract me from watching the repetitive bunch and pull of the thick muscles in Rivven’s shoulders, arms, and back as he poured bucket after bucket of steaming water into the tub for me.
“Will that do?” he’d asked when it was a little more than halfway full. “The water’s starting to run cooler now from the tap. But I could set some boiling for you.”
In all honesty, I would have loved the water level just a little higher. But the idea of keeping him here for more time,doing even more work for me after his long day, was not at all acceptable. I could always boil my own water on the stove if I needed to.
“This is great,” I’d told him before thanking him profusely. He withstood my gratitude kind of stiffly, like I was pelting him with little pebbles instead of polite words.
“Of course,” he’d said. As was his custom.
And then he’d left me to it.
I’d hustled upstairs to grab some toiletries from my bag. Shampoo and conditioner. I didn’t have anything for body wash – I’d planned to use my shampoo. But I ended up using a bit of the oily, herbal-smelling soak from the kitchen sink, and that seemed to work just fine. Which meant I could save more of my shampoo. Apart from my paints and brushes, my shampoo and conditioner were the nicest, highest quality things I had. The tiniest of luxuries that I allowed myself.
My hair smelling like the almond and coconut conditioner that was currently soaking into it, I closed my eyes and just breathed.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d taken a bath. My apartment certainly hadn’t had a tub. When I’d suggested it, it had almost been a joke, simply because I hadn’t seen anything resembling a shower in this building.
But Rivven had immediately jumped into action to make it happen for me.
I could feel myself smiling as I soaked in the pure pleasure of the warm water. I couldn’t stretch out my legs, but that was alright. I could lean back against one side of the tub with my knees bent, and that was pretty fucking perfect to me. The wet heat of the water seemed to ooze right into my bones, my muscles, sapping the residual tension from the fading migraine.
I’d marry a man just for this.
I sighed at myself, feeling bad for even joking about it inside my own head. I mean, I’d kind of already done that, hadn’t I? I’d jumped into this program, not because I wanted to get married, but so that I could have access to a different sort of life.
But then I’d met Rivven. Sweet, generous Rivven, who so obviously deserved to have somebody love him. And I knew I had to take this seriously. Much more seriously than I’d ever thought before,
When I’d signed up, it had all felt so mercenary. I hadn’t anticipated that anybody’s heart might be on the line.
And there were the other two men as well. Xennet and Dorn. I’d have to give them my fair consideration, too, whenever they arrived.
