I nestled my chest against her breasts. “I did notice one curious thing.”
“Oh?”
“The dormer above the grand entrance. There’s an architectural feature within it that appears most sensitive.”
“Dormer… dormer…” Her eyes lit up. “Mister Thistlewood! You are the only person who can keep up with my… with my…”
“Delightful verbal shenanigans?” I suggested.
She glared at me. “I am entirely undecided if that is a good thing or not.”
“Yet I note that youaresmiling as you say it.”
Said smile broadened, wide as I’d ever seen it.
She shut the shower off, draped an arm over each of my shoulders, and continued. “That aforementioned sensitive architectural feature is going to be pressed against your naked body for the next several hours, so I shouldhopeyou don’t mind it.”
I lifted myself to my tiptoes to press a kiss to her lips, lingering to take the lower one between my teeth for a moment. I shivered, uttering the next words at a whisper. “You have such nice lips.”
She slid them to my ear, nibbling my earlobe a moment before saying, “It pleases me to hear. Because they willalsobe pressed against your naked body forthe next several hours.”
“You’re so hot.”
“And wet.” She lifted an eyebrow.
Yes, that too.
“But let us take care of that before we address the next of your duties as consort, darling.” She handed me a bath towel so long and thick it may well have been sized for ogres, and treated me to mind-baking views of her form as she leaned, twisted, and flexed, toweling off every glorious limb.
She held the towel loosely in front of her as she turned to face me. Plush as it was, it didn’t remotely block the view of her lovely form. “You, darling consort, appear to still be wet.”
I tried to come up with a clever retort, something about further inspection of House Arazniros’s features. My brain failed me, and I simply nodded.
“In case you need an extra.” She handed me her towel, thankfully spinning, else she would have seen me bury my face in her towel, inhaling her scent.
Despite the huge towels, my warm skin still felt slightly damp as I stepped from the steamy bathroom into her bedroom. Sephimara leaned over one of the glow lamps, turning down the glow to a cozier level. “Theo?” The word came softer, and more natural from her lips than I expected. “Do you have any particular thoughts on ambient illumination?”
I glanced at the huge skylights. “Is Gretta, or any of your other neighbors, voyeuristic?”
“Not that I am aware of. Although the windows are high enough that even ogres would have problems peeking through.”
I nodded contemplatively. “In that case, this is about right. I… enjoy seeing you. All of you.”
She stepped her right leg out, widening her stance notably. “Do you?”
“I do.”
She gestured with her finger for me to come closer. Then closer still. Leaning to put her lips so close to my ear as to feel her breath, she whispered. “And I enjoy seeing all of you… but…”
“Ummm?”
She traced an index finger over my shoulder and down my spine. “I shall enjoy even more seeing you disappear inside me.”
I clenched my eyes shut at the thought.
Tracing fingertips down her ribs till my palms were again on the curve of her waist, I tried to come up with a witty retort.
Becoming one with a prosperous house… robust foundations… cantilever… uhh… “Me too.”
