She looks around. 'No one else comes here?'
'They do,' I reply. 'But there are times when it's very quiet, though that’s usually when Locke comes. I have a theory that he works some conjure to keep people away so that he can have the place to himself while he’s here.'
She smiles a little and goes to the water's edge, dipping her fingers in.
'It's hot!’ she exclaims.
'Natural thermals heat the river deep underground. Dane and Lia found this place by accident and the baths were built.'
'Would you like to bathe with me?' I ask.
Her eyes widen but she nods, albeit a little shakily.
'Yes,' she whispers.
At the side, there are some holes hewn into the rock. I take my clothes off and put my possessions inside. She copies me, wrapping one of the bathing sheets around herself bashfully. I don’t bother. I want her to see me.
'Come,' I say, leading her to the back. 'There's a private room. We won't be disturbed there.'
'Oh,' she says, going with me eagerly, and I grin in the knowledge that my little human enjoys the pleasures that I give to her.
When we get to the back of the first room and go through the short passageway, we reach a smaller pool, and Bryn stops at the entrance, seeing that Jak and Locke are relaxing there as I hoped they would be. Jak is on one side, his arms out along the edge, his head resting on it with his eyes closed. Locke sits similarly on the other side.
I clear my throat, and both their eyes fly open. Their gazes immediately find Bryn. She stares back, her expression wide and guileless. She looks from one to the other and then to me in trepidation. She thinks it's going to happen now, I realize. All three of us.
But it's not.
‘Bathe,’ I say as I use the shallow steps that are cut into the pool to get into the water first.
Bryn comes closer to the edge but makes no move to enter the water. She looks at the others with unease.
That won’t do.
With an impatient growl, I rip the sheet from her and let it fall into the water. She tries to cover herself with a surprised cry, but I lunge up the steps and grab her hand, hauling her into the water with me. Half falling, she goes under in the middle, too short to reach the bottom.
She grips onto me, her nails digging into my arm like tiny claws as she surfaces with a gasp.
‘You’re safe,’ I murmur. ‘I won’t let you go.’
I take her to a shallower spot and find soap. When I show it to her, she tries to take it from my hand, but I pull it away with a shake of my head and a tut.
'No, Bryn,' I say. 'Iwill take care of you.'
I urge her to the edge where a natural cleft in the rock makes an underwater bench for her to sit on while I soap her body for her and wash her hair, massaging her scalp.
I know she likes it. Her eyes close, and her head lolls as she relaxes under my hands with a small moan, forgetting for the moment that the others are watching.
And theyarewatching.
My eyes find them, staring blatantly, hungrily from across the pool, and a smirk makes my lips curl upward. When Bryn is completely relaxed and half-asleep, I pull her gently off the shelf and take her place on it myself.
I haul her into my lap, and she leans against me, her back to my front. I hold her before me, my eyes on both Jak and Locke as I fold up her knees and draw them apart very slowly, exposing her pretty pink slit to them just above the water.
My little human tries to close them with a sound of displeasure, but I give her another tut and hold her firmly, not allowing it.
'This needs to happen,' I murmur in her ear.
She lets out a small sigh, as if she’s too tired to argue with me at the moment and lets me do what I will. I open her as wide as I can and begin to soap her gently. I wash her with the water thoroughly before I begin to touch her. Caress her. Torture Jak and Locke.
