“And,” Ethenn added, undoing the last button at the base of her spine, “you can’t do sleight of hand.”
She shot a suggestive look over her shoulder. “Oh, I have my own ways of making things disappear.”
The innuendo slammed into Ethenn like a ram, knocking the wind out of him. He was certain his whole body had flushed red at the thoughts her words conjured. “Who the hell taught you to say things like that?” he asked.
“No one,” she said. “I’m just a desperately lonely forty-three-year-old woman.”
Ethenn grimaced. “I don’t like it when you say stuff like that, Ilain.”
“Self-deprecating comments?”
“That you’re forty-three.”
She smiled. “But I am forty-three.”
“And I’m twenty-one,” he replied. “It makes me uncomfortable knowing that you’re—you’re...”
“Older than your mother?”
His jaw clenched. “Yes.”
Ilain faced him fully, adjusting the shoulder of her dress when it tried to slip down. “Ethenn, I understand that you’re still new to the concept of living for centuries,” she said. “But try to fathom this: The age difference between you and me... It’s a fragment. I don’t see you as a child because of your youth any more than you see me as an old maid. Yes, I have lived longer than you. And yet, I’d wager that you’ve lived more life—more reallife—than I because I was stuck in Doorstunds Reach training for over twenty years.”
“That’s the whole of my lifetime.”
“Believe me,” she said, holding his gaze steadily, “it’s made me no more experienced than you—not in the ways that matter.”
Though Ethenn wasn’t altogether sure she was correct, he recognized that he wasn’t an authority on romantic relationships and the effects of age disparities within them. He’d never had a serious romance in his life, and while Ilain was twenty-two years his senior, she neither acted nor looked like it.
At his lack of response, Ilain straightened her shoulders, her grin turning sly once more. “Now, do you want to watch me get changed or not?” she asked bluntly.
Ethenn blinked, caught off guard by the offer. His initial reaction was to be a gentleman, to turn away and give her privacy. But then he thought of her pronouncement that this was a marriage—though it be probationary—and they ought to treat it like one.
“Honestly?” Ethenn said, then shrugged. “Yes.”
Ilain’s confidence slipped. “You do?”
“Yes.”
Her face scrunched in dramatic shock. “No!”
“Then why did you ask?”
“Because I wanted to see you blush.”
Surprisingly, Ethenn found himself laughing. “I hate to inform you, Ilain, but I’m not that innocent.”
Ilain narrowed her eyes, inspecting him as though he were wholly incomprehensible. “Have you seen a naked woman before?” she asked, a hint of incredulity in her tone.
Ethenn pressed his lips together, trying to determine how honest to be. The shoulder of her dress slipped again, revealing the thin strap of her chemise, and she shimmied it back up. He tipped his chin toward her hand, still holding the sleeve in place. “Are you going to change or not?” he challenged.
After several seconds of hesitation, a slow, bashful grin worked its way over Ilain’s face. And without any moreceremony, she tugged her arms free of the sleeves to work the dress down and over her hips. Its silky fabric puddled on the floor around her feet, leaving her standing only in her cotton undergarments.
Ethenn drew in a deep breath. The chemise’s hem ended just below her knees. Her arms, decolletage, and lower legs were bare, displaying just how creamy white her skin really was. She looked like porcelain compared to his naturally deep tan complexion, her delicacy like a fragile doll or elegant statue. Even more alluring, the moonlight streaming through the window beamed through the chemise like it was gossamer, silhouetting her lithe, feminine figure perfectly. Ilain didn’t exactly meet the Ephrian ideal image of a woman with her trim, narrow frame, long limbs, and angular shape. But somehow, that made her even more attractive to Ethenn.
His jaw twitched, and he realized he’d clamped it shut as he stared at her.
Ilain shifted uncomfortably on her dainty feet. “I need to put on my nightdress,” she said, motioning toward the bed.
