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He smiled against her hair. Now they were making progress. “Nothing.”

“Apollo!” She turned in his arms so they faced each other, her eyes wide. “You want me to swim…in the nude?”

“There is no better way.” This, he said with absolute conviction, because it was true.

“What if someone happens upon us?” she demanded, sounding scandalized.

His prim, innocent widow.

“I’ve made certain no one will,” he reassured her. “There is a footman on guard at the door to keep any curious revelers out.”

It was what he ought to have done the day Theodora had interrupted his swim here.

Ophelia’s brows snapped together. “Was Theodora here in the grotto with you? She told me the two of you swam together.”

The cunning liar. He wasn’t surprised to hear it.

“Her recollection of the incident differs from reality, I’m afraid. I was swimming alone and she intruded. When she refused to leave, I did so myself. That is all.”

“I suppose you were swimming naked then as well.” She frowned.

“As it happens, I wasn’t.” He tucked his fingers under her chin and gently but firmly tilted her head back, holding her stare. “I’ve told you before, it’s you I want. Why else do you think I’ve come here, Phee?”

“Because you’re a rake and there are any number of lovely women who would be happy to invite you into their beds.”

“No,” he corrected her softly. “Because you’re here. I came for you.”

Her brow furrowed. “You knew I was going to be the hostess for the house party? But how? No one knew save…”

“Ro,” he finished for her. “And don’t get angry with her, please. She’s dreadful at keeping secrets from me, and I am nothing if not persistent.”

Her pretty pink lips parted, and for a few moments, she said nothing. He had revealed more to her than he had intended. But it was too late to call back his words.

“You came here because of me,” she repeated.

“Yes,” he said simply, holding her gaze and letting her make of that revelation what she would.

She surprised him utterly by rising on her toes and kissing him. Thoroughly, deeply kissing him until his cock was straining against his robe and he was prepared to entirely abandon his whim of swimming with her in the grotto.

Then she ended it all too quickly, stepping back with flushed cheeks and reddened lips. She was so beautiful, the sight of her ripped the air right out of his lungs. For a few heartbeats, he couldn’t breathe. All he could do was drink in the sight of her, barefoot and tempting in her dressing gown, her hair plaited in a simple braid.

“We should swim, then, so that the poor footman can get his rest for the evening,” she said.

To his shame, Apollo wasn’t nearly as concerned with the well-remunerated footman’s rest as he was with the prospect of getting Phee naked again.

He cleared his throat and counted backward from ten, trying to stave off his rampant lust. It wouldn’t do to go swimming like a Satyr who couldn’t control himself.

“Shall we ready ourselves?” he suggested.

Like Phee, he wore a dressing gown. The hour was late, and they had arrived at the grotto separately to satisfy her request for discretion.

“I suppose we should,” she agreed shyly.

He took his time removing buttons from their moorings on account of his cock, which was stubbornly refusing to behave. Silence fell between them, punctuated by rustling fabric. When he looked up from his task, it was to discover that Phee had removed her robe entirely, and she stood at the edge of the pool, her bare arse pale and well curved.

By God, there was a smattering of freckles on her bottom.

This genuinely delicious discovery was not helping the state of his cock one whit.