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Collin nodded, one dip of his chin, and moved away, resuming the walk. She hurried to catch up.
"You must understand that if there is a babe, we will marry. I should have made that clear in Edinburgh." He took her hand loosely in his. "I will not have a child raised a bastard."
"No. I understand that. Will there . . . ? Will there be a child?" Hand cradled in his, she felt the tiny jolt of shock run through his fingers.
"I didn't think to ask, Alex, but you do know that what we did. . . the part you didn't like . . . that is how women conceive?"
A stunned laugh bounced from her throat. "Of course I know that. My God."
"Well, you're apparently more innocent than you seem, caitein. I wanted to be sure."
"Yes, I know that. But my maid said you would know a way to lessen the chance."
"Urn, yes." He squirmed a little at her questioning look. "Yes, there is a way to help prevent it, but I forgot myself last night. Still, it's not proof against children, else so many girls wouldn't be rushed to the altar."
"How is it done?"
Collin coughed and laughed, ears reddening at the tips. "I should not have spilled my seed inside you."
"Oh." She answered very solemnly. "It's a matter of timing then."
"Yes, timing." He watched her then, as they walked, kept glancing at her until she blushed. His teeth suddenly appeared, framed by a wolfish smile, and even his eyes flashed like a beast's, caught in a ray of bright sun. Alex swallowed hard. That couldn't be right though. Her Collin? A wolf? Impossible.
"This is too much work."
"Nonsense." Collin set the pail of steaming water next to the tub and wiped a hand over his brow. "Check the temperature."
Alex swept her fingers through the half-filled tub. "Just a touch more and it will be perfect."
She stood as he poured the bucket in, pressed her lips together nervously when he rose next to her "Thank you, Collin."
He reached for the back of her dress.
"You're going to stay in the room?"
"I'm going to do more than stay. I'm going to bathe you."
"Oh." She didn't protest, didn't pretend any modesty, though her hands fluttered toward his. "Shall I help, or. . . ?"
"No. Let me." He watched his brown fingers against the pale fabric, watched the tiny hooks fall open under his hands. The skin of her face was a little tanned, but here, as the material parted, alabaster skin was revealed, just a shade darker than white. She wore a shift this time, a soft wisp of gauze that covered nothing. When he slid the dress low and turned her, he found a pale pink corset that pushed her breasts high, rounding them.
Her head bent as he looked, as if she would see what he saw. They both watched his work-rough hands etch a line over her collarbone, over the front of her shoulder and down the inside of her arm to her wrist.
"You are so finely wrought," he breathed. "Like a new child."
Even as she shook at his words, his hands stole down to push her dress off. She unhooked her corset, and the shift was her only garment now, a veil that skimmed over her stomach and hips, hiding nothing of the dark triangle at the juncture of her thighs.
Collin kept the distance between them, caressed her with his eyes, drank in the beauty of her body veiled like a virgin bride. But how could he ever have suspected her of virginity?
Even as he watched she became more aroused, her breath stuttering to a pant. She responded to him like a mare kept from her stallion too long, just the scent of him enough to rouse her. Her lust called his beast, raised in him a need to dominate and subdue, to ravish her into surrender. Of course, she would not surrender. Not for more than a moment. Then it would start again.
Setting his jaw, Collin touched his thumbs to the thin ribbons of lace at her shoulders and pushed them aside. When the slip of fabric had slithered down her body and left her naked, she raised her head and smiled.
"Into the tub." His gruff words caressed her.
Alex brushed past him as she walked, letting her arm rub against his shirt, against the solid mass of his chest beneath it. She loved the effect she had on this man, loved that she could control his very breath. Make him gasp or pant or stop breathing altogether.
