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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
My entire body throbbed from head to toe. I wanted to stay here, sunken into the plush softness forever, but the dirt on my chest and in my hair didn’t pair well with my white and gray comforter.
I groaned when I stood up and lifted my top over my head, then dropped it on the floor next to my shorts and panties.
Caspian hitched in a breath as he watched me walk from my room into the bathroom.
His gaze heated every inch of my skin as his eyes raked over my body. “Jesus, Tatum.” He ran his hand over the back of my hair, a mess no doubt.
My stomach flipped at his scrutiny.Did I really look that bad?
He grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it off with ease. Bold, black lines swooped and swirled across his chest in a breathtaking tribal tattoo. I had seen it once before but didn’t remember it being so bold, so intimidating and virile—sohim.It continued across his shoulder, stopping at his bicep. There was a phrase in Latin script,Post Tenebras Lux.After darkness, comes light. I’d seen it on a coin once in my father’s office and asked what it meant.
I wanted to trail my tongue across every one of those words, over every single line. I wanted to mark him the way the ink had marked him. I wanted to mark him the way he’d marked me.
I moved to look at myself in the mirror, but Caspian scooped me up and carried me into the Roman shower, stopping me before I could. I hadn’t even realized he’d turned the showerhead on. He stepped inside, still wearing his jeans, and set me down under the warm spray.
“I’m not fragile,” I said. With a man like Caspian I couldn’t afford to be.
He grabbed a bottle of shampoo from the niche in the wall behind me. “Neither are diamonds, but people still treat them with care.”
Touché.
He squirted two shots of coconut-scented keratin onto his palm, then massaged it into my scalp.
I closed my eyes and let myself get lost in the way his fingers rubbed my scalp and the hot water rained over my skin. I’d come down from my high, and now I just wanted to stay here, right here, under the warmth of the water and tenderness of his touch.
He detached the sprayer and rinsed the shampoo out of my hair. Trails of foamy bubbles carved a path over my breasts and down my stomach, taking the remnants of dirt with them.
Caspian reached around and shut off the water. The cool air on my naked skin made me shiver. He lifted me again and carried me to the bathtub. The minute my body sank into the water, I was warm again. Water droplets drew wavy paths over his chest and down his stomach. Goosebumps covered his flesh, but he didn’t move, not even a shiver.
He sat on the edge of the tub. “All clean. Now, you can relax without soaking in a pile of dirt.”
How thoughtful.
“Get in with me.” I waved my hands under the bubbles. “The water’s warm.” I knew he had to be freezing.
“I’d rather spectate.”
“Have it your way.” I sank deeper into the water, letting it surround me in its warmth and draw the tension from my aching body. “There’s only been Brady.”
He visibly tensed.
“Other than you, I mean.” I lifted my hand, watching the bubbles drip from my fingertips back into the water while I waited for him to give me something, anything.
He leaned in and lifted my chin, holding it between his fingertips. “There will onlyeverbe me.” He brushed his thumb over my lips, then dropped his hand and sat back up.
If he only knew.
“What about you? Did you…” I shrugged one shoulder. “…you know, date, while you were away?”
He smirked. “You mean did I fuck anyone?”
I answered with a hopeful stare.Please, say no.Not that I had any claim on him or any right to hope he’d spent four years alone. I didn’t. That didn’t mean it wouldn’t crush me if he had.
“There was this one pussy I couldn’t get enough of.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, thinking if I didn’t look at him I wouldn’t be able to hear his words.Nevermind. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.I shouldn’t have asked.
