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“Getting you a bath is the first thing on my list. I held my breath the entire flight here.”
I pushed my arms against my sides in reaction, a poor attempt to conceal the reek apparently smothering him. My nose sniffed the air, suddenly aware of my own stench, and crinkled in reaction. He wasn’t wrong.
“It’s not my fault,” I stammered. “Leather isn’t the most breathable material, and I sweat a lot.” His proximity didn’t help.
“Relax,” he whispered, his sweet breath replacing the foul odor staining the air. Like the smell of the wind, refreshing and light. “No harm done, my sour-scented companion. I didn’t suffocate, did I?”
“Pity,” I jested. He smiled because he knew I was lying, and my stomach flipped because it pleased him.
Inside the fortress, the moonlight illuminated a great hallway through the glass solarium forming the ceiling. There was little need for the torches spaced across the walls since the moons above dressed the hall in a silver light. We came to a halt after passing a series of similar doors.
He waved a free hand in front of a doorknob, and the sound of a sliding deadbolt clicked in response. I opened my mouth in astonishment, lips parted slightly to question how he accomplished this marvel. But he quickly shushed me with a finger to his lips. My questions would have to wait. Flying while supporting both our weights seemed to have drained him a great deal of his usual patience and sarcasm.
A darkened bedroom waited for us on the other side. More windows covered the entirety of the wall, sending bright moonlight across a four-poster bed and small sitting area. A hearth stood at one end of the room with a few dry logs placed inside expectantly for a flame to devour them. I tentatively stepped around the bedroom, letting my eyes survey it for the first time and my hand slip from his arm. Azriel passed me and knelt by the fireplace, using the same foreign power he’d used with the lock to create a tiny flame to spark the wood and sent a palpable warmth throughout the room.
He then disappeared behind a door next to the hearth. The quiet stream of rushing water followed. I rubbed my grimy hands together in greedy excitement as I stalked toward the sound, longing to be clean of the sweat, dirt, and blood still caking my skin.
Azriel hovered over a sizable tub next to a window as tall as the wall itself, the bath conveniently placed beside it to overlook the endless night beyond. When the water level had risen to an acceptable level, he cut off the flow and looked up from the steaming pool he’d created for me. His white hair was almost grey from the dust we’d flown through all evening—it appeared he required a bath of his own.
But not this bath. This tub was mine and mine alone.
He ran a hand through his messy hair and sighed, as if sensing my dismissiveness. “I’ll go down to the kitchens and find something to hold us over for the night, at least until the morning when the staff wakes up. I’ll also get one of them to wash your leathers tomorrow, but for tonight, you can borrow one of my shirts.”
I nodded silently in reply and stood to the side to allow room for his lean figure and great wings to pass. He gave me that unnervingly stimulating smile, like there was a hidden inuendo inside it, but eventually left me to my soak. As soon as the bathroom door locked, my new leathers found the floor in a pungent pile. I slipped my dirty nakedness into the hot water and relaxed as I heard the bedroom door beyond the bathing room close behind him.
The bath salts Azriel had sprinkled into the water smelled delicious on my skin as I scrubbed every fold and hair follicle on my body. The clear water quickly became murky with dirt and bubbles from the soaps I indulged myself with. Heat from the near scalding temperature loosened the sore muscles in my legs, my back, and my shoulders, and I let my head fall limp against the rim of the iron tub.
I felt like I had just shed a second skin, removing the worn leathers and layer of dirt off my body. Whether it was the warm waters, the crackling sound of a fire echoing in the next room, or the quiet peace steadying my heart at last, this place felt welcoming, familiar even. My senses sharpened as my anxiety eased, taking in every part of this new world I was now enthralled in. I didn’t even care if Azriel found me here in my nakedness when he got back, because I was in no rush to leave this bubbly oasis.
Azriel was strange to me. One minute, he was rude and inappropriate, teasing me with his insults. Then he was kind, helpful, and caring on a level that didn’t make sense. He hardly knew me, yet he served me and took care of my needs as if I was someone more important than a random stranger from the wastes. Maybe this was how the world worked outside the mountain. Perhaps a kinder place existed beyond the cold one I was raised to know.
I thought back to the way he’d held me as we flew through the night, the way he’d shoved his leg between my own so I could entangle mine with his. His palms still burned my lower back where they’d gripped me, the impression of his touch lingering long after he’d let me go. The closeness was awkward at first, but after an hour or so, we’d both relaxed in each other’s company, and I’d found myself pressing every inch of my skin against him to hide from the frigid night air whipping around us.
The thought of him sent a familiar wave of heat through my core, stirring something between my legs warmer than the steaming water I soaked in. I wasn’t always virtuous under the mountain—even a dedicated runner like myself had to find moments of release from the stress of training and the pressures of youth. I’d had multiple partners over the past few years, and I enjoyed a good fleeting night in another guy’s cot. I was well aware and thoroughly experienced with the feeling arising inside me as I thought of him, the same sensation I experienced when I looked at him, when he held me.
No, this reaction wasn’t new, but it was stronger than usual. He created an undeniable energy inside me, like the urge to run if I hadn’t trained in a few days. I needed to release this growing urge before I attempted to act on it in a more…precarioussituation. My hands dipped deeper into the water, sliding across my stomach and the peaks of my breast—the place he claimed he wanted to touch. I pictured my hands as his, and the lust in my heart devoured my thoughts. Those eyes, those lips, those fucking wings of silky desire, I needed them all either in my bath now or in my bed tonight.
I chose to take the matter into my own hands and leave him ignorant of the satisfaction he could provide me. I dipped my head under the water’s edge to silence the moans of longing each wave of pleasure created at his imagined touch. Water splashed to the floor as my legs shuddered. This was the only way I could feel him, and I accepted it. Our world was complicated, and I barely knew anything about who or what he was, but that didn’t matter if it was all in my head. Better to be my dark daydream than risk the reality of certain humiliation.
Suddenly, I was being yanked out of the water by the same hands I fantasized about. My arms flailed in surprise, throwing water around the small bathroom and all over Azriel, who was gripping my shoulders with a worried look.
“Gods above, Azriel, what do you think you’re doing?” I asked, furiously crossing my arms in front of my bare chest. His mouth fell open stupidly, but no words formed against the tongue heavy behind his lips.
“Earth to Az? I asked you a question!” I hissed. He blinked several times before replying.
“I’m sorry, I was bringing you a hairbrush, because I don’t have one, and well…you have long hair. And then I heard water splashing and I thought you fell asleep. I didn’t want you to drown.” His voice was quick and defensive, the hairbrush abandoned on the floor behind him. Like he had tossed it in a panic.
“Well, I can assure you I am not drowning. So could you please let me go so I can dry off and meet you back in the bedroom?”
He nodded, quickly withdrawing his hands from my wet skin like it was searing his touch. He stood to leave but hesitated when he reached the doorway. His head turned slightly, a small smirk forming across his profile. “Hold on… Did I just walk in on something?”
“Excuse me?” I asked, my voice sharper than I intended.
“Were you, you know, doing private things in my bathtub?” His head turned a little more to assess my reaction. Did I say he was beautiful? I meant to say he looked like a damn owl with his head spinning completely around his neck.
I continued to gape, appearing guiltier the longer I went without saying something…anything. I wanted to burst like the bubbles floating around me, desiring nothing more than to crash through the window nearby and fall from the face of the earth. Part of me wanted to truly drown in this salted tub.
“It’s all right, darling. It’s only natural,” he teased, furthering my misery as he turned to leave me in my wretched state. He was playing with me, expecting me to surrender and rid myself of this humiliation. But the only way to win this game was to play by his rules—and I wouldn’t let him leave this bathroom victorious.
