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I found myself staring at Vas as he lathered up some soap in his hands and ran it over his shoulders and chest. He must’ve sensed me looking because his eyes flicked up. I immediately glanced away.
“Sorry,” I muttered, staring down and making sure the bubbles were still obscuring my nakedness. To my relief nothing could be seen below my shoulders.
“What are you sorry for?” I lifted my gaze and found him arching one eyebrow.
“For ogling you. Or whatever. Just ignore me.”
His mouth curved. The edges of his eyes crinkled, making them appear so much warmer. It was rare to see him smile like that. “Ogling?”
“You know what I mean.” I swallowed thickly and pretended to wash some non-existent dirt off my arm. Silence fell before I asked, “Did you ever…” I trailed off, suddenly embarrassed.
Vas glanced at me. “Did I ever what?”
I cleared my throat. “Um, what I meant to ask was, did you ever have a partner in the mine? You were there for such a long time and I just wondered if—”
“I’m not a virgin, if that’s what you’re asking,” he answered with a bemused expression.
I flushed. “Right, no, of course you aren’t.”
“I had a few lovers,” Vas said then sighed. “After a while I gave up on love. It seemed futile in such a brutal place. There’s only so many times you can see a person die of hunger or dehydration before you harden. That part of me was closed off for a long time until…”
His eyes met mine but he didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t have to. I knew what he was going to say. That part of him was dead until he marked me.
We were quiet again. I sat in the tub, silently listening to him bathe and keeping my eyes well and truly to myself. When I finally looked his way again he was reclining in the water, his head back, eyes closed as he enjoyed a soak. He looked…peaceful, serene even.
It was at odds with the fact that we were going out tonight to commit a murder.
I couldn’t help letting my gaze wander over him, the regal upward curve of his horns, the straight, masculine slope of his nose, the water droplets that beaded on his skin, his mouth…
“You know what I can’t stop wondering about,” he said, breaking the quiet and stopping me in my tracks from having impure thoughts about his mouth. My gaze flicked to his just as he opened his eyes.
“What?” I asked. Why was I so breathy? It was just a bath, and he was all the way on the other side of it.
“I can’t stop wondering about that vision of the future Sarasin showed you,” he finished and my pulse spiked.
“Oh,” I said, frowning. “Why would you be wondering about that?”
“I have this odd sense that there’s something you’re not telling me.” His gaze was probing.
I froze in the water, my eyes widening at the intense, scrutinizing way he regarded me. “Vas,” I said, emitting a shaky breath. “Now’s not the time to talk about that.”
He moved a small bit closer and nerves fizzled through me. “So, there is something?”
I trembled because he kept moving closer until there was barely a foot between us. We were both naked and it was far too much stimuli for my tetchy self to handle.
“Darya, tell me,” he whispered, and his deep voice hit a low place in my stomach.
“I’m not sure you’re ready to hear it.” I certainly hadn’t been ready when Sarasin showed me the vision.
I backed all the way up until my shoulders met the edge of the tub. Vas had no qualms caging me in and I gasped when I felt his arm brush mine. There was something about the water and our nakedness that made his touch feel electric.
“Darya, what did you see?” he quietly demanded and my nipples beaded beneath the water. How was he managing to spike my nerves and turn me on at the same time?
My throat tightened. I wanted to tell him, because then maybe he’d understand why I’d come to Oreylia. Why it was so important that I helped him escape. “If I tell you,” I said, apprehension thrumming through me. “You have to promise not to start acting different.”
“Why would I act different?”
“Because there are things that…transpire between us in the future, but that doesn’t mean I’m anywhere near ready for similar things to transpire between us at this particular moment in time.”
Something like confusion, then dawning realisation, then surprise flashed across his face. Finally, he rumbled, “I promise I won’t act different.”
He was right next to me then, our shoulders brushing. I felt incredibly vulnerable and exposed, but maybe if I just told him, got it all out in the open, it would be less awkward in the long run.
