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“Just... stay with me.”
Eden nodded. Dante was taking deep breaths, obviously trying to wait until it passed. With her free hand, Eden gently began to stroke his hair, very slowly and softly. Dante let out a long sigh of relief, and his shoulders relaxed a little. He closed his eyes and leaned his head down. Eden felt strangely happy by that sight. An almost-naked Dante, looking so vulnerable, and tame for once too... This strangely felt a lot closer and more intimate, seated together on the cold tiled floor of the bathroom, than when she was riding him a few hours ago.
Feeling a bit daring, Eden silently leaned in closer and kissed his forehead very, very gently. To her surprise, that was enough to lessen that frowning of his a bit. Dante’s breathing seemed a bit calmer too, and his grip on her wrist loosened. She waited for him to say something, or feel better. Eden wondered how long it usually lasted and how many times it happened. Considering how a usually cool-headed and calm man was entirely overtaken by the pain, Eden didn’t even want to imagine what he was going through right now. She could only sit by his side, and be as patient as he needed her to be.
After a while, Dante moved her hand, still holding her wrist, to place it against his cheek. Eden naturally opened it to caress his skin. She brushed the little spikes of his growing beard under her fingers very gently.
“I can’t... stay away from you.”
She hadn’t expected to hear him talk, and he had spoken so faintly, Eden wasn’t sure what she had heard. She tried to calm her heart and smiled.
“I noticed.”
He found the strength to smile back, although it was more of a tense, edgy grin.
“I don’t know why,” he resumed. “Just... the nearness of you makes everything else so faint. I want you... I need you.”
The possessiveness in that last sentence was a lot more like Dante De Luca, and it made Eden smile. She gently kissed the corner of his lips, but backed away as soon as he tried to kiss her lips.
“Come on, let’s get in the bathtub,” she said. “I’m getting cold, and I’m all sticky too. You could use that shower as well.”
“I don’t smell good?” he chuckled.
“You smell like a musky tiger. You still have a meeting to attend with the other Zodiacs too, don’t you?”
Dante sighed. He didn’t try to move, though, so Eden had to pull him up until he stood, and they walked together to get into the bathtub. Dante stood against the wall, while Eden had the shower running with hot water from above. She’d never get tired of that luxury... She could go without food, but a hot shower a day was her definition of heaven.
Leaving him alone for a while, Eden freed her hands from his grip to take her shower, grimacing when she got to cleaning her tender parts...
“You animal,” she groaned.
She heard him chuckle behind her.
“You’re the one who jumped on me.”
“That’s not...”
“Rode me.”
“Stop it.”
“...and gagged me.”
“Will you shut up?!”
He laughed again, but at least, he didn’t insist. Now Eden was blushing, and began furiously washing her hair with generous amounts of citrus-smelling shampoo. Her long hair was a pain to take care of, and some days, she was on the verge of shaving it off or something. Now, she was happy she had kept it until the day she could give it proper and decent care...
To her surprise, larger fingers suddenly came from behind to help her massage her scalp gently. Eden lowered her hands and closed her eyes, enjoying the impromptu massage.
“Feeling better...?”
“I should be the one asking you that,” she retorted.
“I’m fine.”
Eden wanted to insist he didn’t look fine earlier, but that might have been too soon, and she wasn’t one to prey on someone’s weaknesses. That looked like a significant weakness, though, so she really wanted to ask. Instead, she stood silent, and waited until he was done. Dante took a long time, though. He was obviously enjoying this. His fingers made soft circles in her hair, washed the soap off, and then applied some other fancy product on each strand. If it wasn’t for the hot water running, Eden might have been a bit embarrassed at their position, the two of them standing in the bathtub and sharing this intimate moment together.
“Dante...”
