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I shake my head. “Not unless I bang up my back. Which I’d imagine would hurt anyway, but maybe they make it hurt a little more.”
“I’ll still be careful.”
The substance he spreads across my damp skin is warmer and more slippery than I expected. With each stroke of Casimir’s fingers, I feel as if it’s sinking through the mottled ridges, deeper into my flesh.
It’s probably weird that the act sends another pang of desire through my core. I grope for a conversational subject that’ll distract me from my lustful urges.
“How did you end up in this line of work anyway?” I settle on. “You’ve made it sound as if you grew up always planning to become a courtesan.”
I’ve heard of large noble families directing their youngest children who have no chance of inheriting into the arts of various sorts, but I wouldn’t have thought they usually decide it very early on.
Casimir gives a hum of agreement in answer to my words. “It’s a family calling. My mother served the barons and baronesses, traveling with them in the royal court from place to place. I believe her mother served the same way before her.”
“Oh.” I guess that makes sense as well—that the practitioners of the sensual arts who mingle with nobility are seen as nobles as well. And quite possibly for his grandmother to have ended up in that position, she was noble to begin with. “And you wanted to follow their footsteps?”
“It’s what I was raised for. It’s what I do best.”
I can’t stop myself from craning my neck to peer over my shoulder at him. “Did you have any chance to try doing anything else?”
He shrugs as he returns the lid to the salve and rinses his fingers. “I wasn’t inclined to. When you have an obvious path to follow, and you’re happy to do so, there’s no need to go looking elsewhere.”
How much of a choice was it really, if he was told he was meant to serve others this way from the moment he could understand anything at all?
Casimir guides me back against the end of the tub. Sitting up this way, the bubbles graze the undersides of my breasts.
“You don’t need to worry about me, Ivy,” he says, as if he can sense my doubts. “It truly is a joy to see the delight I can bring.”
I frown at the faucet across from me. “I just—I don’t think anyone should beboundby who their family was.”
“I don’t feel constrained. But the fact that you’d say that is one of the reasons I like you.”
I think his head has dipped a little closer behind me.
His breath tickles over my neck. His hands come to rest on my shoulders again.
Suddenly it’s hard to pull my thoughts together. Too many sparks are flaring beneath my skin.
I end up saying, inanely, “You like me, do you?”
“Of course I do. What’s not to like?”
His tone is casual enough that I can hardly take it as a statement of devotion. Am I really anything like a friend or just a momentary diversion?
But then he lets his hand drift over my shoulder and down my chest, leaning close enough that his lips brush my ear, and any lingering questions flee my mind.
“Would you like me to show you how much I do?” Casimir murmurs, his fingers caressing the slope of my breast just above the nipple.
Anticipatory pleasure jolts through my nerves. I lick my lips, and any reason I could have to protest feels very far away.
He wants to do this. I’m not remotely taking advantage.
The magic I’m hiding might be horrifying, but it isn’t going to hurt him.
I can accept this for me, for all the life I won’t get to lead… as long ashe’sreally doing it for me.
My voice sounds distant to my own ears. “In case it matters to you, Julita’s found a method of pulling away inside my head to give me some privacy. She did that earlier, after I got in the bath. She isn’t really here right now.”
Casimir simply chuckles. “Good. Because I don’t get the impression that you’re much of an exhibitionist.”
