“I do.” She lifted her long, dark curls off her pale, white shoulders. “I like the way you look at me.”
Your father won’t.
He rolled up his sleeves and slowly began to rub the soap over her hands. Waited for her to take it from him and ask him to turn away. She didn’t. She wasn’t going to. He was her missing half. He rubbed the soap up her arms. He lathered her shoulders. Lathered her breasts. Was very thorough with her breasts. He cupped one in his hand and slowly slid his thumb across its taut nipple. Lily let out a soft gasp. “Do that again.”
He did, this time with his tongue.
“Crumpets! I had no idea it could ever be like this.” She demanded more, closing her eyes and allowing him access to every inch of her beautiful, pink body, driving him over the edge with her breathy moans and innocence. He lathered her everywhere, rinsed her off, and lathered her again. He licked and tasted, ate about half of that soap lather because men were stupid that way, never stopping to think about anything but sex, and a hot, lavender-scented Lily tasted better than anything he’d ever tasted in his entire life.
He dropped the soap and dipped his finger between the junction of her thighs. “Ewan!” She arched her back and gazed at him in wondrous confusion. He kissed her, parting her lips with his tongue and gently plundering her warm, inviting mouth as his finger plundered her nether lips, gently stroking her swollen essence, encouraging her to move against the pressure, and watching her beautiful face, the graceful arch of her body, the glorious peak of her nipples as her body exploded in pleasure. She clung to his shoulders, called his name in achingly sweet ecstasy. “Ewan. Ewan.”
When she’d calmed, she was his Lily again, the beautiful bluestocking with trusting blue eyes and a smile as bright as sunshine. “I never knew baths could be quite so... interesting.”
He grinned despite the rock-hard pain between his thighs. “Are you hungry?”
She nodded, her smile so sweet and radiant, he wanted to swallow her up in his arms, haul her to the large, neatly made up bed, and bury himself inside of her again and again, as often as possible before his heart gave out from the intense excitement of repeated ecstasy. Death by sexual frenzy. He wondered how many male baboons died that way.
Lily licked her lips. “In truth, I’m famished. But also curious.”
When was she not?
“Do you know any interesting sexual tricks with food?”
He hauled her out of the tub, grabbed a cloth to dry off her perfect, pink body, wrapped the large cloth around her, and carried her to the small table where the maid had set out their food. He kicked out the stool beside it. “Sit down and eat while I wash up. No damn tricks with food.”
She looked disappointed.
He set her on the stool more urgently than intended and took a step back. He wasn’t merely hot and hard. He was on fire and about to erupt with the force of a volcano. “Lily—”
“Before you lecture me about what we should and should not be doing, I want you to know that I liked it.”
“I know, lass. I liked watching you.” His throat constricted, an effect of the heat radiating from his loins. “But I’m not made of stone.”
She glanced at the hard, throbbing bulge of his groin against his trousers.
“I don’t despoil virgins. We’ve already crossed the line.”
“What line?”
“Any line. Though we needed to stop at this inn for your sake, I ought to have taken another room. I shouldn’t be in here. With you.”
She reached out and took his hand. “Ewan, I’m glad you’re with me. Here. Now. I was scared and frantic a few hours ago, and now I feel as though I’m in heaven. You make me feel this way. The whole time I was at Sparrow Hall, I thought of you. I knew you’d come for me, and that knowledge kept me sane and breathing. I loved the touch of your hands on my body as I bathed, the hungry warmth of your lips on mine. You washed away the stench of my ordeal.”
“Och, Lily—”
“Ewan, I love you.”
His heart shot into his throat. Lord, those words. Simple words. I love you. They felt so right and natural, and all the more wonderful because they came from Lily. “You’re overwhelmed right now, lass. You only think you do because you believe I saved you. I didn’t. You had already escaped on your own.”
“You did save me. I wouldn’t have made it very far on my own. I know the difference between love and gratitude. I love you. I’ve felt this way for quite some time.”
“We’ve only known each other a month.”
“I know. But these feelings I have for you seem eternal. They’re powerful and deep, as though existing since the beginning of time. I don’t know how else to explain it.” She cast him a poignantly hesitant smile. “They’re not always good feelings. When I saw you with Callie—”