Page 21 of Keeping Sarah

“We only ever make peace with our enemies, Rex. Can’t make peace with your friends, can you?”

To his credit, he laughed. “I suppose I have never thought of it like that.” He paused, as though he were in deep thought. “Through that door to your left is my bathroom and in it, you will find a delightfully oversized bathtub with very hot water, perchance you would like to bathe.”

A hot bath sounded like heaven after everything I had been through. I threw open the door, only then realizing how foolish that was. He could have been lying. There could have been some great beast behind the door.

But it was only the most magnificent bathroom I had ever seen. I gasped at the sight. “How…why?”

“Baths are one of life’s great pleasures. I designed this manor to exceed my pleasures.”

The bathroom was nearly as large as the bedroom, with sinks and mirrors and what I could only think of as a party shower—there had to be room in there for twelve, and benches lined the glass walls. Any metal item was finished in shining copper, while most other items were pale wood. But the showpiece was the tub.

It had eight clawed copper feet, two at the ends and six along the sides. The gleaming white tub was deep enough to drown me and around ten feet long, big enough to fit any Ladrian. He walked me through how the massive faucet worked and once the water was running, I stripped down to get in.

But he stopped me before I did. “You wouldn’t want to forget towels and oils or bubbles, would you?”

I grinned and let him guide me around to all the hidden cabinets of his fantasy bathroom. As I poured in a jasmine oil bubble mixture, I teased him, “I had no idea you were so girly, Rex.”

He chuckled. “There is a great deal you do not know about me. For instance, did you know when you bounce near the mirrors, I can see your scrumptious naked body out of the periphery of your vision?”

Not that it mattered, since we were going to share my body for the foreseeable future. He was bound to see things I wished he would not. But still, I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Pervert.”

“So youdoknow some things about me,” he said facetiously.

I laughed and carefully lowered myself in the tub. The sizzling water locked onto my sore muscles. It was an effort not to float, at first. But once I warmed up, I let myself float on those steamy bubbles. It was strange. Part of me felt like I should be working on getting separated from Rex, but another part of me was glad to be in the luxurious tub and relaxing.I deserve a little bit of a break, right?

“You do,” he answered, his voice soothing me.

I took a deep breath and let my limbs go limp. Still, I mostly floated.

“You deserve to relieve your stress in whatever ways you want, Sarah.”

Half a smile, and I gently nodded, trying not to splash or sink.

“What do you like to do to relax?” he asked in a low, deep tone.

“Baths are a good start. I had a friend who I traded coffee from the coffeeshop I worked at for the most incredible massages—"

“Was she pretty?”

“Hewas handsome. Very strong hands, nice shoulders. Cute butt.”

Rex chuckled softly. “And where did those hands work?”

The heat of the water filled me up, until it became my own. “Mostly my shoulders, but sometimes my hamstrings.”

“When he worked your hamstrings, did his fingers ever wander?”

I frowned. “How do you mean?”

A sensation pressed against my inner thigh. “There, perhaps?”

“That was odd. Almost like I felt fingers there.”

“I imagine that was strange for you.” Rex’s voice held a smirk. “Did your friend ever touch you there?”

“Sometimes, if I had been on my feet a lot.”

“And did his fingers ever trespass any higher than that?”

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