Page 75 of Sinful Mates

I circled runes on his chest, leaving them unfinished, not wanting to spell him, enjoying his smiles as he guessed the meaning.

“The world won’t go to shit if you take time out to relax.” Climbing to a stand, I stretched my leg inside the water, and he made room for me to slide behind him, squeezing him between my thighs. “It will still be there. Maat will always need balancing. Reckoning delivered.”

I collected the loofah and dipped it in the water. He groaned as I dripped water over his shoulders then ran the bar of soap along his arms, lathering him. Groans that deepened as I scrubbed his arms with the loofah, working out his tension.

Nurse A came back with a vengeance. “From now on, I want you to do some yoga stretches or you’ll end up a hunchback with a bad neck.”

He scratched his stomach. “What else, your majesty?”

“Smartass.” I splashed water at him, admiring the way it sluiced down his chest, glistening like jewels. Damn, I was a lucky girl. “I’m serious.”

“Sorceress,” he rasped, leaning his neck on my chest, his head somewhat level with mine, angled to the side.

“Yes?” I kissed along his shoulders.

“Thank you.” He stroked my knee. “For being a pain in my ass. For caring for me. For looking after my health.”

I beamed at him. “You’re welcome.”

We were silent while he enjoyed my ministrations, until he opened up to me with, “Mom instilled a hard work ethic in me when I was young, traveling the Australian fair circuit, selling her crystals, books, and potions to put food on the table or go hungry.” His hand moved beneath my knee as I scrubbed his back. “We lived in the back of her van converted to look like a medieval wagon. Slept squished between boxes. Up at 6AM making necklaces, rings, bracelets, and trinkets. Back at it at night after I did my homework.”

Oh, my poor man. No wonder he worked hard and refused to stop until he finished a task. He didn’t know how to relax when working like a dog was ingrained in him. Something he wouldn’t have to do with me. We were buffered by the club and so long as we defended it, we would always have an income and never go hungry or homeless.

I let him go on because confession was good for the soul. “The only kids I got to play with were from other traveling families. We never put down roots and always moved around based on the fair schedules.”

“That must have been hard.” I scrubbed his stomach. “That why you love books so much?”

“Yeah.” He clasped my wrist, holding onto me as I cleaned his body. “I learned pretty quick how to defend us against thieves and con artists.”

“No wonder you ventured into law.” I breathed lightly in his ear, imagining him as a scrawny kid fending off thieves that attempted to take what small earnings his mother made at a fair. Something no child should have to do when they needed to feel safe.

“I didn’t want my family to go without.” His other hand massaged my calf. “Starve if we didn’t make many sales, live out the back of a van, have little privacy or free time, and work day and night to make ends meet.”

Growing up with little, it was no wonder he treated himself to luxurious clothing brands and spoiled me with gifts. He never wanted me to suffer as he did as a child. But I was far from skinny, hungry, and scared.

“Look what it got me.” His hand rubbed up and down mine as I worked his skin into a lather. “Divorced at twenty-eight. Left with the clothing on my back. Right back where I started.”

“Fuck. No.” I stopped the rant nearly cascading from me. First, I needed him to pour out his soul. To understand his inner thought processes.

“Mom and I rebuilt after Dad left us with nothing.” Castor lifted my leg over his to possessively link us together, our bond entwined like aerial silks. “I rebuilt after my ex. Again, after Liz died.” At last we came to the heart of it: he thought he would lose me too.

I let the loofah sink to the tub bottom and I wrapped my arms around his middle. “You’re not going to lose me.Ever.” The last word came out a greedy growl. “Do you hear me?”

I felt his smile through the kiss he angled back to leave on my chin. “I pity the poor man who angers you, Sorceress.”

I crushed him tighter. “You will if you break my heart.”

The words shattered something on the bond. Repentance? Certainly not his hesitance, as that remained like a wall between us.

Shit. Big mouth.I hadn’t intended it to emerge so aggressively and fiercely, but he set something off in me. A territorial urge and possessiveness over him. Staking my damn claim. Conveying my intentions to have him.

I hurried and finished washing him, breaking my own damn rules of this engagement.

“On to task two.” I patted his side, hinting at him to get up.

For a moment, he rested against me, then sighed, getting out. I soaked in his delicious dripping form for a few moments before toweling him dry.

All his resolve to fight me fled as I led him into his room, selecting underwear, pants, and a shirt to wear. Castor preferred lighter colors. Whites, greys, pale blues to highlight his tanned skin. But damn, I liked him in darker colors. Navy t-shirt with eggplant-colored underwear.

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