Page 29 of Sheltered in the Storm

“I was,” I admitted. “I’m sorry.”

“I am not offended.” His tentacles lowered the back of myhead into the water. “I am glad to hear you joke, even if it is at my expense.”

A few minutes later, as he gently lathered my hair and massaged my scalp with his fingertips, I murmured with my eyes closed, “Will you start sleeping next to me in your own bed again?”

“I will,” he said, equally quietly. “If that is what you want.”

The hot water, steamy room, and Vos’s gentle touch had me nearly asleep sitting up. “Thank you. I hate sleeping alone in your great big bed.”

“These past few days have been difficult for both of us.”

He lowered my upper body into the water to rinse my hair. Gods, his fingers were so incredibly gentle and soothing as he untangled my hair. And the smell of the hair soap was so pleasant and natural—a far cry from the chemically based cleansers aboard the outpost.

“This change of heart is not because you believe you owe me for caring for you?” Vos asked.

My eyes were closed because I didn’t want to get soap in them, so I couldn’t see his face, but his voice sounded guarded. And I couldn’t blame him for wondering.

“Not at all,” I promised. “Your kindness is a factor, but far from the only one.”

“I will take you at your word. And now your lovely hair is clean.” Vos raised my upper body and wiped water from my eyes with a towel. “Shall I wash the rest of you?”

“Yes, please.” I opened my eyes to find him watching me intently. “What?” I asked, frowning.

“You flinched several times.” His concern was palpable. “I am worried. And I wish I could ease your pain.”

“It will be a long road to recovery. We both know that.” I took his hand in mine. “But I’ll take it over the alternative, okay? The fact I’m here at all is a miracle.”

“Several miracles, in fact.” He hesitated, then kissed myforehead. “I will finish washing you, and then we will lie down together in the bed, if that is all right with you.”

I pictured myself curling up under the blankets, still warm from the bath, with Vos’s tentacles around me. Heavenly. “Yes, please, Vos. Thank you.” After a beat, I added, “Poe will be happy her scheme to get you in here with me worked.”

The corners of his mouth turned up for the first time in days. “She is a good friend,” he said, and picked up a washcloth and another bar of soap, this one green. “Perhaps later, if there is a break in the rain, I can take you outside to see the garden.”

“Even if it’s raining, I’d still like to go,” I said. “I won’t melt in the rain, you know. I haven’t actuallyfeltrain in years, other than on the raider boat. I lived on an outpost in orbit around the planet Solan.”

Lived, notlive.

Whether Vos noticed my choice of words, I couldn’t tell. He lathered up the washcloth and began to wash me, starting with my face and shoulders.

When the cloth moved below my collarbone, though, he paused, his gaze on mine.

“It’s all right,” I said.

Carefully and extremely gently because they were covered in bruises and still healing from the injuries that had mangled my insides, he washed my chest, my breasts, my stomach, and my back with light swirling motions. And then he soaped my legs, lifting each out of the water one at a time, and then my feet and toes.

There was nothing overtly sexual about this bathing, and I thought he was being oh so carefulnotto make it feel romantic, but it was deeply sensual. My skin tingled wherever he touched. And the closer his hand and the cloth came to my inner thighs, the faster I breathed. My stomach fluttered in anticipation.

With his glowing gaze fixed on my face, he nudged my legs apart. His touch was so soft, so caring, and so intimate. Mychest heaved with ragged breaths as the cloth brushed my most delicate skin.

“Calla,” he said, his voice rough.

I couldn’t help it—I made a desperate little sound and grabbed his arm before he could move away. “It’s all right,” I said again, though it was far more than all right to be touched with so much care and reverence. I’d never experienced that kind of touch before.

He kissed my hair, withdrew his arm gently from my grip, and squeezed the soapy water from the cloth before draping it neatly over the side of the tub. “We are done.”

I took a shaky breath and tried for a smile. “I hope I smell better now.”

“You have never smelled anything but good to me.” Vos sat on the edge of the tub, draped a thick towel over his thighs, and lifted me from the water to sit crossways on his lap.

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