Page 26 of The Healer and the Wolf: Part One

Sit in the tub? That seemed a bit strange, but I complied. I wanted anything that Ven would give me. I trusted her implicitly. More than myself.

I was so relaxed I could fall asleep. My body was a bit clunky and slow to respond as I tried to sit. I made it eventually, however, and Ven returned to my side.

“Here. Put this in your lap, please,” she said, handing me a medium-sized square of cloth. My mind belatedly told me it was a towel, and I placed it in my lap to cover my crotch. It took a beat, but I realized that Ven was likely embarrassed over my nudity. That explained why she wasn’t looking at me directly. I’d forgotten humans weren’t as comfortable with nudity as shifters.

Remembering that only made me wonder what it would be like to see Ven in the nude, her beautiful, toned skin dripping from her shower, cheeks flushed. I wasverygrateful for the towel when I felt my body respond to that mental image, and I had to chase those thoughts off before my cock could fully stand at attention. The last thing I wanted was for Ven to feel disrespected when she was trying to help me.

“I’m gonna sit behind you now,” Ven said, bending over to roll up her pant legs high above her knees. I tried not to stare at her calves. I’d never seen her without pants. It seemed like a very Victorian thing to be affected by it, but I couldn’t help it.

My eyes were glued to the elegant taper of her muscled calves, and I longed to see how they blended into those thick thighs of hers. What would they feel like wrapped around me? My heart rate accelerated at the thought.

Ireallyneeded to get those feelings under control, because I could sense the wilder side of me, the wolf I’d only recently escaped, stirring within me. I didn’t want that at all. I’d just found Leo again. I didn’t want to be any less of him.

So, I focused on breathing in deeply through my nose and then out through my mouth while Ven sat behind me. I was all too aware of her presence, especially with her bare feet on either side of my legs.

“Scoot toward me an inch or two.”

I did, hardly daring to speak.

“I’m gonna wash your hair first and then I want you to lean back, so I can shave you. I’ve only ever done my own body hair, but how different can it be?”

I nodded, tongue still heavy in my mouth. It felt like I was about to reach a new level of metamorphosis, and it scared me as much as I wanted it.

“Time to lather you up with some shampoo.”

She said it in a sing-song way, like it was the simplest thing, but to me it wasn’t. She reached to the side and grabbed another bottle, then squeezed some liquid into her hand that smelled like roses and vanilla. Yet another thing to add to the many things flooding my nose, but I welcomed it.

Then she was putting it in my hair. Her fingers moved across my scalp in concentrated circles, scrubbing gently, almost like how she’d cleaned my back.

I wasn’t prepared for how damngoodit felt. All sliding sensation and thick, honeyed relaxation pouring over me. It was inescapable, but I didn’t want to run. I wanted to be fully enveloped in it, drowned it in, until it washed away the last of the confusion clouding my mind.

While she cleansed my scalp, I drifted off into some completely magical place. Again, I wouldn’t have minded if this moment went on forever, but all good things had to come to an end.

“Time to rinse. Close your eyes until I tell you to open them, okay? This stuff burns like hell if you get it into your eyes.”

“Okay.”

Standing, she took the showerhead and poured heated water down my chest and lap. She fiddled with it and then the spray of water became narrower and stronger. I barely remembered that she’d told me to close my eyes and slammed them shut right as the suds began to pour down my forehead. It was pure bliss—there was no other word for it—and I succumbed to the loveliness of it all.

Time meant nothing while Ven tended to me, every caress more soothing than I ever imagined it could be. It was connection in its purest form, and something I had been missing for so long. It was beautiful, poignant, and so completely raw that I was sure if my eyes weren’t closed, I would have been crying.

Ven went through multiple steps, including conditioner and some other things, before she softly told me to tilt my head back.

I didn’t think it was possible, but every cell in my body was even more attuned to Ven’severythingas her thighs bracketed my shoulders. The way they gave under the pressure of my arms was intoxicating, and I could feel the soft cushion of her curves, and strong, resilient bands of muscle underneath. She was strong. Shifter strong. Our pups would be?—

Whoa.

Whoa.

I cut that line of thinking off. Ven was helping me. Getting carried away with fantasies of breeding her wouldn’t do either of us any good, even if she was a siren beckoning me to worship every aspect of her. I could control myself.

“Be very still for me, okay? I don’t want to nick you.”

I didn’t have the wherewithal to tell her it would heal before the blood could even get down my chin, too enraptured as she lathered my beard. Another floral fragrance. So many scents, and yet hers dominated them all, turning the wellspring of smells into a bouquet that emphasized her and only her.

Was this what being human was all about? The excitement, the sensations, the connection? It seemed like it. How had I lived so long without them? How would I survive if it was taken away from me again?

“There you are. All done.”

---