Page 75 of A Deception of Courts

“Then let’s hope we can both fit in the tub.”

Duncan tensed beneath my gaze. He took a shuddering breath, deeply inhaling through his nose.

“Where there is a will,” he said, nostrils flaring, hands gripping my thighs with a silent need for me. “And there is a certainly a way with the thoughts currently occupying my head.”

The water was tepid when we’d climbed in, but now it was borderline detrimental, to Duncan at least. I rather liked the cold. It was second nature to me, more comforting than I could explain. Yet Duncan showed no sign that he was bothered. Instead, he pulled my naked body atop him and used me as a blanket as we lounged in the brass tub together.

“One memory keeps surfacing of us in Finstock when you could hardly turn your gaze away from me as I was the one who bathed.”

I laughed, wafting my hands through the cloudy water to create small waves that lapped against Duncan’s muscle-carved leg. “Where else was I to look?”

“Believe me…” Duncan’s cock, which was currently pressed into my lower back as I lay between his legs, twitched. “I would have felt pure jealousy if you had given the brick wall of my old room more attention than you did to me.”

I rolled onto my front, not caring for the rub of our skin nor the splash of tepid water that fell beyond the curved lip of the tub. “Do I even want to know what you thought of me back then?”

“I thought you were trouble,” Duncan replied confidently, one brow raised above his mischievous glare. “And I wasn’t wrong. Not one bit.”

One of the many things I loved about Duncan was how my fingers tangled willingly in the coarse hairs across his chest. When they were wet, the hairs stood out more like a thin carpet of masculinity that set a fire deep in the pit of my belly.

“Interesting. We shared the same first impression then.”

Duncan’s lips parted into an exaggerated O-shape. “Are you telling me you didn’t wish to throw yourself into the tub at that very moment? To have your way with me?”

“Nope,” I said, pouting. “In fact, given the chance, I would’ve frozen the water you submerged beneath and left you for dead. But in hindsight, I would never have discovered the best fuck of my life if I did that.”

“Now that is a compliment. Although Robin, I’m beginning to believe you only require me for one thing.”

“I need you for lots of things, Duncan,” I replied quickly, smirking to myself. “But right now, I want you to pluck me from this tub and take me to bed.”

He had tried his best to distract my mind, and it had worked to an extent. However, there was one thing I was ready for now, and that was to truly be with him. Connected, in flesh and bone, for the final hours of our time alone.

Duncan leaned upward, water sloshing around him. His stomach tensed and hardened into six perfectly compact mounds. He took my face in his hands and added pressure to both cheeks. “Ask me again, but this time do it properly.”

I also loved this side of Duncan. How his joking mannerism could shift to something more powerful and demanding.

“Please…” I began, widening my eyes to give a sense of false innocence. I batted my eyelashes dramatically, looking up through them at him. “Remove me from this bath and take me to bed, pretty please.”

“To sleep?”

I shook my head. “Eventually, but not straight away.”

Duncan didn’t wait for further explanation. He gathered all his strength and composed himself as he moved from beneath me. A wave of water lapped into my face. I laughed, feeling the well of excited glee fill my lungs like air. Suddenly, arms wove beneath me, and greedy fingers dug into my skin. The weightless feeling that followed was pure euphoria. In return for Duncan holding me, I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on for dear life.

My damp thighs did well to grip around his waist and squeeze. His hands, perfectly placed beneath my ass, held me up. Duncan didn’t say a word as he padded from the bathing room, leaving wet footprints on the aged oak floor as he trailed toward the bed chamber. I kept quiet, too, enjoying the easy rhythm our hearts fell into when our naked skin was pressed together.

Only when Duncan stopped, just before the bed within the simply decorated room, did I say a word.

“What are you going to do with me?” I asked, heart practically leaping in my throat.

“Not what you may expect.”

Suddenly, I was in the air, swallowing a scream as my body fell and crashed into the feather-stuffed mattress. It took a moment for the world to still and my mind to catch up with what had happened.

“Did you just… throw me?” I asked, accusation drawing each word out and increasing them in pitch.

“I did.”

I was on my front, with hardly a chance to move, when Duncan’s guiding force overwhelmed me. “Tonight, it is about you.”

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