Page 64 of The Scent of Intuition
“I’ve… ahem… Bea.” His mouth was too dry to speak.
He reached for a towel from the stack on the stool to wipe his hands.
But this was a virgin daughter of a duke. She had set her cap on a prince from another country, and he sighed and gripped the towel hard as if it could absorb not just the water from his skin but also the desire throbbing in his body.
He didn’t dare turn back around to see her, but there was a slight gasp.
Alfie hung the towel on the hook on the wall. “Call me if you need anything.”
“I need you to show me how it feels.”
Alfie hung both arms limp beside his body. Her words were about to defeat the restraint he’d tried to flex around her like a muscle, but he wasn’t strong enough anymore.
“Violet said it can be done with the fingers. I want your hand, Alfie. Just this once, without any consequences.”
Impossible.
And impossible to resist.
Alfie shook his head, his back still turned to her.
He unbuttoned the sleeves and rolled them up over his elbows.
Then he turned around. “Bea, I like you too much for this to be inconsequential.”
She nodded, seated upright in the tub. “Me too.”
Her breasts were above the water, both of her little pink nipples exposed and bright pink.
“I don’t want to wait anymore. I want you to show me.”
“This is reserved for your future husband. It can’t be me,” Alfie hoped he’d said it aloud. It was certainly the right thing to do but then she arched her back, and his restraint evaporated.
His tongue twitched in his mouth at the sight, his appetite for her overpowering.
Bea’s gaze was dark. He took two large steps to the tub and knelt on the side.
When Alfie put his right hand in the water and leaned his left on the rim of the tub, he gave her time to stop him.
But she didn’t.
“This won’t leave traces on your body, Bea, but it is not something you can forget you’ve experienced once you have.”
“I don’t ever want to forget anything I’ve ever experienced with you. Not now, not ever.”
Alfie narrowed his eyes. “What?”
“I have a flower that I received many years ago. Someone gave it to me, and I kept it pressed in paper. It’s a constant reminder of the time I didn’t speak because I wasn’t supposed to. But I never forgave myself for not even asking for his name.”
Alfie’s heart leapt. That was him! But before he could find a way to phrase it, she took his right hand and pulled it to her center.
“I’m not going to not ask for this,” she said, looking down at her middle, hidden under the foamy water, instead of at him.
He’d missed a year’s worth of chances when he wasn’t allowed to speak to her. It was worse now and he mustn’t do what he wanted.
“I’d give you anything you want, Bea. Pleasure, if that’s what you want.”
My heart and soul are yours if you want me.
