Page 71 of Tender Blackguard

The words hovered in the quiet heavy atmosphere of the room while he stared at her. Tension was evident on every line of his face and infused every muscle in his body.

But she wasn’t deterred.

She could see how badly he wanted her. His desire was a physical heat that drew her. And as she stood there, confident and patient, she watched a lifetime of resistance slowly sliding away from him. Finally, with a fierce light burning in his gaze, he lowered his foot into the water and pushed himself to a more upright position in the tub. Then he lifted a hand and turned it palm up.

“Join me.”

Chapter Twenty-four

With her heart filling her throat and her body nearly shaking with need, Lark stepped forward and placed her hand in his. The warmth and assurance of his fingers curling around hers calmed her. He wasn’t going to send her away. He wasn’t going to berate her for her boldness or deny the hunger between them.

Instead, he drew her closer.

Without words, he urged her to step into the tub. She settled herself between his bent knees and leaned back against the opposite end of the deep basin with her knees drawn in toward her chest to keep from crowding him in the limited space.

“Relax,” he murmured.

As she forced her body to soften into the silky warmth of the water, he set her hand on the edge of the tub. Then he reached beneath the water. Her breath caught on a gasp when she felt his long fingers wrapping around her ankles. Though she struggled to ascertain what he intended, she offered no resistance as he lifted her feet to set them against his chest.

His grip shifted and he ran his strong thumbs along the tender arches of her soles. She issued a heavy sigh and closed her eyes.

She might’ve heard a rough chuckle rumble from his chest, but the sensations he invoked with the deft work of his fingers on the most sensitive areas of her feet and toes prevented her from taking a peek to verify. She’d already become lost in the pleasure of it. The delicate dance of his fingertips. The perfect pressure and almost intuitive attention to particularly sensitive points. He seemed to know each secret spot that would spark a rush of pleasure along every nerve in her body. To a woman who spent every day on her feet, walking back and forth across hard floors and up and down stairs, that he would put so much care and attention into easing the constant soreness she’d come to expect each day was touching in a way she couldn’t have anticipated.

She felt cherished and cared for. She’d never felt such things before.

Her body was utterly languid and soft by the time his hands circled up around her calves, gently kneading there before guiding her feet around his hips. Lark opened her eyes as she was opened to him, but it was a heavy gaze that met hers Met and held as he reached forward and palmed her hips to slowly draw her closer between his spread knees. She parted her lips on a short, staccato inhale as her legs settled over the hair-textured surface of his thighs and her knees pressed to either side of his rib cage. Her hands fell to the hard planes of his chest, flattening against the heat of his skin.

It was a deeply intimate position, but she knew it could go further. A sweet, desperate ache settled low in her body. Between her thighs where he’d kissed her so passionately.

Still saying nothing, he smoothed his hand up her back, gently pressing his fingertips into the muscles along her spine, which inspired another sigh of pleasure. He found the deep tension she tended to carry in her shoulders and worked magic into her muscles until they softened and relaxed. When he slipped his hand beneath the fall of her hair to squeeze the tight cords running up the back of her neck to her skull, a breathy moan slipped from her throat.

He was mesmerizing her. Awakening her to every delicate variation of his touch. He was transforming her from a body made for labor and survival to one existing solely for pleasure and sensation.

She didn’t know when her eyes had fallen closed again, but when she opened them, it was to discover that she was closer to him than she’d realized. Her hands had moved up to mindlessly knead the muscles of his shoulders, and her mouth was barely inches from his. Blinking to clear the luxurious haze from her brain, she looked into eyes of tumultuous blue. A sea of light and shadow, lit by the fires of his desire. His hunger and need.

Her body tightened. Deep inside.

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