Page 60 of Nightmare's Dance

Geraint opened his mouth, shut it again, and looked away, twisting his hands together.

“Mind if I join you?”

“You’re always welcome, Ember.” He sounded so sad it was killing me.

I slid the glass door on the shower open and joined him under the stream of hot water. I’d intended to keep up the conversation, but the water felt so good it distracted me.

“Okay, let’s do this after we get clean.” I reached blindly for the soap.

Geraint put a bar in my hand. Then he turned me so my back was to the water, his touch gentle, hesitant, but familiar and very welcome.

My knight ran his hands through my hair, wetting it, while I scrubbed myself with the bar of soap. The shampoo and soap weren’t our scents, but the setting was familiar. We showered together often.

I let him clean my hair, gently running his fingers through the strands and untangling the knots. Then I took the bar of soap and scrubbed his chest.

“You need to shave.” I chuckled as I played with his beard. He normally kept it neatly trimmed or neatly scruffy, depending on the show season. “You’re going to look like a mountain man here in another day or two.”

He smiled. “I’ll do that if this place has a razor.”

“Only if you want to, Knight. It’s your choice.”

He grabbed my hand and held it against his chest. “You like it neat. I don’t have an opinion on it, so I’ll shave if I can find a razor.”

I took a breath. “Geraint…”

He interrupted me with a kiss.

For half a second, I almost pushed him back so we could have the talk I’d been working up to for weeks now. The desperation in the way he clutched me against himself shoved that thought away. If nothing else, he clearly wanted this, and so did I. I was aching to be touched, to be held, and claimed.

The water cascaded down on us as we came together. There was nothing elegant about our kiss, just pure desperate need for each other. How could I have doubted that he wanted me? He might have been created to be my companion and my guardian, but we’d been together long enough that it had to mean something to him.

The way his hands explored my body, squeezing my ass, kneading my back, furthered my conviction that he wanted me. He knew every inch of me better than I did.

Geraint shoved his leg between mine, his hard cock pressing into my stomach. I ground on his thigh, moaning needily.

My lover kissed his way along my jaw before nibbling gently down my neck. When his lips reached the base of my neck, Geraint bit down hard.

I yelped in surprise, shuddering in reaction. I didn’t hate it at all, and he got rough with me sometimes, but we usually discussed it first. I hadn’t been expecting him to go there this time.

“I want him to see that when he takes you,” Geraint said, voice harsh. “He may get to have you, but I was first.”

“I’m not sleeping with Nic,” I gasped.

“No?” He clearly didn’t believe me.

“Why would I lie about it, Geraint? I’ve never kept anything from you.” Shit, that just slipped out. I hadn’t meant to bring any of that up.

“I had no choice,” he snapped.

“Geraint, I know. It’s fine. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

He was still hard, and I ached for him to fill me, but the way he was looking at me now, I wasn’t sure he wanted to be with me. Had I misread the desperation earlier?

“So, now that you know you’re sleeping with the hired help, how’s that feel?” he bit out.

“Are you trying to push me away?” Inexplicably, I still held the bar of soap, and I sort of threw it at him. Except we were still pressed together, so it was a pretty lame throw.

“You should walk away,” he said, ignoring the soap. “If Nic doesn’t kill me for overstepping, one of the other two will.”

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