Page 64 of Dark OZ

They keep telling me that. Were my emotions really so obvious?

“And how is it that I’m looking at you?” I spread my legs, being sure that he saw the way I draped my hand casually between them. He wasn’t the only one who knew how to pose a challenge.

He didn’t answer, his wicked grin drawing wider with each step he took in my direction. Damn me. I was in trouble. Why did I have to like the fight so damn much? I shouldn’t have started poking this particular lion again. He’d been so sweet, and I just had to bring the fight back out in him.

I drew my knees up, making room for him at the base of the tub. The bubbles shifted in the water, covering my chest so that only my knees poked out. Stepping into the tub opposite me, displaced water splashed against the tile. Danny didn’t seem bothered by it, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of him long enough to care about the mess we were making.

Danny’s hands wrapped around my ankles, guiding them up until my legs were draped over him like his own personal Thea blanket. He nestled into his spot, consuming damn near the entirety of the porcelain basin. Broad shoulders draped over the edges, his knees pinning me in on either side.

I swallowed, realizing that I hadn’t fully considered just how large he was when I suggested he join me. There was no escaping him. His long arms easily enveloped the length of my bent legs. Whatever power I’d felt by refusing to give up my bath vanished. Every piece of me felt like it was at his mercy.

He released one foot to fall against his shoulder and moved the second so that it lay in the palm of his hand. I squirmed with the first ticklish pass of his fingers against the sole. Danny’s eyes sparkled with delight, and his grip on my foot tightened. He’d done that on purpose, just to see me writhe. I was sure of it.

“Stop wiggling and relax,” he chided.

“Sure, because torturing the bottoms of my feet is really relaxing.”

“Princess, if I wanted to torture you, I would.” Just to prove how very wrong I was, Danny gently pressed his thumbs into the arch of my foot. He slowly rolled outward along the tight muscles and tendons. Then, repeated the motion, each time pressing more firmly.

I let out a low moan and sank until my neck rested against the back of the claw foot tub. Danny’s legs shifted, wrapping around my body until I was fully cradled by long lines of masculine muscle. His dark chuckle vibrated through everywhere we touched.

Goddamn, he was good at that. If the gangster life failed him, Danny could always find a second calling as a massage therapist. The press of his fingers lingered right on the line between painful and not firm enough.

Distantly, I was aware that the position I had shifted into was probably all kinds of suggestive. I was half draped over him, half straddling his hips. The slowly vanishing bubbles were really only the illusion of cover, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. Each stroke of his fingers massaged away the tension that still lingered in my body. A tightness that went deeper than muscle uncoiled within me. For the first time in my life, I felt completely relaxed.

His hands slid higher, moving back and forth along my calf, his thumbs working in tight concentric circles. “Does that still feel like torture?”

I tried to answer but only managed a contented hum.

“When I first woke up, it felt like I’d spent days stretched on the rack. I know how sore you must be.”

He wasn’t wrong. Even my hair ached.

“Just tell me where it hurts, and I’ll soothe your pain.” Danny leaned forward working his hands along the back of my legs until they cupped the underswell of my ass.

I cracked one eye open to smirk at him, “Pretty sure I didn’t say anything about that hurting.”

“No? I just assumed since you’re generally a pain in the ass.” Before I could react to his jibe, Danny gave a hard tug and pulled my hips fully over his. My neck slipped from the edge of the tub, briefly dunking my head into the water at the same time my thighs spread to wrap around him. Supporting my lower back, Danny helped rotate me upright until I folded neatly in his lap.

The motion deliberately rocked the soft folds of my body against the very hard ridge of his dick. Something he wasn’t bothering to hide. A rush of heat flooded my senses, rocketing my relaxation straight into arousal. Streams of water ran over my cheeks, and droplets dripped from my lashes.

I braced the sides of the lion’s head tattoo in much the same way as the large hands bracing my waist. I should have expected that. I asked the lion to lay with me; why should I be surprised when he makes me his dinner?

“Woah, that was—” I said, trying to stop the dizzy spin caused by the sudden change of position and rapid acceleration of my heart rate.

“Better,” Danny answered for me before drawing me in for a long kiss that did nothing to stop my sense of disorientation. “You were too far away.” His lips trailed along my jaw to my neck, sending a hot exhale over my wet skin. A shiver followed his breath, snaking down my spine and ending straight between my legs. “We never got to finish what we started back in the kitchen. The memory of that too-brief moment has been tormenting me. I haven’t been able to erase the feeling of you from my lips.”

He shifted, one hand ghosting up my spine to cradle the back of my neck. Danny was careful of my injuries, never truly touching anywhere that was raw, but the potential for the contact was making my breaths become shorter. He angled my head back, exposing my throat.

“Or the taste.” He dragged his teeth over my neck, sucking and nipping as he descended down to my collar. “It’s all I can think about. The way your hand brushed my neck as Crowe made you come, listening to your cries.Thatwas torture, Princess, knowing it was his hand you were riding and not mine, wanting to be the one beneath you.”

His lips against my skin stretched into a feline smile.

“Maybe you deserved a bit of tort-ure.” The last word hitched in the back of my throat, interrupted by Danny firmly palming my breast.

“Maybe…” He rolled my nipple between his fingers with enough pressure to make me wince and tighten my legs around his hips. The hand at my neck grew firmer, immobilizing me. “But then again, you’re not stopping me right now. Are you?”

He had a point. Why hadn’t I stopped this?

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