Finn picked up a pail and put it beneath the fall of her hair. Then he picked up a rinse bucket and leaned over her. “Ready?” he asked.
She nodded, not looking him in the eye as she leaned back. She kept her eyes closed, and as she lay back, her breasts rose above the water. But he wasn’t here to ogle her body. He was here to wash her hair.
Finn slowly and carefully wet her hair with the rinse water and then soaped her tresses gently. “I don’t think it’s all going to come out,” he warned. He massaged her scalp, letting his fingernails gently abrade her skin. She made a sound of contentment as he rinsed the soap from her hair. He hadn’t realized how very long it was when it was wet. When it was dry, it was springy and curly, and looked luxuriously perfect.
“Feeling better?” he asked as he sat down next to the bath and laid his arm along the side. She sat forward again, hiding the shadow of her breasts behind her knees.
“Better,” she said. “Thank you.”
Her teeth were no longer chattering, and most of that god-awful red was out of her hair.
And she was naked.
Gloriously naked.
Sinfully naked.
And Finn was aroused beyond bearing. “Would you like some help with your bath?” he asked and waggled his eyebrows at her.
She laughed lightly. “I think I can finish the rest on my own. Can you give me a little privacy?”
“Must I?” Finn didn’t mean to beg. But he wasn’t above it either.
“I just need a moment,” she said.
Finn left a stack of towels within her reach and hung his dressing gown over the back of the door.
“Thank you,” she called to his retreating back.
***
Claire had no idea what the right thing to do was. She needed to tell him about the baby. She would have to if he wanted to be intimate with her that night. And if the bulge behind the fall of his trousers was any indication, that was what he had in mind.
What should she do? Should she ask him to take her home? Should she ask him to sit and then tell him? He might be so surprised he’d fall over and crack his head on the floor. He might have an apoplexy. He might hate her forever.
Claire washed quickly and climbed from the tub. She wrung the water from her hair, and then flipped her hair over, wrapped it in a towel, and righted herself. She blotted herself dry with a second towel and slipped into his dressing gown.
When Claire walked back into his bedchamber, she found him reclining on a chaise longue before the fire. He called her over with a quick motion of his hand. He looked up at her from beneath heavy-lidded lashes. “I must confess that my plans were innocent when I brought you here.”
“And now?” she asked as she sat down on the edge of the chaise. He shifted to the side to give her room.
“My plans are no longer innocent.” His voice sounded like it had been dragged down a gravel drive. “Come here,” he said as he spread his thighs and pulled her between them, and then pulled the towel from her hair, combing it gently with his fingertips before he drew her forward to lie on his chest.
“I’m going to get you all wet,” she warned.
Finn sat forward and jerked his shirt over his head, and then pulled her forward. “I want to hold you,” he said, his voice raw and full of emotion. He kissed her forehead gently. “I could have lost you tonight.”
Claire’s soul hummed as he held her against him.
“Don’t ever put yourself in danger like that again, do you hear me?”
She heard him, but she couldn’t possibly comply with his wishes. Not in this matter.
Claire was naked beneath his dressing gown, and she’d never been more aware of her skin than she was at that moment. Goose flesh rose on her arms and chest, and her nipples were hard points against the soft fabric of his dressing gown. Finn tipped her face up and touched his lips softly to hers.
“I wish I could marry you tonight,” he murmured as his tongue teased her lips open, just before he dipped inside. Claire met the greedy thrusts of his tongue, and he moaned low in his throat. He leaned back and looked down at her, emotion brimming in his eyes. “If anything ever happened to you, I don’t know what I’d do.”
Claire scooted up onto her knees and laid her upper body against his naked chest. With her hands on his shoulders, she lifted herself until she was nose to nose with him. “Ouch,” Finn said, as her knee brushed the rigid curve of his manhood behind his trousers.