Chapter 24
SUSANNA
“Tired?” Xavran asked me when we’d finally calmed down the kids enough to put them back in their beds.
“A little.” I stifled a yawn.
I was exhausted, but not enough to fall asleep right away. A part of me—the very horny part—really wished to give Xavran the chance to get me out of my clothes as he’d wished for back in the desert.
“Let’s get you to bed then.” He wrapped an arm around my shoulders, turning left.
“My room is that way.” I pointed right.
“But your bed is this way.” He gestured to the left, in the direction of the captain’s suite. “I’m not letting you out of my sight anymore.”
“Do you have more than one bed in your bedroom?” I teased, allowing him to lead me toward his suite.
“No. But the one I have is big enough for two.”
“I’m too filthy for a bed.” I shook my skirt, sending a shower of sand to the floor.
“Then I’ll give you a bath. Though, I hope it won’t make you any less filthy in all the ways that matter.”
I couldn’t hold back a giggle as we entered his suite. “You are determined to get me out of these clothes, I see.”
“I’ve never made a secret out of that. I’ve liked you naked from the very first time I saw you without your clothes. You looked gorgeous, naked and dripping wet. I’ve been dreaming about that ever since.”
I giggled again, thinking back to me running from the fish in the tub the very first night I came to Aldrai.
In the bathroom, he unbuttoned my sundress, then slid the straps off my shoulders, taking the bra straps with them. Slowly, as if savoring the moment, he freed my breasts from the bra cups.
He sat on the edge of the tub, then drew me closer between his legs.
“Something I’ve been dying to do.” He dragged his tongue over my nipple, then sucked it into his mouth. A rumble resonated through his chest as he rolled the hardened bud between his teeth.
“Ohh...” I exhaled, pressing my breast into his mouth.
Desire flickered and burned, banishing the tiredness completely. Need for him flared through me anew. I slid my hand between us, finding his hardness through his clothes.
“I want you, Xavran,” I rubbed him through his pants.
With a low groan, he yanked my bra and the dress down to my waist. A shower of sand spilled to the floor from my clothes.
“Oh no!” I slapped a hand over my mouth, unsure whether to laugh or feel mortified.
“Bath,” he growled, shoving all my clothes, including the underwear, down my hips and legs.
Lifting me over the edge, he deposited me into the tub. The inside of it was laid with stone tiles, giving the tub the look and feel of the carved rock basins we had in Xavran’s home.
I lay back, stretching in the warm water.
Not taking his eyes off me, Xavran opened the closures at his shoulders, then yanked his coverall down his body and stepped out of his boots.
The pile of sand from our clothes on the floor grew bigger.
“It looks like we brought half of the desert back with us,” I chuckled.
He didn’t smile, tossing his clothes aside.
I managed to catch but a glimpse of his strong, muscled thighs, with his long, thick erection bobbing in the front, before he raised his leg and stepped into the tub with me. I sat upright, and he got down on his knees, straddling my legs.
He took a jar from the stand nearby. “I don’t have the soap that women use to wash their hair, but this should work.”
He scooped some of the pearly white paste from the jar, lathered it between his palms, then gently massaged it into my hair.
“Let’s rinse it off.” Holding my head, he lowered me backwards into the water, washing the suds out of my hair.
Only my face remained above the water, my head submerged past my ears. He lowered his head to kiss me. I gasped, afraid to go under, and hooked my arms around his neck.
He chuckled against my lips. “I won’t let you go.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.” He kissed me.
I ran my hands down his torso, feeling every hard ridge and rise of his strong body.
Sand still clung to both of us.
“Let me...” I took some of the paste from the jar, then lathered him with it, from the tips of his horns down to his waist, as the rest of him remained under the water.
I tried to rinse him off by splashing over his chest, but he just laughed.
“It’s easier this way.” Grabbing me around my waist, he flipped us over, sinking completely under, including his face.
I lay on his chest. His erection pressing against my stomach.