An anchor did not need to be in love, so she dared.
Releasing his hand, she looked him in the eye as she reached up to slide the nightgown she wore off her shoulders.
Beneath it, she had on only a pair of panties, simple and plain, but it didn’t matter. Clothes were armor for the outside world. Tonight their challenge was intimacy.
The baths provided the perfect environment.
Filled with low amber lighting that set off the glow in his eyes, the baths consisted of multiple pools of water in various sizes and at various temperatures.
Like the rest of the palace, the design of the room showed its age with grace. In this room, that meant that traces of the seventies lingered in the amorphous shapes and overall lagoon impression of the pools, as well as in the large tropical plants that had had plenty of time to grow and mature over the years beneath their glass ceiling and accent walls.
Water permeated even the air in this room, a far cry from the setting in which they had first made love.
Rita slid her simple underwear over her hips and then stood naked before her fully clothed husband. This, too, was different from their night on the ruins.
Then he had been bare before her. Tonight she bared herself for him.
He stared without words, the fires in his eyes dancing and flickering in the gentle lighting of the room.
In this space, mirrors had been strategically placed to make both the room and foliage seem somehow bigger and deeper, but they had also been positioned so as not to reflect the bodies of anyone who might be enjoying the pools. Her display was for his eyes alone.
As always, they burned, but the fire within them now was of an intensity that put even his normal inferno to shame.
She didn’t know how long they stood like that, him fully clothed, lighting her ablaze with only the caress of his gaze, while she stood completely naked before him, but her instinct to be patient paid off when he drew her to him with a growl.
He took her mouth with need but care, his kiss nothing like the tender, reverent things he’d bestowed upon her atop the ruins.
Whereas before he had been delicate, now he was fire and force, but controlled.
Fearless, she met him head-on, exploring his mouth with her tongue as he explored hers, running her hands along his clothed body even as he ran his along her bare one.
And when she finally grew impatient with his progress in removing his attire, she simply took over the job herself, deftly releasing buttons as their tongues danced.
Only when he was naked did she break their kiss, and only then to see him in full, illuminated by the glow of the bath lights.
When she began to lead him to a warm pool, however, he shook his head, apparently tired of following. Now he was in charge, and the pool he led them to was hotter and larger than the one she had selected.
He was in a mood, and who could blame him? Years of planning had gone down the drain. But without knowing where the knowledge came from, Rita knew she had what it took to shake him out of it.
The recipe wasn’t secret or complicated. He just needed her.
Or her body, at least.
How she knew when she was an utter novice on the subject wasn’t important. What mattered was giving him what he needed—whether that was to lead or follow.
The heat of the pool provided a fascinating contrast as they stepped in.
The water lapping around their thighs added another layer of sensation to the exploration of their hands and mouths, and Rita moaned as the combination thrilled her senses.
Capturing her mouth again, his kisses grew in intensity, building as his frustrations funneled themselves into the kind of handling reserved for off-roading.
No matter the terrain, it seemed, the man could drive.
Cupping her breasts in his hands, he nibbled and sucked his way toward her nipples, licking and kissing the sensitive flesh along the way, and by the time he’d reached the hard buds, her breath was fast and shallow and she was arching her spine, curving to give him greater access.
“Do you like it when I touch you like this, Rita?” he asked, voice low and harsh, and she could only offer a moan in response, bringing her hands to his shoulders, trying to steady herself against a storm that came from inside.
“You’re going to love the rest even more,” he promised.