Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 61872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
He lowers me down in the bathroom and turns on the hot water in the bath. He makes quick work of my clothes and sets me into the steaming tub. I hiss as the hot water hits my chilled skin, but melt against the tub side as I quickly warm up. It’s a Roman-style bath, big enough for an orgy. I can stretch out my legs. The water is scented, and when I touch the salty bubbles they fizz on my chapped hands.
Gabriel picks up my wrist and frowns at my torn-up palms. He arranges me, so my arms rest on a dry ledge before rising.
“Stay,” he orders.
I give him a thumbs up. It's not like I need him to order me to relax. It's a relief to be back in this warm castle after all my climbing excursions. I can soak my sore muscles and think of a new way to escape.
A splash wakes me from a half-asleep state. Gabriel steps into the bath. He's naked but for a pair of black boxer briefs clinging to his form. Once again, he takes my wrists and slathers some sort of balm all over my hands. His touch is thorough but gentle. It wakes me.
He draws me from the seat ledge deeper into the water and glides behind me. Taking some sort of sea sponge, he starts with my shoulders and rubs the soapy sponge over every inch of me. His large hands move me around like I’m some sort of doll, but he’s incredibly gentle. He spends a long time gently dabbing at my hands, cleaning them before coating them with more balm. Then my face and neck, and finally he works his fingers into my hair.
I melt, filled with a sweet ache. He’s totally intent, controlled, but attentive. It’s hard to resist. If I weren’t so blissed out, I’d rip off his boxer briefs and climb onto his lap.
All too soon, he leaves the bath. I soak some more, half asleep, more than halfway to horny. I’m not giving up trying to get away, but part of me wants to know if it’d be so bad to be kept by Gabriel. The sight of his body makes me weak. When he returns, he’s in a red and gold silk robe that makes his skin glow. He bundles me in a fluffy towel and carries me to the bed.
Apparently, he’s not going to let me walk or move on my own. I’m still drowsy, so I let him position me in his lap. There’s a bar cart covered with dishes pulled up to the bed. He lifts the silver dome off a hearty bowl of pasta and meatballs. He shifts me in his lap, so he can reach the spoon. Apparently, he’s going to feed me.
“Open,” he orders, and I do. He feeds me with the same concentrated attention as he bathed me. And I let him.
With food, my energy comes back. I push up off Gabriel’s chest. His arms tighten around me, but he lets me angle myself in his lap, partly facing him. “This is nice,” I say as my belly fills. I finger the richly patterned sleeve of his robe. Red and gold, the shimmering color of his dragon scales. “Do you like these colors because you’re the same color when you’re a dragon?”
“Perhaps.” Gabriel looks so serious. His hair is combed back again, sleek and somehow dry even though he just took a bath with me. He’s all put together again. Stern and back in control. I want to make a mess of him.
“You can turn invisible, I remember. That's how you grabbed me in the desert.”
“When I revealed myself to you, you fainted.”
“I assumed as much. Why didn't you tell me when I first woke?”
“I thought it best to ease you into this slowly.”
I’m loose and languid on his lap, but his body is rigid, his dark brows knotted together. I reach up and rub away the wrinkle at the bridge of his nose, trying to relax him.
His sigh blows back the freshly dried tendrils of my hair. “I thought then you would want to be with me and not want to escape.”
“Take notes, Dr. Jekyll. When a guy kidnaps me, I'm always going to want to escape. I am not the sort of woman who can be kept.”
My mother is. She freaking lived for that sort of arrangement.
And that’s why I’m allergic to it.
“Even when I give you everything you need?”
I shrug. “Even then.” Although it is nice to be pampered. Gabriel seems to want to meet my needs.
He reaches up and fists a hand in my hair, tugging hard before massaging the sting away. “You should not have run. You could’ve been hurt.”
“The escape route was right there. I couldn't not try after your dragon showed me everything.”