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Authors: Bonnie Edwards
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the full treatment.”
“What new sport?”
“Making love with me, of course.”
She laughed and wondered what a hot tub could do for the muscles where she felt the most strain. She ignored his comment about lovemaking versus hot sex because she was having a hard enough time accepting that she was climbing the most imposing staircase she’d ever seen to her rooms in an English castle.
“How old is this place?”
“Three hundred years, give or take a decade. It actually belonged to an ancestor. A youngest son went to America to make his fortune and did, but his son joined the Revolution and disgraced the paternal side of the family. He was disowned. It felt like payback when I bought it for back taxes four years ago. Seems the English branch of the family weren’t as industrious as they should have been.”
“So you saved the staff their jobs?”
“I didn’t think of it that way.” He smiled at her observation.
“It’s the first thing I’d think of. Every job counts.”
“You make me see the world from a different angle, Jaye.” He looked thoughtful as he opened one side of a double door entry into a room the likes of which she’d never seen before.
Wide mullioned windows overlooked gardens below. There were window seats and a high ceiling with swirls and naked cherubs carved into the dark wood. Watered pink silk lined the walls. The high dark oak four poster bed echoed the centuries it had been in use. There was a step stool beside the bed so she could climb up into it. “I really am in a movie.”
Jaye stopped three steps inside the room, stunned by the old world luxury. A door led off to another room at the left of the bed. Alex went through the door and seconds later, she heard the roar of water filling a tub.
She followed him. Sure enough, he was filling a bathtub with at least twelve jets in it. But still, it was clear it had only been designed for two people. “I pictured something big enough for more people.”
“I don’t share my women and I have no interest in men.” The look he gave her set her heart racing.
“That’s good, because I don’t share either.”
He stepped up to her, snugged her hips to his and pressed against her. His arousal was strong, every bit as strong as hers.
She kissed him with a butterfly-weight touch of her lips to his. Familiar thrills chased through her at his response. He smelled so good, felt so good, tasted incredible.
While the water rumbled into the tub, steam rose, moistening her skin, warming the air around them.
“Scent. We need something in the water,” he said between heated kisses. He left her to study an array of bottles on a shelf over the tub. He took the stoppers off a couple but put them back.
She walked to him, picked up a bottle of exquisitely cut crystal and lifted the stopper herself. The scent was spice and flowers and sexy innuendo. She loved it.
“This one reminds me of us.”
“How so?”
“Mysterious and sexual but short-lived. The flowery fragrance at the top will be gone long before the other deeper scents.”
“Right.” He frowned.
After a moment of watching the tub fill, Alex lifted the decanter from her hand and poured a stream of the scent into the tub. The froth filled the air with the fragrance of love and yearning.
“This isn’t just sexy, it smells of longing and loss.”
He nodded. “I don’t like it.”
“You’ve never used it before?”
“I’ve never brought a woman here. So, no, when I’m alone I don’t use the tub.”
She sidled over to him, placed her palm on his flat belly and smiled her intentions. “It’s sweet that you brought me here, then, even if it was just out of necessity because I couldn’t get into France.”
He twined his hand into her hair and dragged her face to his for a kiss, powerful and demanding. “I was going to bring you here anyway. From the first moment I set eyes on you, I wanted you here, in this tub.”
She laughed. “Right.” But the serious intent
“What new sport?”
“Making love with me, of course.”
She laughed and wondered what a hot tub could do for the muscles where she felt the most strain. She ignored his comment about lovemaking versus hot sex because she was having a hard enough time accepting that she was climbing the most imposing staircase she’d ever seen to her rooms in an English castle.
“How old is this place?”
“Three hundred years, give or take a decade. It actually belonged to an ancestor. A youngest son went to America to make his fortune and did, but his son joined the Revolution and disgraced the paternal side of the family. He was disowned. It felt like payback when I bought it for back taxes four years ago. Seems the English branch of the family weren’t as industrious as they should have been.”
“So you saved the staff their jobs?”
“I didn’t think of it that way.” He smiled at her observation.
“It’s the first thing I’d think of. Every job counts.”
“You make me see the world from a different angle, Jaye.” He looked thoughtful as he opened one side of a double door entry into a room the likes of which she’d never seen before.
Wide mullioned windows overlooked gardens below. There were window seats and a high ceiling with swirls and naked cherubs carved into the dark wood. Watered pink silk lined the walls. The high dark oak four poster bed echoed the centuries it had been in use. There was a step stool beside the bed so she could climb up into it. “I really am in a movie.”
Jaye stopped three steps inside the room, stunned by the old world luxury. A door led off to another room at the left of the bed. Alex went through the door and seconds later, she heard the roar of water filling a tub.
She followed him. Sure enough, he was filling a bathtub with at least twelve jets in it. But still, it was clear it had only been designed for two people. “I pictured something big enough for more people.”
“I don’t share my women and I have no interest in men.” The look he gave her set her heart racing.
“That’s good, because I don’t share either.”
He stepped up to her, snugged her hips to his and pressed against her. His arousal was strong, every bit as strong as hers.
She kissed him with a butterfly-weight touch of her lips to his. Familiar thrills chased through her at his response. He smelled so good, felt so good, tasted incredible.
While the water rumbled into the tub, steam rose, moistening her skin, warming the air around them.
“Scent. We need something in the water,” he said between heated kisses. He left her to study an array of bottles on a shelf over the tub. He took the stoppers off a couple but put them back.
She walked to him, picked up a bottle of exquisitely cut crystal and lifted the stopper herself. The scent was spice and flowers and sexy innuendo. She loved it.
“This one reminds me of us.”
“How so?”
“Mysterious and sexual but short-lived. The flowery fragrance at the top will be gone long before the other deeper scents.”
“Right.” He frowned.
After a moment of watching the tub fill, Alex lifted the decanter from her hand and poured a stream of the scent into the tub. The froth filled the air with the fragrance of love and yearning.
“This isn’t just sexy, it smells of longing and loss.”
He nodded. “I don’t like it.”
“You’ve never used it before?”
“I’ve never brought a woman here. So, no, when I’m alone I don’t use the tub.”
She sidled over to him, placed her palm on his flat belly and smiled her intentions. “It’s sweet that you brought me here, then, even if it was just out of necessity because I couldn’t get into France.”
He twined his hand into her hair and dragged her face to his for a kiss, powerful and demanding. “I was going to bring you here anyway. From the first moment I set eyes on you, I wanted you here, in this tub.”
She laughed. “Right.” But the serious intent
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