Lover Mine (Black Dagger Brotherhood 8)

He was about to touch her. And that was all that mattered.

Wrapping his hand around her ankle, he gave her a gentle tug, and after a moment, she eased her weight to the opposite side and gave him her foot. He put the bar of soap down next to the door and smoothed over her sole and up onto her heel, massaging, cleaning. . .

Worshiping without expecting anything in return.

He went slowly, especially as he headed up onto her leg, pausing every now and again to make sure he didn't push on any of the bruises. Her calf muscle was rock-hard, and the bones that went up into her knee seemed strong as a male's, but she was dainty in her own way. At least compared to him.

As he went even higher, up onto her thigh, he gravitated to the outside. The last thing he wanted her to worry about was him coming on to her, and when he got to her hip, he stopped and picked up the soap again.

After rinsing the bottom of her foot off, he tapped her other ankle, and felt a spear of relief as she obligingly gave him a chance to repeat what he'd done.

Slow massages, slow hands, slow progress. . . and only on the outside up toward the top.

When he was finished, he stood, his knees cracking as he lifted to his full height and maneuvered her under the spray. Holding on to her arm again, he gave her the soap so she could wash whatever else there was to be done.

"John?" she said.

As it was dark, he whistled a What?

"You are such a male of worth, you know that. You really are. "

She reached up and cupped his face.

It happened so fast, he couldn't believe it. Later, he would play and replay everything over and over again, stretching out the moment endlessly, reliving it and taking a strange kind of nourishment from the memory, again and again.

When it actually went down, though, it was just an instant. An impulse on her part. A chaste gift given in gratitude for a chaste gift received.

Xhex flexed up on her tiptoes and pressed her mouth against his.

Oh, so soft. Her lips were incredibly soft. And gentle. And very warm.

The contact was far too fleeting, but then again, he was ready to go for hours and hours and call that almost long enough.

"Come lie with me," she said, opening the door to the shower and stepping out. "I don't like you on the floor. You deserve much better than that. "

Dimly, he shut off the water and followed her, accepting the towel she handed him. They dried off together, her wrapping her whole torso up, him covering his hips.

Outside, he got up on the hospital bed first and it felt like the most natural thing in the world for him to open his arms wide. If he'd thought about it, he wouldn't have made the gesture, but he wasn't thinking.

Which was okay.

Because she came to him as the spraying water in the shower had, drenching him in a warmth that leached through his skin and into his marrow.

But of course, Xhex went even farther through him than that. She always had.

Seemed like he'd lost his soul to her the very first time he'd laid eyes on her.

As he clicked off the light and she settled even closer to him, it felt like she was burrowing right into his cold heart and setting up shop, her banked fire thawing his soul out until he took the first honest-to-God deep breath in months.

John closed his eyes, not expecting to sleep.

He did, though. And very, very well.

Chapter Thirty

In the staff room of Sampsone's mansion, Darius concluded his meeting with the daughter's maid.

"Thank you," he said as he rose to his feet and nodded at the female. "I appreciate your candor. "