When he rinsed off and moved behind me again, I expected him to step out, but he didn’t. My breath caught as his hands glided down the slick, still soapy skin of my arms, over my elbows and then to my wrists. I hadn’t even realized until then that I’d folded my arms over my waist. With impossible gentleness, he eased my arms to my sides.
The edges of his wet hair brushed my cheek as he lowered his head, this time pressing a kiss to the spot between my neck and shoulder, where he’d nipped the skin and left a mark. “Sorry about that,” he offered. “I’ve never done that before.”
“It’s okay,” I told him. “It’s not like it’s noticeable.”
He kissed the spot again. Legs trembling, I opened my eyes as his thumbs moved in slow, idle circles along the insides of my wrists. I watched his hands slide from my wrists to my stomach. His deep golden skin was such a contrast against the more yellow, olive tones of mine. He didn’t press his hands against my belly like I had done earlier. Obviously he wasn’t as much of a mess as I was, but I wondered if he was trying to imagine the same thing I had—a stomach far more swollen than the typical carb bloat I was normally rocking.
A heartbeat later he confirmed as much. “If it turns out that you’re pregnant and if you decide that’s what you want, it’ll be okay,” he said, his voice rough with emotion. “But you did say something wrong earlier.”
“Only one thing?”
“You wouldn’t make a terrible mother,” Zayne said.
I choked out a laugh. “I wasn’t wrong.”
“You don’t give yourself enough credit, Trin. You’d be one of the fiercest mothers there is, and you would stop at nothing to give them the best possible life,” he told me. “I don’t doubt that for a second.”
A ragged breath left me. “We.” I turned my head toward his. “If we decide if that’s what we want, it’ll be okay.”
“Right,” he said thickly. His lips found my cheek. “We got this, no matter what.”
“We do.” And I believed that. I really did.
A flutter started in my chest and moved lower as I felt his gaze on me from behind. There was a tightening all over.
Zayne’s head dipped once more, his chin grazing the side of my head as his mouth found its way to my ear. “I am not worthy of you.”
“That’s the farthest thing from the truth.”
“It’s not. You’re brave and strong. Fearless. You’re intelligent, kind and loyal.” His large hands slid to my hips. “You’re breathtaking.” He kissed my neck, and I shuddered. “I want you, now and always.”
Heart thumping as instinct guided me, I took a step back, allowing our bodies to come into full contact. He made a raw sound, and heat lit up my veins.
His hands spasmed against my hips. “I already wanted you badly, but now I feel like I’m coming out of my skin,” he said, and I could feel him, all of him, and there was no doubting the truth behind his words. “But I know things are probably weird for you right now, so that is why I’m going to wait until you leave and then turn this water ice cold.”
A heady riot of sensations skated over my skin as I turned in his arms. I didn’t let myself overthink what I was doing. I looked up, blinking the wetness off my lashes. He stared down at me, his jaw clenched and his gaze filled with stark need. The glow behind his pupils was more vibrant. I placed my hands on his chest. “Kiss me?”
“Trin,” he rasped, the word more of a growl than anything I’d ever heard from him. I shivered as his hands tensed around my hips. “I want to do that more than anything I’ve ever wanted in my life, but I’m quickly learning that I feel things a bit more intensely than before. I’m trying to do the right thing. You need time, and if I kiss you, I...I don’t think my restraint is what it used to be. I don’t want to—” He groaned, body shuddering as I slid my hands down his stomach. “I don’t want to be that kind of person who loses control.”
My gaze drifted over the harsher lines of his features. “You could never be that person. Right now is proof of that.”
“The pool was proof of exactly the opposite.”
“Not true,” I insisted. “I know even then, if I hadn’t wanted to do anything, you would’ve stopped. I know.”
His lips thinned as he stared down at me. “You think too highly of me.”
“I think just right about you,” I corrected, and his eyes became liquid, heated sapphire. “The bruises and stuff barely hurt now. I don’t need time. Nothing is weird for me. Is anything weird for you?”