The road wound along a rushing creek with forested drop offs and sharp switchbacks. They had to be near the top before Emerald pulled into a dirt driveway. Then, after passing a modest, gingerbread-looking home, they went farther up the mountainside until the road opened to a clearing where a cozy cabin nestled. It had a huge deck, a hammock, and a breathtaking view of mist-shrouded peaks.
Emerald parked the truck. “We’re here. This is Silver Moon.”
“It’s beautiful,” Erin said, so thankful to have a safe place to be. Jared’s sigh of relief seemed to echo her sentiments. He barreled from the car and started walking around, enjoying the free space and open fresh air.
“When Megan and I get back from the fair, I’ll have you over for dinner tonight.”
“Fair?” Erin asked as alarm bells rang in her mind. “Are you going to the health expo at the fairgrounds?”
Emerald’s eyes widened. She glanced at Jared, then back to Erin. “Does the expo have anything to do with why you both are here?”
“I, uh, nothing. I heard the advertisement on the radio and was curious about it.”
“You’re an awful liar, Erin,” Emerald said with a warm smile. “Just tell me to mind my own business if I ask too much. While Megan and I have angel wings protecting us, I still want to know if there is any reason my daughter shouldn’t go,”
“All I can say is that you should enjoy the food and the games, but don’t participate in any of their free health screenings.”
Emerald sighed. “Not quite ready to trust me yet. Don’t blame you, though. Why don’t you settle in, and after Megan gets home from school in a few hours, I’ll give you a ring and see if there’s more you want to tell me about the health expo.” Silver bells rang and Emerald dug her cell phone out of her purse. She groaned as she looked at the message. “This one’s going to take a bit. Let’s hurry.”
Erin nodded and quickly followed Emerald to and through the cabin. Jared had stayed outside on the deck, scouting out the area in all directions. Throughout the two-bedroom mountain home were little touches of the magical miniature art Emerald had in her office. Oak-paneled walls, a stone fireplace, wood floors, dark green furnishings, wide windows, and cathedral ceilings made the cabin seem in harmony with the surrounding forest.
Half of Erin’s mind was on Emerald’s tremendous generosity in letting them stay in the spacious cabin. The other half was on Dr. Cinatas and the health expo. From what Erin knew of Dr. Cinatas, a mountain fair would be well below his radar—too dirty for his taste.
She wondered if she should chance going to the fair. She would have to leave Jared alone for a short while, but just being able to see what the Sno-Med Corporation was up to in the community would be worth the trip. She knew she wouldn’t learn anything to help her expose Cinatas there, but seeing how Sno-Med operated in the area couldn’t hurt. And she might make contact with someone familiar with the inside of the research center, which would be a big plus on her side. First, she’d get Jared settled and then see what she could do.
What had seemed like a simple plan became quickly complicated. She’d seen Emerald off and had brought Jared to the bathroom, having decided they both needed a shower before anything else.
“How do I get a shower and why do I need it so badly?” Jared frowned, looking at the shower stall the same way he’d scrutinized the truck.
“Trust me. You will feel a lot better and cooler if you get a shower.” Cooling Jared’s temperature had been Erin’s priority until she gave serious consideration to Emerald’s suggestion. What if Jared’s temperature was just naturally more elevated? She decided to wait a little while longer before medicating him. Besides, he needed something to do rather than pace the cabin.
She had reached a crossroads and had to stop straddling the fence. She was alone with a man whom she couldn’t walk away from. Continuing to think he was delusional and denying the unexplainable was no longer an option. It was time to accept that he was a warrior from the spirit world.
Moving to the tiled shower, which was larger than the postage-stamp space she expected, she turned on the double heads, setting the temperature, and turned to Jared.
“I take a shower every day, and I’m desperate to get one now. A shower will get you clean, refresh you, and in your case, help reduce your elevated temperature if it is higher than it is supposed to be.” She adjusted the etched glass door to give him as much privacy as possible.
Two short robes hung on the hook next to extra-large, fluffy towels. Everything was ready. Now she just needed him naked.
Drawing a stiff breath, she looked at him. “To shower, you remove your clothing, then get under the water and clean yourself from head to toe. Use shampoo for your hair and soap for everything else.” She pointed to the bottle and the soap bar as she spoke.
“A cleansing ritual,” he said, shaking his head. “It seems mortals waste much time covering, uncovering, and cleansing themselves.” Jared began untying the yellow towel.
“Believe me, it’s necessary,” Erin said, turning her back on him as he dropped the yellow towel. Unfortunately, his full image was reflected to her by elongated mirror in front of her. She should have shut her eyes, but didn’t. He was so ruggedly handsome, so elemental, so very male that she had to see him again. A week ago, she never would have crossed this line, but having him invade her mind and her dreams with his potent sensuality had changed something inside her, blurred the black and white line of her reasoning. It was several moments before she realized Jared had yet to move.
“Do you want to take your amulet off?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I never take it off. Not until I die.”
She blinked at so grim a statement then shook it from her mind. “You can get in whenever you are ready,” she told him. “The hot water won’t last forever.”
“I’m waiting for you,” he said.
She gaped at him. “What?”
He frowned. “Did you not say you were desperate for a shower?”
“Yes, but . . . men and women don’t shower together. Well, I mean they do, but only if they are intimate.”
He moved closer to her, and she snapped her gaze from the mirror to his. He slid a finger to her cheek, his touch gentle, hot, and potent enough to send fiery rushes of desire through her. “We are intimate,” he said softly. “If you knew my thoughts you’d realize that.”
She inhaled and shook her head. She was very much afraid that his thoughts were exactly like those that had filled her dream of him. He was from another place, and it was her responsibility to help him understand her world. “Intimacy comes with time, with emotions, caring, desire, and love. You must have those things to make intimacy possible.”
“Explain.” He trailed his fingers to the pounding pulse in her neck, then moved lower, pressing his palm to her heart. Desire exploded tiny pieces of pleasure everywhere inside her. “I feel the rush of your blood and the power of your want,” he said.
“Feelings are more than desire. It is a need to be part of the other person, to give to them your heart.”
“Do we not share those things now? Does my touch give you pleasure?”
How could she deny the simple truth of his words? How could she accept them either? As thrilling as her sensual dream of him had been, it did not have any basis in reality, right? “I don’t know,” she whispered.
“Can you not see the truth, feel the truth? I can,” he said softly. He stepped into the shower, his arousal leaving no question that he was ready for anything.
Erin sank to the commode lid. She didn’t have the legs to walk the miles she needed to run.
Jared stood beneath the warm water, feeling comfort and pleasure slide all over him. Surprised, he gasped as the water sluiced down his skin and hit the flesh Erin always managed to swell in him. The sensation made him ache to hold her, to press himself closer to her. That thought made his flesh throb to a painful point. Closing his eyes, he groaned, desperate to control these human react
ions of pleasure and pain. He exhaled sharply.
“Is the water too hot? Are you in pain?” she asked.
Opening his eyes, he found her standing outside the stream of water, her hand reaching for him. He leaned her way, wrapped his arm around her, and pulled her against him, holding her close beneath the water.
Chapter Twelve
“Jared!” Erin cried, sounding almost frightened as she stiffened in his arms.
“Stand with me a moment. Help me ease this pain.”
He felt her exhale, heard her troubled sigh, and knew the moment she gave in to his need. She pressed her cheek to his heart and wrapped her arms around him. He closed his eyes and pulled her tighter, wanting to feel everything about her. He wanted her naked, but sensed her caution. He could wait…a few moments, at least.
He stood beneath the warm water, absorbing the deep scent of her, the shape of her supple softness pressed against him, and the excitement surging inside them both. He knew the thud of her heart, the rush of her pulse, and the growing heat of her blood. He also sensed her confusion and realized that he was the cause of it. He eased his hold on her, and she stepped back.
“How do you bathe yourself?” he asked, wanting to comfort and ease her. Perhaps the bathing ritual would soothe her.
Water turned her hair darker, sleeker. Long, spiked lashes framed eyes the color of sunlit starbursts. She stared at him intently then sighed and reached for one of the bottles she’d pointed to earlier. “I’ll show you,” she said softly.
He wanted more, to be touching her, soothing and enjoying her. Having her bathe him wasn’t exactly what he had in mind, but…he could accept it for now. Then he would bathe her.
Putting a small amount of liquid in each of her hands, she looked up at him. “Keep your eyes shut while there is soap in your hair,” she said, slowly sliding her fingers into his hair. He smiled at her and closed his eyes enjoying her touch, her smell, her nearness.
Erin was sure she was now totally certifiable. He’d taken her blurred line of reason and obliterated it. Though she’d already stripped off her shoes and stockings, she still wore her ruined uniform and now stood in a shower with a naked man—uh, naked spirit being from Eden?
She barely knew the man in some ways, but in her spirit and in her soul the connection they’d made brought her closer to him than to any other man before. She was totally sunk by his plea to help him, the need in his iridescent blue eyes, and the sinful pleasure of his lips—a mouth made for seducing anything that breathed.
There was one thing she kept forgetting to do, though—to breathe between her dizzying moments of total brain meltdown.
The man was drowning her in sensations, and she grabbed onto the erotic lifeline he’d thrown her: showing him how to bathe.
Massaging the shampoo through his velvety black hair and its lone silver streak was an exotic exploration. The silk of it, the length of it, and the feel of it made her even hungrier to know every nuance of him. The dark strands, rinsed free of suds, fell well past his broad shoulders. She picked up the soap and breathed its fresh tangy smell of highland lavender before setting to work on the supple planes of his face, the dip bisecting his chin, and the tickling softness of his shadowed beard.
She memorized the feel of his full, lush mouth, the curve of his cheeks, and the determined angles of his nose and brow. Then she moved lower to the cords of his neck and the hard contours of his chest, feeling him, his heat, and his hard-muscled smoothness. Then she touched his amulet, and as before, her fingers tingled as if energy flowed through the strange metal. Leaving that puzzle for another time she continued with her exploration until she had covered every inch of him all the way to his waist.
She didn’t linger in any one place; she kept her movements fluid. She knew at this point she could instruct Jared on how to finish bathing himself. He might not know the specifics of her world, but he caught on fast. In fact, she had an inkling that his intelligence and knowledge were phenomenal, which meant she was being suckered. She also knew she wasn’t going to stop until she’d touched every inch of him. She’d get him out of her system, and then she could go back to the eroticism of a quart of Ben & Jerry’s.
She moved behind him, her hands roaming down his back in long strokes, her palms sliding over his firm buttocks, feeling his powerful muscles quiver at her gentle touch. Then she reached around to his arousal, almost feeling as if his intense heat burned her sensitized nerves when she slid her hands over his shaft.
He groaned and clenched his hands into fists. She quickly directed her touch to the thickness of his thighs and the sculpted perfection of his calves. When she finished, she regretted the task was done. “That’s how you shower,” she said to Jared’s back. “Now all you have to do is step out, dry off, and put on one of the robes on the hook outside.”
Jared turned to face her. “No, Erin. Now that I know how you like to be bathed, I will bathe you. And just so you know, I much prefer your cleansing ritual to any I’ve known before.” He brushed her wet cheek with the pad of his thumb.
“Me?” she squeaked. Then it dawned on her that he hadn’t been asking her how to bathe in general, but how she bathed herself. Her cheeks burned even as her stomach clenched at the idea of Jared doing to her what she’d just done to him.
“Your cleansing ritual, Erin. I must see if I have this right while everything is fresh in my mind.” He pulled impatiently on the sleeves of her dress. “How do these clothes come off?”
Erin moved his hand to the zipper of her dress and showed him how to tug it down, exposing the front clasp of her lacy white bra. Apparently he liked what he saw, because he yanked the zipper down the rest of the way and pulled the dress off her shoulders like a kid at Christmas. Her dress fell to the tile floor, and she sucked in air, standing in lacy underwear beneath the tantalizing spray of warm water and the burning interest of Jared’s fiery gaze. It was almost like her dream.
He pushed the straps of her bra from her arms, freeing her breasts. She slid her arms from the binding elastic as he tugged the bra down to her waist before exploring the full contours of her breasts, running his hands over her in sensual circles. “Why do you keep such beauty hidden and bound so tightly? How do you breathe like that?”
Before she could answer, he knelt and pulled down her underwear in one swift move. Heart racing, she stepped free and unclasped her bra with trembling fingers. He ran his hands up her legs and over the curve of her bottom, kneading her gently before brushing his hand over the curls of her sex. He pressed his fingers against her sensitive folds, making her groan as the burning heat of him set her even more on fire.
He stood, sending a rush of anticipation through her. The fullness of his erection pressed hard and hot between them as he pulled her into his arms. His deep groan of satisfaction sent her shaky pulse into an erratic flight.
But he didn’t kiss her, he didn’t tease her breasts into aching points of need, he didn’t slide his hot fingers between the lips of her sex to fan her desire, or thrust his erection into her wet heat.
He stepped back and picked up the shampoo.
Erin’s mouth had gone so dry she couldn’t speak, though water sluiced everywhere and steam filled the air with a heavy mist.
He put an overlarge amount in both his hands and dropped the bottle. She didn’t have the mental capability at the moment to tell him he had too much soap. His hands were on her, and she couldn’t think. She stood frozen in place as Jared wove his fingers into her hair and covered every inch of her head with his firm but gentle touch. So much lather bubbled up that it poured off her head, covering them both. She stuck her head beneath the spray to rinse away the soap. He ran his fingers through her hair again, and more lather appeared.
This time Erin stuck her head under the water and helped Jared rinse out the shampoo. Then she looked at Jared, blinking at him through the spray. He smiled and picked up the soap.
Following her earlier example his hot soapy hands slid over her brea
sts to her neck, where he stroked and cleaned all of the soft contours of her throat and nape, then moved his way down to her shoulders and arms. The strength of his hands turned his simple caress into a body-melting massage that she gave herself completely over to. She forgot she’d ever had a line of reason in her life.
Jared slid his hands over Erin’s soft body, enjoying his exploration of every dip and curve. She’d shut her golden eyes, so he couldn’t see what she was thinking or feeling about his touching her, but he could feel the race of her pulse beneath her delicate skin, and hear the catch in her breath as he filled his hands with her lush breasts. Her nipples changed beneath the press of his palms, hardening to little points and when he rubbed over them, she moaned.
The fashioning of her female to his male was so beautifully different that the sight of her naked flesh had his desire clamoring so loudly it took every fiber of his will to stay on task. Yet, as he explored her, his sensitive fingers felt the tiny little responses that her body had to his touch. He knew just where to caress to make her pulse rush. He knew just where to press to make her breath catch. He knew just where to slide his finger to make her stomach clench with a need that surely had to match his. He ran his fingers up the inside of her legs to slip into the burning folds of her female flesh, relishing the texture of her soft golden curls and the smooth heat of her hidden folds. She groaned so deeply when he found a tiny little spot of firm flesh hidden there that he surged to his feet, unable to hold back a moment more.
“Erin,” he said, his voice rough with wantingas he swung her up into his arms. He didn’t know what he wanted, but he knew he wanted more from her than what they were sharing in this cleansing ritual.
She opened her eyes. He expected to see burning desire within the golden depths of her eyes. And he wasn’t disappointed, but something else lurked there, too. Shadows of worry.
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