As she spoke, she pushed Wolfe’s head quite forcefully under the water. He emerged instantly and shook his head like a hound, spraying water all over her.
«Again,» she said sweetly.
Jessica pushed. Hard.
Smiling to himself, Wolfe slid under the water once more. This time he stayed under long enough to worry her.
«Wolfe?»
She tugged at his shoulders. He didn’t budge.
«Wolfe, that’s enough. Wolfe? Are you —»
Water erupted as Wolfe rose halfway out of the tub, grabbed Jessica, and held her poised over the dark water.
«Put me down!» she demanded breathlessly.
«With pleasure.»
«On the floor, you devil! On the floor!»
But Jessica was laughing too hard to stand, so Wolfe had to hold her. He leaned his elbows against the tub, supporting her, smiling, calling himself every kind of idiot. He should be withdrawing from her, not teasing smiles and laughter from her beautiful mouth, and feeling as proud as a hen with a new chick because there was color in her cheeks once more.
He would never win the war if the kept siding with the enemy. Very carefully, he released her.
«I think you’re well-rinsed now,» Jessica said, turning to leave. «By the time the rest of the water is heated, you should be finished with your bath.»
Again, her voice was alarmingly husky. At the sound of it, Wolfe narrowed his eyes. Little nun or not, she had liked washing his hair. He wondered how she would like washing the rest of him.
Abruptly he knew he was going to find out. His arm snaked out, grabbing Jessica around her hips before she could leave.
«You’ve forgotten something,» Wolfe said.
«What?»
«The rest of me. It needs washing, too.»
6
«You're joking,» Jessica said.
Wolfe felt the warmth and tension of her body and smiled. «No, I’m not. Pick up the sponge.»
She bent over a bit awkwardly, for Wolfe’s arm was still around her hips. Just when her bend was at its deepest, she felt Wolfe’s hand caressing and squeezing her hip as though testing its shape and the resilience of her flesh. She straightened so quickly that she almost fell over.
«Wolfe!»
He made a deep sound that could have been stifled laughter or a muffled question.
«Your hand — that is,» she stammered. «You —»
He smiled a lazy, dangerous kind of smile. «I?» he invited.
Jessica blinked. She had never seen quite that expression on Wolfe’s face. He was remarkably handsome, and looked every bit the devil she had accused him of being a few minutes ago. If the flame looked half so beautiful to the moth, it was no wonder the poor thing ended up getting too close.
«I, er, nothing,» Jessica muttered.
Hurriedly, she started rubbing up a thick lather on the sponge. Wolfe measured her high color and the pulse beating rapidly in her throat. The looks she gave him as she washed his face and shoulders told him she was both nervous and intrigued by his nakedness.
Lady Victoria, my hat is off to you — along with everythingelse, Wolfethought withamusement.You’reevery bit as wickedly clever about human nature as I remembered. Jessica is no more a nun than I am.
Working in a rush, Jessica rinsed Wolfe, trying not to see beneath the darkly reflective surface of the bath. It was impossible. She closed her eyes, thinking to make the bath less intimate that way.
It was a mistake. With her eyes closed, her hands seemed doubly sensitive. The sleek, hot power of his body beneath her hands made her tremble. The different textures of Wolfe was a new, pleasurable shock each time her hands moved across his chest. Heat burned softly through the pit of her stomach, making her shiver. She moved her hands across Wolfe’s chest once more, telling herself that she was rinsing him and knowing that she was lying to herself. She wanted to knead his flesh like a cat, and, like a cat, she knew she would purr all the while.
Desperately, Jessica opened her eyes just in time to see one of Wolfe’s long, powerful legs emerge from the water. Dark patterns of water-slicked hair began above the ankle and progressed farther up his muscular thigh than she was prepared to acknowledge.
Wolfe saw the direction of Jessica’s glance and knew that the water wasn’t hiding as much of him as it had before. He waited for a long, tense moment, measuring the combination of fear and desire in her. Knowing that he intrigued her as a man was violently exciting to him.
And it showed.
«W-Wolfe?»
«Surely I’m no more difficult to scrub than bricks,» he said casually. «Wash me, wife.»
Carefully looking no farther than Wolfe’s thigh, Jessica ran the soapy sponge over his leg in a single, breathless rush.
«Rinse,» she said.
The huskiness of her voice was another kind of caress on Wolfe’s responsive flesh. His right leg disappeared, only to be replaced by his left. She rubbed the sponge up the flexed muscles of his calf to his knee, only to fumble and lose the sponge. Instantly it sank beneath the surface of the water between his legs.
Jessica waited for Wolfe to retrieve the sponge for her. When he made no move, she looked up. She thought she saw the gleam of his eyes beneath his black lashes, but decided she was wrong. Carefully she fished beneath the water. Her fingers met hard, smooth flesh rather than sponge. Breath hissed between Wolfe’s clenched teeth.
«I’m s-sorry,» she said breathlessly, snatching back her hand. «I didn’t mean to…»
«Touch me?» Wolfe smiled without opening his eyes. «I forgive you, sweet nun.»
«The sponge,» she began.
«Hammer the sponge. Your fingers feel much better.»
Jessica was too rattled to argue. She grabbed more of the soft soap and rubbed it into the powerful muscles of Wolfe’s thigh, skimming over him in the space of seconds. Then, against her will, her own hands betrayed her and returned to enjoy the feel of his skin beneath her palms.
«Rinse,» she said in a low, choked voice.
The leg vanished back into the water. Lather swirled and floated away. Before Wolfe could make any more demands in regard to being washed, Jessica surged to her feet and hurried from the room, mumbling something about checking the heat of her own bath water on the stove.
Wolfe’s shuttered, hungry glance followed Jessica until she was out of sight. Reluctantly, he fished out the sponge and finished the bath, knowing he had teased her as much as he dared…at the moment.
By the time Jessica’s bath water was heated and she returned cautiously to the bedroom, her heart was beating at a less frantic pace and her stomach no longer did odd little flips at every other breath. She watched from beneath lowered eyelashes as Wolfe tamped the wooden plug back in place, closing up the hole that drained the bathtub through an opening in the bricks and onto the ground below.
Jessica admired the flex and play of Wolfe’s body while he emptied bucket after bucket of scalding water into the tub, then drew more water from the pump to cool the bath. It was quite easy for her to admire Wolfe’s supple power, for he wore nothing but his linen towel wrapped as a loin cloth. The pale luster of the cloth against his copper-brushed skin fascinated her.
