Page 54 of City of Love

They took a moment to nibble and drink, regaining their strength, and as she quietly watched him, she clearly saw the color return to his skin, solidity return to his spine, and a flush of strength return to his muscles. He was home, and healthy again. His body was much more intricately tied to his world than hers was to her own universe. His people interacted with the energies of their universe in a unique way, or at least, in a way her people disregarded or where unaware of. It confirmed that she could never ask him to try and live in her dimension.

Soon, she began pulling off her shoes and socks, anxious to slide into the bath. “Are you magic or something? When did you pull all this together?”

He chuckled as he followed suit, beginning to unbutton his shirt. “You were so engrossed in perusing my home, you didn’t notice me running back and forth to the kitchen.”

“But the tubs. The hot water?” She’d assumed that bathing in his pre-Industrial world would mean boiling pots of water and filling the tubs slowly. Something she hadn’t looked forward to if she ever spent any length of time in his universe.

“We use a gravity and cistern system for the plumbing,” he said as he pointed to the hand pumps poised at the head of each tub. “And heating the water merely requires energy to excite the molecules, creating friction.” He held up his telekinetic hands, wiggling his fingers with a grin. “Much the same as when I light the candles or hearth logs.”

Truly the best of both worlds, she thought as she shook her head in appreciation. Then she cast a glance longingly at the tubs again.

“Please,” he gestured for her to get in. “I’ll give you a moment of privacy. Help yourself to any toiletries.”

He stepped out, disappearing into the bedroom, and she turned toward the washbasin on the counter. Picking through the colored bottles and covered porcelain bowls, she found a container labeled “tooth powder” and rinsed her mouth with the minty, baking soda-like substance. Then she dropped the rest of her clothing and stepped into the copper tub.

“Oh my God,” she breathed as she slid into the hot, fragrant water, her tightly wound muscles releasing their tension. Picking up the bar of hand-made soap that sat on the lip of the tub, she began soaping her body, raising one leg from the water, her toes resting on the edge as she ran the bar down her thigh. “I think I’m in heaven.”

“Indeed, as am I.” Her gaze flew up to see him leaning against the door frame, arms crossed over his broad bare chest, his snug riding breeches displaying the clear outline of his pleasure. His eyes scanned from the tips of her pink-painted toenails perched on the rim, up her calf, her thigh, across the top of the water to her breasts bobbing just at the surface, and finally back to her face. His lips pulled into a satisfied grin, and her whole core heated in response.

“Are you getting in, or just admiring the scenery?” she managed after a swallow.

As he removed the last of his clothing and stepped into his own tub, she took in the wide lat muscles of his strong back as they tapered into the hips, and the powerful round glutes, dented in deeply at the sides. She attempted not to stare at the beautiful erection bobbing against his flat torso, and failed miserably, feeling the blush on her cheeks.

Nearly groaning when most of him disappeared below the water, she was rewarded again when he briefly slipped his head under to wet it, then resurfaced, running his hands though his hair as he wrung it out, his enormous biceps flexing with the motion. She was hyperaware of every sensation, the drops of water glistening on his skin and reflecting the golden auras of the candles and the red of the copper, as if his body were covered in gemstones.

They soaked like that for long blissful minutes, silently reaching to hold hands in the space between the tubs. Her head back against the rim, eyes closed, she let the horrors of the day flush away, replaced by the warm glow of the present moment. The heightened senses spurred by his universe made the movement of the water feel like a million fingers caressing her skin, and her libido was reaching a peak. She almost found herself slipping a hand between her thighs when the loud swish of water snapped her out of the sensuous fog.

Gideon stepped out of his tub, running a thick towel over his perfectly sculpted, glistening body, and she began to follow suit, but he paused her with a hand motion. “Stay a moment, sweetheart.”

He moved behind her, kneeling down behind her head, and cupping water in his hands, he ran it through her hair, washing her long locks and massaging her scalp as she stared up at him with half-lidded eyes.

He paused to examine the bruise on her forehead, and with that reminder, the day’s events came slamming back to her. The bruise on her head, the assholes who did it to her, Benjamin’s broken body. Lexi jerked in the water.

“Hey, what’s going on?” he said, caressing the backs of his fingers along her cheek.

But she didn’t want to think about it. She wanted to float, she wanted to drink honey mead, she wanted to…

She reached up to Gideon’s neck and pulled his head close, their kiss meeting upside down as he leaned over her in the tub. It felt like it had been years since their lips had last touched and she drank in the sensation, drank in his taste, the flavor of honey mead still on his lips. She didn’t wait for him to be the aggressor. Opening his mouth with her tongue, she thrust deep, exploring, tasting, the feel of his hair falling onto her face igniting those tingling tracer sensations.

He responded, tugging on her bottom lip, which was at his full mercy in her upside down position. His hands slid down to her lifted breasts where he pinched the nipples to attention, sliding his thumb back and forth as she groaned into his mouth.

His lips and hands abandoned her then, and she let out a whimper of loss before she realized he was scooping her up in both arms, cradling her against him as he carried her out of the bath. Her face against his broad, muscled chest as they moved into the bedroom, she flicked a tongue across his damp skin, and he groaned in pleasure.

Gideon laid her onto the big bed, shadows from the fireplace flickering along the edges of the dark canopy above them. He stood before her, his cock rock hard, every muscle in his body taut and ready. Her eyes took him in as he towered above her, the washboard abs, the huge corded quads, those delicious lines that formed a V as they went from the hips to the pelvis, and the delectable little treasure trail of dark blond hair.

His gaze moved over every inch of her body, and she had the delicious impression he was planning and plotting, deciding how to proceed.

Seeming to have made a decision, he recaptured her eyes and smiled. A slow, smoldering, unfolding of a smile, and her body burned, hot and wet in response. Suddenly, in one fluid movement he reached for butt cheeks, pulling her ass forward to the edge of the bed, leaving her legs to dangle as he climbed over her. He took her hands, placing them above her head as he kissed her mouth thoroughly before moving downward. Working his way down her jawline, neck, and collarbone, his mouth found his way to her breasts, where he tasted each nipple in turn before continuing his travels south.

As he followed a trail of water droplets down her tummy, he stopped to lap the little puddle in her belly button before finding the end of his journey not far below. He reached her close-shorn curls, nuzzling into them, then lifted her knees, placing her feet on the bed and bringing her legs to fall open for him. Lexi moaned as she felt his warm breath caress her sex, and his eyes shot up to hers just as he lowered himself before his feast. Dragging her ass even closer, his tongue swept over her entrance, finally landing on his target point. She cried out as he lapped and teased, his own sounds of pleasure adding to the vibrations building in her core.

She wiggled as he worked, bucking at his ministrations. “Gideon, wait, I’m so close… I need…”

With a final exquisite swipe of his tongue, he rose up over her again, erection in hand. “You need?” he asked with a wicked grin.

She nodded in response, backing up on the bed again as he crawled over her, his eyes full of the most beautiful desire.

He began to lower himself down on top of her, and as he did so the thought crossed her mind that they hadn’t yet had the usual pre-sex discussion, all the safety concerns, which for some reason seemed so out of place in his world, and yet was equally valid.

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