Page 47 of A Darkness So Sweet

But she didn’t feel sick after bathing nearly every day on the journey out here. So maybe he was right. Maybe she wouldn’t fall ill and die if she bathed every day.

There was a metal arm that curved up and over the tub as well. What that was, she had no idea. She supposed it could be a handle to get in and out. But as she circled the tub, she didn’t think it was that.

Maia mused what it could be until she heard a faint noise from the doorway. Startled, she spun around to see Ragnar leaning against the frame of the door. His arms were crossed over his chest, all those bulging muscles on display for her to see.

Her initial fear at being startled bled away as she looked at him. So far, she’d only seen him as the warrior. The troll in leather laced pants who had stolen her away from her home and carried her over his shoulder for most of the journey. Seeing him clothed was an entirely different experience.

Tight breeches clung to his legs, although he still wore no shoes, which was entirely improper. A loose white shirt tucked into the breeches, but wasn’t buttoned, so she could see the powerful structures of his pectorals and the interesting hollows of his collarbone. He wore a thick necklace of silver around his throat and had bracelets tightly woven around his wrists.

He’d traded out all of his earrings as well for silver jewelry. All of this made her realize without a doubt that this was not a monster in the slightest. Every single thought of him as something other and wrong disappeared at the sight of him standing in front of her likethis.

She swallowed hard, trying to figure out what she was even supposed to say to him. Her mouth wasn’t working right. Words stalled in her mind as she tried to guess who… what…

“I’d like to take a bath,” she said, only realizing after she’d said the words how much work she’d just asked him to do. “I mean... If you show me where to get the water for the bath, I’m happy to heat it myself. I’ve done so many times in my life, but you’ve repeatedly told me that I smell, so I assume I must be quite offensive at this point. I don’t mind doing all the hard work myself.”

One of his brows lifted, and yet he did not stop her rant of words that flowed from her mouth. He just listened to her mumble even more about how she really didn’t mind at all and then strode into the room.

Every single word dried up on her tongue that was stuck to the roof of her mouth as he walked right up to her. She stumbled backward, her lower back striking the tub hard, and still he continued to lean. He moved ever closer—by the gods, was he going to kiss her?—before twisting something behind her back.

Suddenly, the sound of water filled the room. She was frozen where she stood, grabbing into the tub behind her for balance as she stared up into his features that gave away nothing of what he was thinking.

“How?” she asked. “Magic?”

“Your people are far behind ours. We do not use magic for everything. The trolls long ago figured out a piping system for the entirety of the city. The hot pipes are affixed to a hot spring nearby, as there are many of them and we will never deplete them in our lifetime. The cold water is run off from the top of the mountain and the snow that builds there year round.”

His gaze never left hers. She had no idea what to say. The steam from the hot water was building behind her, clinging to her fingers in warm droplets.

The trolls were far more advanced than her own people could dream of. Water in pipes? She’d never thought she would hear the day that was even possible, let alone that it had already happened.

Breathing in slowly, she turned to look at the steaming water filling the tub.

All she would have to do was step into the water. Whenever she wanted a bath, she could have one. No waiting. No need to boil water and carry the heavy buckets over to the tub.

This changed everything.

The hot steam coiled into the air, and she was so focused on tracking those small plumes that she didn’t notice he’d leaned closer. But then his voice rumbled in her ear and every nerve in her body fired white hot.

“Get in, fire hair.”

The hairs on her arms rose. Her breath caught in her lungs because surely he didn’t mean... “Now?” she squeaked.

“Is there any difference from the river?”

Yes, there was a difference. In the river, she’d always been in her clothes. Or he’d left her alone to her own devices, and she’d gotten undressed quickly and dunked herself in the water before anyone could see her. That much was easy when it came to bathing. But this...

Still, some unhinged wild woman inside of her said to do it. A part of her soul that had been trapped by society’s rules and the expectations of others unfurled its wings and cried out for her to be the woman she’d always wanted to be. A wanton, needy creature who bared her body to the man she desired and, against all odds, she wanted him.

She wanted the warmth of him at her back. She wanted those big hands to touch her. She justwantedeverything he offered that she’d never been able to grasp in her life.

And he was offering.

She knew he was offering.

“Would you like me to help?” he murmured, that dark, sensuous voice plucking at her senses. She didn’t have to look at him at all, and somehow that made it easier.

Easier to do all the things that her father had warned her about. It was a sin to want. It was a sin to indulge herself in all of her senses, and yet...

There was an ancient hunger in her veins. An age old need that had long been denied. And sometimes, the old ways were best.

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