Page 19 of Unearthing the Smuggler's Heart
That was when he smiled, the corners of his lips curling up into his dimpled cheeks, his even white teeth flashing in the dark room. Still, he did not move or speak.
She crossed her arms tight over her chest. "Are you all right?" she snapped, irritated by his calm. "Do you need anything?"
"Hm. A towel," he said, still wearing that damned smile. "If you please."
If he thought he would shock her with this request, he was wrong. Jade had spent her entire life surrounded by strange men attempting to unsettle her for their own amusement. A bit of male flesh on unexpected display was hardly novel.
She lifted her chin and marched over to the stack of terrycloth behind the tub and snatched one up.
She would not be toyed with like this again. Had he even been truly asleep?
"Here," she clipped, holding it out at a full arm's length.
He raised his eyebrows, moving to sit upright in the tub so that he could accept. "I will only be a moment," he said to her in a tone that implied she ought to smile and bat her lashes.
"You are already well into my hour," she replied, stepping backward and resuming her armored stance, arms crossed like chainmail over her heart.
He watched her for a moment, like one observes a wild animal, curious, but cautious. He evidently did not see anything terribly interesting, because in the next moment, he shrugged and pushed himself to standing. He kept his back to her, perhaps more out of propriety than any particular modesty about his person. He made quick work of it, wrapping the towel around his waist and stepping out of the water with a quick shake of his wet hair and a sigh of contentment.
Throughout the display, Jade had remained in her protected stance, only casting the briefest, curious glance to the muscles in his thighs and buttocks before retreating back behind her stony countenance of indifference. She attributed the speed of her heart to the steamy heat in the room, and nothing else.
He turned back to her over his shoulder, his torso flecked with beads of fragrant water, and he shook his head in seeming amazement, a huff of laughter escaping that ever-present smile.
"What?" she asked in an even tone.
"I do not know," he replied immediately. "I struggle to put into words all of the ways you surprise and confuse me, Miss Ferris."
"Nothing about me should confuse," she replied with an arched eyebrow. "If you have questions, I will happily answer them."
"Will you?" he replied, his words soaked thoroughly in his surprise.
"Of course."
In truth, she had become accustomed to being somewhat of a curiosity. Her life had been unusual, and it was natural enough for others to wonder about it, but somehow she did not think that was what Mathias Dempierre meant.
He walked closer to her, stepping around the tub and the buckets of rapidly cooling fresh water. He came close enough that she could smell his skin and looked down at her with his head tilted and his face contemplative.
She held her breath and tilted her face up to meet his scrutiny, gripping her crossed arms tightly together. She met the warmth of his gaze, allowed his aura to surround her as he drew closer, his expression unreadable.
They looked at one another, frozen in this motionless dance, for a suspended moment in time. Jade did not know if it was seconds or hours, only that she must not waver at all, must not look away or show weakness, must not blush or stammer or make the first move to leave.
What was surprising was how she felt the tension in her bones ease. Her stance remained, but no longer was she clenching at herself until her knuckles turned white. No longer was her spine stacked so tightly on itself that she could be snapped dead in half.
What a curious thing, she thought, that being hovered over like this by a man far too pretty to trust had somehow calmed her rather than fed into her readiness for battle. She blinked at him, truly puzzled by what she felt in this moment.
She did not want to run. She wanted to lean closer.
"I don't know what to ask," he confessed after a moment, his voice gone soft and husky. "Or rather, how to put it into words."
He took a step backward, snapping the cord that had seemed to grow between them cleanly in half. Jade felt suddenly chilled, like someone had whipped a blanket away from her in the night.
"Allow me to refresh the tub," he said, rubbing a hand over the back of his head as he turned from her.
She opened her mouth to stop him but did not speak, instead watching him use the two empty buckets to draw out some of the cooled water from his bath, and empty the fresh ones into the tub, all the while wearing nothing but that strip of white fabric about his waist.
He muttered something under his breath and leaned over the edge to fish a cake of soap out of the water, shaking it as though one could fling the moisture from soap. He straightened and placed it carefully in the little tray to the side of the tub and gave himself the smallest nod of approval.
"There you are," he said, turning back around, the brightness returned to his voice as though that strange, elongated moment between them had never happened. "Terribly sorry for dozing off."
