Page 39 of You Only Love Twice
Oh, God. She sank up to her throat in the heat, moaning a little. "You have no idea how good this feels."
Was it her imagination, or were his shoulders a little stiffer?
All her frustration swept away as Gemma made good use of the soap, slicking it across her arms and down her breasts. Delving it between her thighs. Down her legs. Water splashed and dripped on the floor. A mischievous mood afflicted her, and she tossed a handful of it in his direction.
Obsidian shot her a glare as it splashed against his legs, and Gemma bit her lip, catching the flash of his glance across her bubble-coated breasts.
"It's safe to look," she taunted. "Unless you wish to keep trying to pretend you don't want to? It's all right, Obsidian. I'll keep your little secret."
"Enjoy it. It's going to be the last bath you get." A rough, heavy sentence, almost growled out.
"Do you think you could wash my back?" She cupped the soap and glanced up at him from beneath her lashes.
Then she couldn't help herself. Laughter burst from her at the expression on his face: one part murder; one part frustration; and two parts pure, unadulterated hunger.
"Were you always this frustrating?"
"Most likely." She let her gaze rove over the broad planes of his shoulders. Goodness, the man could fill out a coat nicely. "Were you always this cold and controlled? You're not the man I remember, but then... that could always have been an act."
"I wasn't the one acting."
"No? Do you know what I think?" She lifted one of her legs and rested her heel on the edge of the bath. "You say I'm the actress, but I never chasedyou, Obsidian. Sergey was my target. Not you. And every damned time I got close to him, you would appear and intercept me, and I did my best to drive you away. That wasn't an act. I never tried to pretend to be anything to you, because I never had to. You were the one who was charming and reckless. You challenged me constantly. And yet, here you are, and none of that remains." She flicked water in his direction. "It makes me wonder... just who was fooling who?"
He'd laced his arms over his chest. "Perhaps Iwascharming. Perhaps I had a reason, back then."
"Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps," Gemma growled, smashing her fist into the water. "Can you not ever grant me a straight answer?"
He stared at the wall for so long, she had to look to see if he'd heard her.
"I don't know."
"Was I that insignificant?" She lay back in the cooling water. "Could you not be bothered remembering me?"
Obsidian had crossed to the vanity, examining the old vial of perfumed oil there. "No. Idon'tremember."
It took her breath. Gemma sat up, sloshing water everywhere.That's not the way I remember it, he'd said yesterday. "What do you mean?"
"I have very little recollection of Russia," he said in that silken-soft voice that stirred through her. He set the vial down. "I didn't remember shooting you until you mentioned it. All I remember is the fire. Kissing you. Once. Flashes of the first time we met. You were an enemy spy who seduced me. You tried to kill me."
She didn't know what to say.
"I didn't try to kill you," Gemma whispered. "I had nothing to do with the fire, I swear. By the time I slipped from your bed you were fast asleep, but I didn't think it unusual. And then it was hours later when the outcry went up. My chambers were right next to Malloryn's at the other end of the house. We shuffled out into the snow, and when I realized your end of the house was aflame, I tried to find you but you were gone."
"You're lying."
For the first time she gained the impression he wasn't saying it to her.
"Your cover had been blown. Malloryn discovered you were working for Balfour, and warned me to stay away from you. The next time I saw you it was night," Gemma continued. "I was walking home from a friend's. I'd been trying to find word of what happened to you, and Malloryn caught me. He was lecturing me when you appeared out of nowhere." She saw it all over again. Dmitri stalking toward her through the snowy night. The burst of relief she'd felt when she realized he was alive. Unharmed. Malloryn calling out to her from behind,"Damn it, Hollis, get out of the way!"
"No!"she'd cried, throwing her arms wide, soMalloryn couldn't take the shot.
"I ran toward you, but it was as if it wasn't you at all. You looked at me so coldly. It felt so wrong. And I slowed to a halt right in the middle of the bridge, alerted by some instinct. And that's when you shot me."
The slam of a weight into her chest, as if she'd been hit by a freight train. Tumbling backward over the bridge, and smashing straight through the ice. Cold. So very, very cold.
Gemma rubbed at her chest, and the faint scar there where it still sometimes ached.
"When I woke I was on an airship, being evacuated to England. Malloryn saw everything happen, and he'd hauled me out.
