Chapter 28 #2
I shimmy out of the gown and my underthings quickly. As I unwind Linzi’s ribbon carefully and set it with the pile, Julita’s presence stirs. I can’t believe I never realized. I suppose you weren’t in the habit of ogling your own chest while you were changing.
Quite purposefully, once I knew she was inside me. I feel strange talking to her with Casimir right here, so I simply shrug and clamber into the tub.
The steaming water envelopes my body in a delectably warm embrace. The sweet scent of the bubbles fills my lungs.
I exhale in a sigh, tipping my head against the arched back of the tub.
Yes, this is nice.
Not that it makes any difference to me, Julita goes on. Even without any godlen ties, you clearly know right from wrong. I don’t think I’d mention it to Stavros, though.
I raise an eyebrow as if to say, No kidding.
“How are you getting on there, my friend?” Casimir asks in a tone as warm as the water.
I hum contentedly. “I’m feeling pretty pampered already.”
He laughs. “Oh, it can get much better than this. Let’s get started with your hair. I’d imagine it’s been a long time since you had anyone to help you wash it.”
Not since I was a child of six or seven. I can’t remember if Ma stopped attending to me that closely in the bath before she realized I was a monster or only after.
The clash of memories brings back the ache in my chest, but the press of Casimir’s fingers moving deftly over my scalp soon whisks the turmoil away.
He stops for a moment with a whisper of fabric, and I realize he’s taken off his shirt. To avoid getting it wet, presumably, but I can’t help regretting that I’m missing the view with him behind me.
Kneeling, he eases my head back into the water to ensure my hair is totally soaked. Then he works a lavender-scented soap into the pale locks.
As his fingers move down to the nape of my neck, a starker heat seeps through my veins. It’s difficult not to imagine how those skillful hands would feel tending to other parts of my body.
Well, Julita murmurs. I can’t say I mind getting to experience Casimir at work. He does know what he’s doing. But I think perhaps I should give you a little more privacy… to enjoy yourself fully. If I can slip deeper away like I did before, I won’t even know. Let’s see.
Her voice fades out. The faint tingling of her presence dwindles too, until it’s the barest tickle at the back of my skull.
Did she notice some sign that Casimir is about to do something I’d rather have private? My pulse stutters.
But after the courtesan douses my hair with water, he sits back on his heels. “We have a salve that helps scars heal. I’m not sure how much effect it’ll have on older ones, but I’m happy to try if you’d like.”
I’ve never gotten a clear view of the ruddy lines that crisscross my back, but I don’t like the story they tell of my history. I’d happily see them gone for good.
“Worth a try,” I say, not looking too hard at the twinge of disappointment that passes through me. “Thank you.”
He retrieves a small jar full of greenish cream and has me sit up and lean forward so the upper half of my back is exposed. “Do they hurt at all still?”
I shake my head. “Not unless I bang up my back. Which I’d imagine would hurt anyway, but maybe they make it hurt a little more.”
“I’ll still be careful.”
The substance he spreads across my damp skin is warmer and more slippery than I expected. With each stroke of Casimir’s fingers, I feel as if it’s sinking through the mottled ridges, deeper into my flesh.
It’s probably weird that the act sends another pang of desire through my core. I grope for a conversational subject that’ll distract me from my lustful urges.
“How did you end up in this line of work anyway?” I settle on. “You’ve made it sound as if you grew up always planning to become a courtesan.”
I’ve heard of large noble families directing their youngest children who have no chance of inheriting into the arts of various sorts, but I wouldn’t have thought they usually decide it very early on.
Casimir gives a hum of agreement in answer to my words. “It’s a family calling. My mother served the barons and baronesses, traveling with them in the royal court from place to place. I believe her mother served the same way before her.”
“Oh.” I guess that makes sense as well—that the practitioners of the sensual arts who mingle with nobility are seen as nobles as well. And quite possibly for his grandmother to have ended up in that position, she was noble to begin with. “And you wanted to follow their footsteps?”
“It’s what I was raised for. It’s what I do best.”
I can’t stop myself from craning my neck to peer over my shoulder at him. “Did you have any chance to try doing anything else?”
He shrugs as he returns the lid to the salve and rinses his fingers. “I wasn’t inclined to. When you have an obvious path to follow, and you’re happy to do so, there’s no need to go looking elsewhere.”
How much of a choice was it really, if he was told he was meant to serve others this way from the moment he could understand anything at all?
Casimir guides me back against the end of the tub. Sitting up this way, the bubbles graze the undersides of my breasts.
“You don’t need to worry about me, Ivy,” he says, as if he can sense my doubts. “It truly is a joy to see the delight I can bring.”
I frown at the faucet across from me. “I just—I don’t think anyone should be bound by who their family was.”
“I don’t feel constrained. But the fact that you’d say that is one of the reasons I like you.”
I think his head has dipped a little closer behind me.
His breath tickles over my neck. His hands come to rest on my shoulders again.
Suddenly it’s hard to pull my thoughts together. Too many sparks are flaring beneath my skin.
I end up saying, inanely, “You like me, do you?”
“Of course I do. What’s not to like?”
His tone is casual enough that I can hardly take it as a statement of devotion. Am I really anything like a friend or just a momentary diversion?
But then he lets his hand drift over my shoulder and down my chest, leaning close enough that his lips brush my ear, and any lingering questions flee my mind.
“Would you like me to show you how much I do?” Casimir murmurs, his fingers caressing the slope of my breast just above the nipple.
Anticipatory pleasure jolts through my nerves. I lick my lips, and any reason I could have to protest feels very far away.
He wants to do this. I’m not remotely taking advantage.
The magic I’m hiding might be horrifying, but it isn’t going to hurt him.
I can accept this for me, for all the life I won’t get to lead… as long as he’s really doing it for me.
My voice sounds distant to my own ears. “In case it matters to you, Julita’s found a method of pulling away inside my head to give me some privacy. She did that earlier, after I got in the bath. She isn’t really here right now.”
Casimir simply chuckles. “Good. Because I don’t get the impression that you’re much of an exhibitionist.”
I hear no regret in his tone, no disappointment over an opportunity lost. His fingers glide right over my nipple, and all I can do is gasp.
Casimir tilts forward where he’s poised behind me, his other hand stroking my cheek and down my neck, the side of his face resting against my damp hair.
He circles his finger around the nub of my nipple until it rises to his touch, aching for more. Then he closes his whole hand over my breast, squeezing the peak between two fingers.
The rush of pleasure brings a whimper to my lips. I resist the urge to squirm my legs together to try to release the growing pressure between my thighs.
He hasn’t even reached past my chest yet, and he’s already conjured more bliss in my body than any man I’ve rolled around with ever did.
Casimir nips the shell of my ear. His voice is pure seduction now. “You’re lovely. I want you to always remember what it’s like to be treated right.”
He rolls my nipple between his thumb and forefinger while nibbling his way down my neck. I clamp my lips to stifle a full-out moan.
Casimir nuzzles the crook of my shoulder with another hot wash of breath. “You can be as loud as you like. These bathrooms are sound-proofed.”
A breathless laugh hitches out of me, because of course they are. But I don’t want to think about the many ways the man with me might have made the most of that fact in the past.
Casimir eases around the side of the tub so he can slide his hand across my chest. As he gives my other breast equal attention, he kisses my cheek and then my jaw.
Every flick and swivel of his fingers sets off fresh quivers of pleasure. I shift against the tub’s slick bottom, my sex throbbing now.
He grazes his other thumb across my cheek. “So beautiful with this flush in your face.”
I know he’s only sweet-talking now. I have never been and will never be a great beauty. But just then he dips his hand lower beneath the water, skimming across my belly to the spot I need it most, and the surge of pleasure knocks every thought out of my head.
As Casimir strokes my sex again, my head tips back with an inarticulate groan. He has his other arm braced behind me before my skull can smack the porcelain surface.
I arch against him, my breath hitching. “Fuck.”
“Good?”
I can barely manage more than a mumble. “So good.”
“Give yourself over to it,” he murmurs. “Let the pleasure wash away your troubles from the inside out.”
His thumb presses against my clit while his fingers slip lower. As I rock with the pulsing of bliss, one and then two curl right inside me.
I moan and grasp his arm as if I need something to clutch on to or the sensations will sweep me away. Gods above and below, if I’d known giving in to carnal desires could feel this good, I might have been pickier in my choice of partners.
Not that I had all that many to choose from. But this man has chosen me tonight.
This man might as well be blessing me like the godlen of sensuality herself with the paradise he’s evoking within me.
His voice sounds a bit rougher than before—or maybe I only want to imagine that. “I have you. Come all the way with me.”
The water ripples around me with the jerking of my hips. Casimir pumps his hand faster, thrusting deeper into the welcoming slickness inside me, and I tilt my face against the taut muscles of his chest.
The heat of the water and of his body encircles me. Pleasure blazes up from my core.
My mind whirls, my nerves crackle, and then ecstasy explodes inside me.
It roars through my body, as potent as my hidden magic, sizzling through every nerve with giddy delight. My head shudders against Casimir. My fingers dig into his arm, but he keeps stroking me as the impact rolls back.
When I sag with the release of the aftermath, he slips his hand back up over my belly and plants one last kiss on my temple. “Gorgeous. You’re a natural at being pampered.”
A guffaw tumbles out of me. “That—that was a little more cake than I expected.”
Casimir beams at the callback to his earlier metaphor. There’s no denying the joy on his face, no way I can feel guilty when he looks so pleased. “You needed every bit of it. Now why don’t you enjoy a little more of a soak, and I’ll find you the fluffiest towel we possess?”
When I climb out of the tub, the towel he picks out for me does feel like it’s made of a blend of velvet and cloud. I allow myself to snuggle in it for a few moments before getting to the practical business of drying myself off. Casimir rubs my hair down with a smaller towel.
It’s hard to feel self-consciousness about my nakedness when he’s just gotten so very familiar with my body. There’s nothing provocative about the way he handles me now as his usual warmly vibrant self.
Maybe getting someone off really is no more intimate to him than whipping up a pastry. It’s easier for me to accept what happened if I assume so.
After the courtesan has re-laced my gown, he stops me by the door with his hand at my cheek. “It was a pleasure spending this time with you, Ivy.”
The words and his touch send a renewed tingle straight down the middle of me.
My face flares all over again, but I’ve regained my wits enough to reply, “Even more so for me than for you, I’d imagine.”
His dark eyes gleam. “You might be surprised.”
I practically float through the halls and up the stairs to Stavros’s quarters. I only come to earth when I push open the door… and find the former general sitting on the edge of his desk, his gaze shooting straight to me like he’s been waiting for my arrival since the moment I left the archives.
Stavros’s gaze sweeps over me. I’m abruptly twice as aware of the dampness of my hair and the freshly-washed rosiness of my skin, which no doubt tell at least part of the story of what Casimir and I got up to.
I don’t know if Stavros can guess the rest. A muscle ticks in his jaw.
His gaze lifts and sears into mine for a few awkward beats of my heart before he straightens up.
“Casimir looked after you his way,” he says, his cocky voice marred by the hint of a growl in it.
“And I’m going to look after you mine. Starting tomorrow, I’m going to need your assistance from breakfast to evening bell.
If anyone wants to so much as aim a poisonous look at you, they’ll have to get through me first.”