“Your hand...” She gasped lightly, turning it palm up before twisting it back over so she could see the back.
His skin was a darkish grey, so very inhuman, although his hand was of similar shape to hers despite its size. A small lump of saliva clogged in his throat when she brushed her thumb over the knuckles where his hand met his fingers.
She was examining the protruding bone that rose out from his flesh, his knuckles white with them. His skin was actually attached to it, but it was split so each of the five fingerbone knuckles of his hand poked past his skin, including his thumb.
Turning his hand over again, she inspected the darker, calloused skin.
It was only when his fingers twitched at a tingling sensation due to her tickling his palm, that her hands flung away.
“Sorry!” she exclaimed.
Orpheus’ heart was beating fast. She touched me. She had willingly grabbed his hand and held it, brushed it, examined it with curiosity rather than horror.
“I did not mind,” he answered, his voice rougher than it had been a minute ago, his fur standing on end.
Done with her arms, he removed his hands so he could obtain more oil and dipped it into the water before he began to gently wash her face.
Her lips were plump as they yielded under the light pressure, her eyelashes a flutter as he slipped across her closed eyelids. His orbs faded from blue to purple when he moved his hand over her jaw and then her throat.
Desire was flaring inside him, stronger than he’d ever felt before, as she craned her neck to the side to assist him.
Her wet hair was silky as he ran his hands through it, massaging her scalp to make sure he got the oil to her skin through the thick strands.
He noticed a large scar behind her ear just at her hairline.
Something had hit her, deep enough to leave noticeably raised skin. He moved her hair out of the way to see it was pink like it was only a few years old.
His heart was beginning to thunder while the purple in his vision deepened as his palms ran down her chest. He should have kept his touch indifferent, knew it was too intimate and slow as he cupped her breast to wash it, but Reia didn’t say anything in protest.
Perhaps she didn’t know or realise the change, that his touch was filled with want and desire.
He did notice that her lips thinned from her biting them shut and that her body twitched. Her brows drew together tightly when he went to the other breast, knowing he couldn’t linger even though he wished to. Her nipple was hard, and he felt the scrape of it against his palm before he flicked it with his thumb, just to make sure, as he moved away.
His desire waned when she made a noise of distress. He pressed his snout against the crook of her neck to smell her scent directly.
She yelped and jumped away from him and Orpheus flung his hands away from her body as his eyes turned white.
Cupping her neck, she turned to him with wide eyes.
“W-why did you sniff me?”
He could see her chest was heaving.
“I thought you were afraid, so I was making sure,” he answered truthfully. “It is hard to tell through the water.”
“You were trying to smell fear?” Her eyes softened, her brows drawing together more in thought than emotion.
“You made a strange noise. If I smelt fear, I was going to ask you if you wanted me to put my gloves back on.”
But she didn’t smell of fear. That wasn’t why she’d made the noise, and he couldn’t understand why she had then.
She gave a laugh, but it didn’t hold humour. Rather, it seemed more panicky than anything.
“I–I wasn’t scared, and that tickled.”
Orpheus tilted his head in confusion.
“I didn’t know humans were ticklish on their necks. Only on their feet and underarms.”
Her face had already been flushed, it often was because of the warmth of the bathwater, but he thought it may have darkened ever so slightly.
“Sometimes we can be.” Her gaze was averted, her bottom lip pouty. “I-it’s fine. You can continue. I didn’t mean to fret.”
She returned to rest against the tub’s curvature and Orpheus hesitantly dipped his fingers into the oil.
Desire still clung to him, but it wasn’t as intense as it had been. He washed her back, starting somewhere that was less... intimate before he moved to her sides and then down her abdomen.
Her stomach dipped when he palmed down past her navel, but he barely noticed it as his fingertips felt the tickle
of the blonde curling hair of her pubic mound.
Despite his efforts, the flame of desire in his gut was heating once more to build into an inferno.
He reached for more oil, almost forgetting he needed to, as a pulse ran rampant through his body. It ruffled the inhuman parts of him at the foray of his fingers dipping into the slit of her body at the apex of her thighs. Lips caressed his fingers, while a hard nub he was curious about pressed against his flesh as he moved through her slit.
She dug the nails of both her hands into her thighs, her body twitching like she’d suppressed the urge to move under the touch.
Then he came out the other side between her cheeks. He washed both, giving each a singular, appreciative knead.
