His finger moved.

Shit.

“Lahn,” I breathed as it hit me. I’d said that to him last night and, this morning, he’d seen to finding out what it meant. “You’ve been talking to Seerim.”

He smiled and damn, it was sexy.

Yep, he’d been talking to Seerim.

First on my morning’s agenda, find Diandra and kill her.

His finger moved, sliding out and in. “Sah me lapay the part of me you love gahn tee jahkal,”* he murmured.

Okay, no, first up, Lahn was going to play with me, give me an orgasm and then I was going to find Diandra and kill her, the crazy Korwahkian matchmaker.

And I was right about the morning’s agenda, with one hand holding my wrists over my head, his other hand worked between my legs until my back arched, my hips ground down on his fingers and I cried out when he made me come really, freaking hard.

It was still washing through me when he let my wrists go and tugged me gently into his lap, wrapped his arms around me, buried his face in my neck and cradled me.

“My Circe’s claws are not so sharp,” he whispered there.

My body tensed.

Seriously, he was annoying.

I lifted my hands to his chest and shoved hard enough that he moved back an inch as I snapped, “Go away, Lahn, I need a bath.”

His head came up and his silently laughing eyes caught mine.

“Yes, kah Dahksahna, me too.”

Oh shit.

He went on. “Kah bahsah bathes zah Lahn, kay bathe kah bahsah.”

He said, “My wife bathes her Lahn, I bathe my wife”.

Oh shit!

“Lahn –” I started, he grinned then turned his head and barked,

“Teetru!”

The cham flaps instantly opened and I pressed my chest to his, my arms going around him to hide my nudity (not that I needed to, my girls had seen me plenty of times but it was habit) as my head twisted around to see all five of my girls traipsing in with buckets of steaming water, cloths and rough, creamy disks of soap. They set them down in a new area I hadn’t noticed last night that was stone and grass and no rugs.

The mess we made with Lahn’s bath was not to be repeated, I saw. We now had a shower area.

Crap.

Then they shuffled out without looking at us.

“Lahn –” I started but I was up because he was up and carrying me. “Lahn!”

“Quiet,” he ordered.

“Lahn!” I snapped, he dropped my feet, they hit stone and my nightgown immediately slid down to my ankles. Before I could decide to go for the nightgown or just make a run for it, his hides were at his. He stepped out of them, bent to grab the handle of a bucket, I prepared for flight but he caught me at the waist, yanked me into him, my body slammed against his and not a second later he poured a whole bucketful of warm water on our heads.

Then the bucket clattered to the ground as Lahn’s arm tightened around me and the fingers of his other hand slid up the back of my neck and into my wet hair as I spluttered.

Once I’d blinked the water away I saw his face close and felt his hot, slick body sliding against mine.

It went without saying that felt nice.

“Kah bahsah bathes zah Lahn, I bathe my Lahnahsahna,” he said softly.

Then he bent us both to the side as he reached for the soap.

Oh well, whatever. I needed a bath and he undoubtedly did too.

“Whatever,” I muttered, pulled the soap out of his hand and pressed it against the gorgeous brown skin on his massive, fantastic chest and it didn’t take long (approximately a second) before I really got into what I was doing.

About a second after that, both his arms locked around me and he burst out laughing.

He knew I was into what I was doing.

Yep, he was definitely annoying.

When he’d stopped laughing, I tilted my head back and gave him a scrunchy face in an effort to show him exactly how annoying I thought he was.

His dark eyes took in my scrunchy face, his lips gave me a smile and his arms gave me a squeeze.

Again, whatever.

I focused on the task at hand. Then he focused on his task.

Needless to say, this added nuance to bath time with Lahn made it even more fun.

Yep, I was definitely screwed.

* * * * *

“Oh Circe, my lovely, I’m so sorry. Golly, I can’t imagine my Feetak ever taking a hand to me,” Narinda breathed.

Her Feetak.

Yep, ole Feetak was in there and I meant that in more ways than one.

That didn’t take long.