Baths in general were something I could rarely enjoy, for fear Orin would find me. To fully bathe I typically had to hide my face or cover the majority of the water with a cloak.

To keep him from seeing me.

I feared that one day, I'd be careless, and he'd get ahold of me.

Gray positioned my arms on the outside of the tub as he set me in. Letting them slide down the metal, behind me.

Forcing me to sit entirely upright in the water, my back pinned to the metal. Making me feel even more vulnerable than when Frost had me chained to the wall this morning.

Because it's Gray that has me. A tiny voice admitted.

My jaw ticked and I was ramrod stiff. Watching as he walked to the chair to remove the platter to the side table before flipping the buckles at the shoulders of his tunic. Letting the glittering gold chain mail fall from his chest and to the floor.

He leisurely collected it and set it atop his cloak. He sat on the edge of the bed and took off his boots before standing to unbuckle his belt and remove his breeches.

"I can feel your eyes." He remarked. "For a woman that hates me so, your eyes are feasting."

He didn't even look over.

How'd he know?

The same way he always does. I chided myself. Knowing better than to give him the satisfaction.

"Would you believe me if I said I were an innocent?" I queried. Taking a shot at humor since his severity was causing my anxiety to climb to new heights.

When he was cold like this, he was entirely unpredictable. He could completely conceal what he was thinking and do the opposite of what one expected.

It kept me on edge.

Which is probably why he does it.

So, in return, I was trying to say anything that might make him laugh.

Or make him angry. Anything that might make him stop being so coldly unreadable.

He snorted at my comment. "You haven't been innocent since the first month I met you."

I winced at that.

"Why are you playing with me, Gray?"

"Why won't you surrender to me, Baby Girl?" He faced me squarely. His jaw set and his face hard.

"You know full well that'll never happen. You're my enemy."

"I don't have to be."

"You killed my entire family."

"Because I wanted you."

"Well," I bowed my head as if I'd curtsy for him. "In that case, just take me away. I'm yours, indeed." I adjusted uncomfortably in the tub as he drew close enough to squat outside it. Leisurely trailing his fingertips in the warmth. Perilously close to the tip of one upthrust dark nipple.

I was trying to cringe away, pressing my back into the metal as I tried to retreat from him.

He rested his cheek on the side of the tub to peer at me. Blinking huge silver-blue eyes which were darkly trimmed in lashes that would send a lady into jealous fits. His face was so perfectly flawless with those large lips and that dimpled chin that he looked almost childlike when his jaw wasn't locked.

"What's wrong, Baby Girl? Uncomfortable."

I was breathing heavily. Staring at him angrily.

"Doesn't it bother you, when you're not in control?" He shifted onto his knees and reached to grip one of mine. Pulling it lightly toward the edge of the washbasin, near him.

I followed with the other one.

He clicked disapprovingly in his cheek and tossed his chin for me to move it open.

"You can go fuck yourself, Gray."

"Mmmhmm." He shook his head purposefully. "Not myself."

His point wasn't lost on me.

It never is...

"What would you do if I fought you?"

"You always fight me. Far harder than you fought Frost, I'd wager. Why is that?"

I rattled the washbasin under my armpits, trying to jerk in the water.

It swept side to side and sloshed onto him.

His expression didn't even flicker in a way that might've warned me as he stood up and launched himself over the edge and into the bath with me. Squatted in the water across from me.

I squawked in objection and drew my knees to my chest protectively.

His gaze still locked on me.

Like a cat stares at a mouse it wishes to toy with.

He leaned slowly forward and headed for me in a way that made the sinews in his biceps jut and his hard chest flex each time he put weight down on a fist, climbing toward me.

There's already not enough room in here.

Suddenly there was no air in the room.

He was stealing it all. So close to me that when I turned my head to evade him, his lips brushed along the corner of my mouth in a butterfly touch.

"Go ahead, Baby Girl. Try to resist me."

"I'm tied up in a tub, Gray." I said acidly.

Just how the hell would I do that?

"Yet, you're still spitting venom." He said in a silky voice.

It's the only weapon I have.

I was slender, light and small framed, making me easily overpowered physically.

Gray was the complete opposite. Though he was far from a giant, he was large, well-built, and wound with wiry muscle.

And vicious to the core.

"Mmm..." He murmured. Dropping his face into my upper chest. His lips massaging softly along the upper curve of my breasts and blazing lightly up to my collar where his tongue dipped into the hollow of my clavicle before following its shape to push his lips softly into notch where the two bones met in the dip at the base of my throat.

"I missed that. Your smell. It gets me hard just getting the smallest whiff." He growled hungrily.

I had to drop my head back to keep the pressure from making it uncomfortable to breath.

I was trying hard to ignore him. To ignore the sultry things, he was saying. Things I knew would melt me into his hands. Don't listen to him.

He took advantage of my exposed neck to nip lightly along the chord of my throat. Sending a thrill of goosebumps winding over me.

No.

I pushed my knees together tight between us, hoping to keep him from getting any closer.

But even as I was thinking it he reached up to hook his elbows over them. Driving them down and away from my body.

I whined in frustration as they were pushed aside enough, they spread wide and slammed into the sides of the tub, making room for him to scoot his body closer, his knees framing my hips and his lean body fitting against me as his fingers cupped the back of my head to still me for his soft kisses.

"Gray!" I growled through clenched teeth.

"Tell me to stop, Woman." He whispered against my steamy skin. "It only makes me harder, faster."

I compressed my lips and huffed. Refusing to give him the gratification. Which made him lift his head to look at me. I saw the brief flash of dimples at the corner of his mouth.

The only telltale sign that he's amused.

"Tell me what they do to you?" He said into my ear.

I turned my head away, but his teeth caught my earlobe and kept me from moving further. Despite myself, his touching and nibbling was driving me crazy.

Something that made me all the more furious, because he knew it.

I tried to focus on something unattractive about Gray that I could latch onto. But the only glaring thing I could pinpoint was his complete and utter lack of character.

He's evil.

Conscienceless and devious.

"Why do you want to hear that, Gray?" I said contemptuously. "Does it get you excited."

"No." He pulled back to give me a long study. "It infuriates me."

"Then why would you want to know?" I retorted.

"I want to know if any of them touch you like I do?" His hand moved slowly to frame the side of my neck and curl around the front. His thumb resting on my pulse on the other side. Though he applied no pressure I was nervous.

I couldn't protect myself with my legs because they were outside his elbows and ankles now. And my arms were hooked over the outside of the bin, making the edge dig into my armpits and rendering me entirely immobile.

He has me.

"Your heart is racing." He said huskily against my jawline. "That's an admonition that they don't."

"No." I said, shaking my head.

No one touched me like him.

No, I'd not answer that question.

No, to everything!

He walked his fingertips down from my neck through my cleavage and over my belly and lower. Sifting softly through the slight nest of hair protecting my sex before his fingers brushed my lower lips. Massaging them with alternating pressure before easing them apart to allow him further entrance.

My breaths became more ragged. I couldn't seem to catch it.

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