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going to blame it on the robe. Who could wear such a thing and not feel particularly sexy, especially under his burning stare, and with his compliments spinning around and around in her mind?

She reached the edge of the basin and shrugged out of the robe almost reluctantly. Just as her jeans and tees were her fighting armor, the sensual lingerie made her feel feminine and attractive. The material seemed to hide as much as it revealed. She felt flawless in it, yet the moment she shed it, she felt strangely exposed.

His hand reached over her shoulder for the robe and she relinquished it, knowing that garment would always be a particular favorite no matter what happened. While wearing the robe, for the first time in her life she felt wanted as a woman. She felt sexy and even beautiful. The robe was as magical as Dominic. Standing so close, with him behind her, she was conscious of his heat, of the absolute control he seemed to have over both of them, and of his enormous strength. As a female jaguar, she looked for those qualities in a mate, and he had them in abundance.

She slipped into the steamy water and gratefully sank deep. The heat eased the soreness in her muscles. "Dominic, this feels so good."

He moved into the shadows, sitting in one of the two armchairs, almost hidden from her. One candle flickered with just enough flame to occasionally throw light across his face. A warrior's face. Dark. Mysterious. So tough. He was beautiful to her. She ducked her head under the water and rinsed out her hair. Strangely, even that familiar action seemed sensuous.

Solange allowed her head to rest against the side of the rock pool. She knew Dominic was watching her. The light spilled directly across her, probably spotlighting her breasts under the transparent water. The flame turned the water into prisms of color, drawing the eye, but with Dominic in the shadows, it was almost like her dreams when he would come to talk with her.

"I am glad you are enjoying your bath. I could tell you were still sore from your wounds."

She flashed a small, tentative smile. "You actually healed the worst of them. I just have a few aches and pains. Nothing serious." She hesitated.

He waited.

She cupped a handful of water and watched it run through her fingers. "You made me feel cared for."

"You are cared for."

Her gaze jumped to his. Her stomach fluttered at the impact of meeting those dark, mysterious eyes. "Thank you."

"If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?"

She frowned. "I've never been anywhere. Never. I've only lived here in the rain forest, but I used to dream of traveling. I would have loved to see all the different rain forests in the world. My aunt sometimes talked of far-off places. I used to pretend I was a princess, like in the stories she read to us, and a prince would come along and rescue me." She shrugged her shoulders. "I stopped needing to be rescued a long time ago."

"Perhaps," he murmured. "Or perhaps you simply stopped dreaming."

"What about you? Where would you want to live if you could live anywhere?"

She heard the chair move slightly, as if he had shifted positions. She glanced up and saw his hooded eyes drift over her. Instantly she was aware of her body again. It was the look in his eyes, she decided, that made her feel so sexual. Her cat wasn't in heat, yet she was. The burning between her legs just kept growing as if her body would never quite be sated. The craving for him seemed endless.

He wanted her to know herself as a woman and for his needs to become hers. She was fast approaching the point of needing him. She thought she'd been relieved when he'd told her that he expected nothing of her, but now her palms itched to touch his skin. She found herself sitting in the heated bath and fantasizing a little about taking him into her mouth, just to see what he tasted like, and most of all, what it would feel like to have him inside her, relieving the relentless ache.

"I have traveled all over the world and gone to the highest peaks, and the densest jungles. The Carpathian Mountains will always be my homeland, but my home is a woman. Solange Sangria. You are home to me. Your body is my home. Your mind. Your heart and soul.