He might have muttered something under his breath.
When I turned to Nox in question, the look on his face arrested me completely, even my breathing.
“You mustn’t attend the challenge,” he said, “because tonight you will be with me. It’s second night.”
Oh. Right. I swallowed.
Chapter Sixteen
Nox brought me into his rooms. He opened the door, and I stepped inside. The books I’d asked him to carry were in the corner. When had he brought them here? That was so sweet of him in the midst of everything to even remember.
My fight elation had fled, and in its place, I was…tired.
“So…” He leaned against the wall. “Here’s the truth. My rooms are very small. My guess is that when Torrin misses your presence tonight, he will order all of us to move into the royal residence. Astor will object, he won’t want to leave his lab area. Mattis will hate it because it will mean he’s running back and forth to the bar. And I will be sorry, even though my rooms are so small, because I have something the others don’t have.”
His lips twitched, and I knew he was about to say something really amusing. “What is that?”
It was more fun, even in my tired state, to play along than I could have guessed. I was still getting to know these guys. Did Nox laugh a lot? Play these games? I couldn’t remember ever really being teased. Was that what was happening right now?
“Because I have permanent hot water. When everyone else loses it, I don’t. Has something to do with the layout of the pipes. Sucky rooms. Great water.”
I grinned at him. “That is really incredible, considering I keep hearing that it goes away all the time.”
He nodded toward the bathroom. “Want to soak?” Nox paused. “With me?”
My smile that crept up my face was huge, and my cheeks were hot. I must have been a tomato. “Yes.”
“Great.”
I followed him into the bathroom. The bathtub was practically bigger than his bed, which took up most of his bedroom. He turned on the water, and steam rose immediately. Wow. He hadn’t been kidding. He really did get hot water.
Nox pulled off his shirt, and before I could talk myself into feeling embarrassed, I did the same. Just because Torrin and I had the night we’d had didn’t mean that I was suddenly without my years of background that shaped my feelings of nudity.
I watched him while he took off his clothes, and he did the same for me. He nodded toward the shower in the corner. “Let’s get the blood off first. While the tub fills.”
He turned on the spray, and I stepped under it, wetting my hair. Nox, who was visibly hard just from watching me undress, got under with me. He handed me a cloth, and a thought dawned on me. Rather than rub the blood off me, maybe I should get it off him first. It would certainly break the ice about touching him.
So I did that. With smooth movements, I rubbed the blood off his body. He stiffened and then closed his eyes, relaxing. My own breath caught in my throat. This was intimate. Private. Just about as close as I could be with him without having him actually inside of me.
He opened his eyes and ran his hand down my arm, stopping my movement when he got to my hand. Nox took the cloth from me, dropping it onto the ground. He grabbed another one from the small shelf and ran it down my body.
“My turn.”
His turn? I wasn’t entirely sure I could endure his turn. But also? I trembled—literally shook—with wanting it.
And exactly as if he knew what sweet torture he inflicted, Nox took his damned time, kneeling there on the wet tile floor and starting with my feet, working his way up with the cloth—a texture rougher than I was used to, making every centimeter of my skin feel touched, abraded, desired. Tops of my feet, between my toes, back of one ankle, and then the other, the rough scour of the cloth followed by a slick runnel of water, sluicing. Bit by excruciating bit, uncovering me, unraveling me.
He’d knelt and bent his head to better focus on his task, so I couldn’t see his face, and that honestly might have been a mercy. It left me free to not worry what I looked like in response. I might have been standing there with my mouth hanging open, like I’d never had a clear