His Majesty's Forbidden Temptat - Maisey Yates Page 0,26

look like ice. Which was appropriate, because when Tinley slipped her robe off and got into the water, she was certain that her skin would not survive. It was freezing. She moved through the pool quickly, getting out on the other side. Her robe was back where she had entered, but it was too late to do anything about that.

Her skin burned, and felt bright. Tingling from the water. She couldn’t tell if her blood felt closer to the surface of the skin, or if it had frozen right in her veins. She passed through to the next room, which had red gems inlaid, glittering on the walls like fire. And so, she didn’t have to guess what she would feel like when she entered and exited this pool.

The scalding heat of the water was nearly unbearable, particularly after her ice bath, and Tinley was wondering if the royal family was human after all. She moved through that pool quickly as well.

After that, there came a long corridor. The rock laid into the wall was blue and jade, like swirling waves all around her. She walked on a narrow path, with water on either side of it, as if a river flowed underground here. It made shifting, moving reflections on the wall. There were pedestals on either side of her at the center of the corridor. In one bowl, there was a textured looking substance. She put her fingers in it, and found it was the sugar scrub Charis had spoken of.

There was a smaller bowl next to it, and she put a small measure of it inside. Then she smelled it.

It smelled... It was not floral, nor was it feminine. There was a rich, spicy scent to it, and she realized it reminded her of Alex.

Unbidden, she had an image of him walking through here, naked. Of him scrubbing this onto his skin, for he must.

In the bowl on the other side was a cream, and she took a small measure of that as well.

Then she continued on her way, walking naked through the hall.

She didn’t know what she expected of the grand pool she’d been instructed was waiting for her, but it was... Something else entirely. It was not a large rectangle, no, rather it was a winding, organic looking body of water that extended around the corner she could not see. The entrance had a slow slope into deeper water, like the ocean, but here, the sand was made from marble, precious stones and gold.

It illuminated the water from beneath, and overhead, the glittering stones cast fractured light all around.

It was like being in a sparkling cave of gems, in a river of light. She stepped into the water slowly and sighed when she found the temperature perfect. She set her bowls down on the edge of the winding pool, and slid beneath the surface. She allowed the silence to envelop her. The solitude. These last days had been... She could not recognize her life. Or rather, she could, but it was a strange, twisted mirror, showing her the past while driving her on toward a future she could not envision.

Was she really going to marry a stranger? Was she truly going to meet that man tomorrow, choose him, and...have Alex arrange it?

Alex.

The mention of his name made her skin burn hot and bright and it had nothing to do with the water.

She came up for air, no longer feeling cocooned by the water.

She swam over to the edge of the pool and put a bit of the sugar scrub on her fingertips, working it over her body, grimacing at the roughness.

But part of her welcomed it. For it felt a bit like a punishment, and she was angry with her skin.

Her breasts.

That treacherous place between her thighs that she had never given much thought to until him.

Her heart, which was filled with fear and trepidation. Which lacked the courage to run away, but also the courage to embrace where she was with any full passion.

The heart stuck in limbo.

And had it not been for years now?

She had been certain of a path, and then it had vanished, and she had tried to find something new.

And instead hadn’t she just sunk into some kind of strange rebellion at her mother.

Choosing to live in a tiny cottage and take a job where she worked from home so she never had to concern herself with her image?

An image that felt so short of what she knew her mother wanted