Takes the Cake by Lynn Chantale Page B

I’d like that very much.”
    “I would too.”
    She stepped farther into the cavernous room. Her first visit was hazy. She hadn’t seen much, but now that she was fully awake, his bedroom reminded her more of a hotel suite rather than a bedroom. Expensive rugs in rich, vibrant colors dotted the smooth wood flooring while watercolors of landscapes adorned the beige walls.
    They passed through a sitting room, and she caught a glimpse of large urns on pedestals and lush potted plants. He stopped on the threshold to a bathroom that rivaled anything she’d ever seen. Lit candles lined the room and trailed the tiled steps of the enormous tub.
    A silver bucket waited on the lip of the tub, the neck of a green bottle visible above the rim. Two delicate crystal champagne flutes waited to be filled. This wasn’t a scene she expected to see. This held romance and a bit of seduction.
    “What’s all this?” She waved a hand to encompass the room.
    “Just because I ravished you on the kitchen counter doesn’t mean I can’t seduce.” He lifted his hands and brought them to the thin straps of her dress. “And we never did get to drink that bottle of wine I brought to your room the first night.”
    Desire hummed through her veins at his honesty. “I see.”
    He brushed the material from her arms and tugged it down her hips until it pooled at her feet, and she stepped away from the dress. She skimmed his flesh, shoving the shirt down his arms. The garment rested on top of hers on the floor. He grasped the waistband of her panties and shoved them over the curve of her hips to her knees. Once there, she wiggled out of them and slipped out of her low-heeled sandals.
    Keegan stepped away from her long enough to shed his pants and underwear in one fluid motion. Her gaze fastened on the erection jutting from a short nest of reddish-brown curls. Large and impressive. She swallowed hard.
    “This is crazy.”
    “Is it really?” He placed a hand at her waist and maneuvered her toward the tub. “We’ve always had chemistry, Liz. My heart has always beaten for you. No other woman has ever excited me as much as you.”
    She stopped walking backward when her heels touched the cool tile of the steps. He brushed past her, causing the candlelight to flicker, and stepped into the tub. He offered his hand. After a moment’s hesitation, she accepted and joined him.
    Liz sank into the steamy, scented water and couldn’t quite stop the contented sigh from easing past her lips. She hadn’t realized how sore and tired her muscles were until the water hit her body.
    Keegan sat behind her, a muscular thigh on either side of hers as he rubbed the taut muscles in her shoulders. She allowed her head to fall forward as he worked the knots from her neck and slid his fingers down the curve of her spine, circling each vertebra as he went.
    “That feels so good,” she murmured.
    “I thought it might. You’ve been on your feet all day.” He stopped the massage, much to her disappointment. A moment later, a rattle and the splash of liquid pouring reached her ears. He reached over her shoulder; a flute of caramel-colored liquid fizzed, trapped between his fingers. “Try this.”
    She accepted the glass, holding it by the delicate stem, and raised it to her lips. Cool and refreshing with a smoothness that urged her to drink more. The flavors of honey-drenched tropical fruit rolled across her tongue while the full body and lushness reminded her that this was expensive.
    “What do you think?”
    “Lovely.”
    “Not as lovely as you.” He pressed his lips to the back of her neck as he wrapped an arm around her waist and hauled her closer.
    Water sloshed over the sides as his arousal bounced against her buttocks, and she leaned into him. She rested her head on his shoulder. Part of her couldn’t believe she was in a bath sipping some fancy wine with a man she yearned to spend the rest of her life with.
    “How do you do what you do day in and out?”