While he raised a brow, Sebastian chuckled. “I find you to be beautiful with or without your nails being painted, but your nails look as lovely as you do.”
“Blind lion,” I muttered. “Apparently, they have a formula for scar tissue, and it makes it softer for a while. The wolves are also ancient. I think they’ve been attending to the special needs of spa-visiting women for longer than I’ve been alive. They changed my entire beliefs about wolves in one session. If all wolves were like them, I’d want wolves visiting me daily.”
“That conversion didn’t take long.”
“They weren’t wearing shirts, and I’m not blind. And they’re really, really fit. Not quite as muscular as you are, but they were not slackers.” I shifted my weight from foot to foot. “What’s in the bag?”
“You will find out as soon as we go back to our room.”
“March, lion.” I pointed at the door. My stomach growled, and Sebastian laughed at the sound. “March!”
Rather than march, he wrapped his arm around me and walked with me. “I will accompany you, but I am not marching in shame to our suite. I have nothing to be ashamed of. How was your first session with the spa.”
I held up my gift bag. “I got a present after being pampered, Sebastian.”
“Presents are pretty magical for you, aren’t they?”
“It seems so. Did you have a good time out?”
“I survived and accomplished everything I set out to do, so I consider it to be a success. I may have been seduced with dyed fiber,” he confessed.
“Again?”
“The craft store rose up, blocked my path, and forced me inside. I struggled, but it was in vain. It was relentless. Cunning and cruel, even, forcing me to detour from my clothing shopping to purchase yarn.” Sebastian shrugged. “The storefront sign said there was yarn on sale. I had to go in and check it out. And once I had purchased the yarn, I realized I needed a proper bag to carry it in, and they had yarn totes, so I got two, because I bought too much yarn. I needed enough of the same dye batch, or it wouldn’t look right. And since I’d purchased the yarn, I also needed hooks for the yarn, so I got those, too. Except I wasn’t sure which type I wanted, so I got several different types.”
I realized I’d fallen in with someone who couldn’t be sent into a craft store without adult supervision. “How much did you spend, Sebastian?”
“Too much.”
Of course. “Right. That’s the default answer when the craft store rises up and forces you inside. I don’t want to be the responsible one of this relationship, Sebastian. Maybe we should take turns.”
“But it’s yarn, Harri. We’re cats. We like yarn.”
“But yarn is expensive, especially if it isn’t used.” To my amusement, the resort came to life after dark, with couples filling the hallways and lining up to make use of the elevator. “Busier than I expected.”
“I had a little time before I went to the spa, but most seem to be making use of the hot tubs, sauna, and pools. There are also several spas here.”
“Ten different ones. They’re all part of the same spa, but each one does something different, and it spreads the stuff around the hotel, I guess. They gave me a special map to show me where all of our sessions will be at. Did I pay too much to be excessively pampered? Apparently, my package assumed there would always be two people going, so there are two to four people responsible for pampering us at all times. I had two barely clothed men painting my nails, Sebastian.”
“This is shocking to you, isn’t it?”
“They seemed to like it.”
“I don’t see why that is at all shocking. I very much enjoy when I get to put my hands all over you. I wonder how many incidents they have here with lycanthropes going blind from lust and jealousy by the end of each session.”
I slung my gift bag over my wrist and checked my brochure, which included the spa rules. What I read made me giggle. “Oh. The gift bags are a gimmick. When the guests behave during their sessions, they get a present. The value of the present is directly related to how well the guest behaves. What kind of spa did I bring us to, Sebastian?”
“The kind that understands how lycanthropes tick. A challenge to be best behaved to get the equivalent of a trophy? They probably have minimal incidents, and because repairing the building and equipment is expensive, every time they dodge an incident, they save a lot of money, so bribing guests is really clever. I wonder what really well-behaved lynxes get.” Sebastian eyed my gift bag with interest. “And I’m really curious what well-behaved lions get.”
“Attention from a lynx once back in our room.”
“I am really liking this spa now. And in better news, between rounds of giving each other attention and making plans, I have information on the job that will get rid of your scars.”
“You have my attention.”
“You’ll just have to give me your attention after we enjoy a bath and have dinner. I have you penned in for non-work engagements for at least three hours.”
“You’re a tough boss.”
“I really am, and I look forward to you trying, in vain, to put me in my place. I am the one with the true power here.”
“We’ll see about that,” I muttered.
The bathtub redefined what luxury meant to me. I expected a ledge barely able to handle some bottles and soap, and if I were particularly brave and foolish, a drink. The bathroom devoured a ridiculous amount of space, and a set of steps led up to a dais, which contained a path to the tub itself and enough of a ledge to place a full course meal several times over. Four people could fit in the tub with room to spare. “Is this a bathroom fit for gorgons?”
“A small hive of gorgons probably could do unspeakable things in this tub, yes. But this is meant for two amorous people seeking to have a very good time in a watery environment.”
“This sounds like a quick way to drown.”
“You’re not going to drown. You will be thoroughly attended to, but you will not drown during my careful attention to your person. But before we get to the amorous part of our evening, you have gifts to explore.” Sebastian set the gift bag he’d acquired on the ledge. “You left stuff in the basket, too.”
“We should have catnip cheese to go with our dinner.”
“We absolutely should. I’ll go prepare plates for us, so we can enjoy them with our dinner.”
“If this is romance, I like it and want more of it.”
“Romance is whatever we want it to be,” he replied before strutting out of the bathroom.
Huh. I’d never thought of it like that before. “But what about the sex? Is that romance?”
“Absolutely. Even rough sex is romance if we decide that is what our version of romance is. If you don’t like roses, roses are not romantic and they should be avoided. If you like spankings, spankings are romantic as long as they are done romantically.”
“How can a spanking be romantic?”
“I’m sure there’s a lot of sweet nothings, stroking, and squeezing involved. We could explore that if you’d like. I’m game for anything where we both walk away happy.”