“I’d love to hear you play,” Adela said softly, stroking her fingers along the edge of the piano. “Music is important in my homeland. It is the stuff of life.”
Margarete smiled. “Monty would agree with you. He is a great patron of musicians, even now, though he does it behind the scenes these days. Centuries ago, he supported many of the great composers and performers. When he reminisces, sometimes, he tells us stories about those who played in this house, or in other places where he lived over the years, but we don’t push. He likes to live in the present as much as someone like him can do so. I think it makes him sad to think about the past and the ways of life he’s known that are gone now.”
“I can understand that, I guess,” Katrina commented, looking at a violin carefully posed behind glass that was probably worth more than her apartment in New York.
The tour picked up again in a long hallway that Margarete called the east gallery. It held paintings and lush furnishings out of a bygone era. Dainty chairs with hand-carved scrollwork and giant paintings of people and landscapes long past. It was a room rich with history, as was just about every room she’d seen so far in this castle.
“You’re filming in the west gallery on Thursday, I heard,” Margarete said as they progressed down the long room. “The sunset in there is really lovely, and we moved all the furnishings out so it’s down to the bare stone. Monty wanted to redecorate the walls anyway, so this came at a good time. Every few decades, he modernizes a different section of the building. This time, he’s concentrating on the west wing, so you can use those bare-bones areas for filming now that they’re empty. He’s even had us digging through the attics for some authentic medieval trappings.”
“Liatha’s going to love that,” Deidre observed. “She told me a little about her plans for the sets on the plane ride here.”
They went on to a few more rooms, but eventually, Katrina caught herself yawning, and Margarete called a halt to the tour, promising to show them around more anytime they wanted. Margarete delivered them to the main hall and said goodnight. Katrina knew how to get to the room she was sharing with Ren from there, so she made her way up the correct staircase until she found their suite.
Ren wasn’t there when she went in, so she decided to indulge herself with a bubble bath. To call the attached bathroom luxurious was an enormous understatement. The giant marble bath was calling her name, and she didn’t want to resist. She filled the tub with hot water and used the bubble bath that was so thoughtfully provided to create a little steamy oasis for herself.
She slid into the hot water with a long sigh, loving the way the water enveloped her, the suds sliding against her skin. The fragrant soap was soft on her skin, and the scent wasn’t overpowering, but herbal and refreshing. She soaked for a while, resting her head back against the gently curving rim of the tub. Her eyes closed as she relaxed fully.
Sometime later, she became aware of the fact that she was no longer alone. She didn’t know what alerted her, but she opened her eyes to find the sparkling green eyes of Ren’s inner jaguar looking back at her. She gasped as the cat sat, like a living, furry statue, not a foot from the rim of the tub. He just sat there, front feet posed straight in front while he sat on his haunches, much like a house cat, only five times the size.
He had come in silently, but Ren had a presence that she was coming to recognize. He brought an energy with him into any room. It even shone through on the big screen, which had helped propel him into super-stardom. To realize that larger-than-life man was now hers… Well, it took her breath away. It all still seemed just a bit unreal.
Then again, there he was, in all his sleek, furry glory, just letting her look at him. She wanted to touch him, but her hands were wet, and he held her immobile with only the glint of his eyes. She was mesmerized by the green magic swirling in his gaze. Drowning in the essence of him.
Then, a golden mist swirled around him, and where the cat had been, a moment later, the man was, bent down on his haunches in the pose the cat had been in only moments before. He lifted one hand to the rim of the tub and took her fingers in his. His smile was soft, and all for her.
“I like the way you look at me when I’m in my fur.” His voice rolled over her like a purr.
“You’re gorgeous in both forms, and you know it,” she scoffed gently.
“I don’t really care how anybody else sees me, you know,” he told her, his tone light, but the look in his eyes was serious. “Just you. I like to know that you enjoy what you see.”
“I enjoy more than just looking at you,” she replied honestly. “That’s surface stuff. What I like best is the person you are. The kindness. The skill. The intelligence and the willingness to help others.” She wasn’t sure where the words were coming from, but they felt right. Judging by the dawning joy in his gaze, it was the right thing to say.
“I feel the same about you, kitten.”
He moved closer to rub his cheek against hers. The roughness of his beard stubble was delicious against her smooth skin. He was gentle, but the stark contrast between his maleness and her female attributes was both bold and alluring.
“Why don’t you join me?” she invited in a breathless voice. The tub was definitely big enough for two, and he was already naked from his shift. She wanted him more than she wanted her next breath and didn’t want to wait.
He didn’t answer in words but levered himself up and into the tub, all without breaking contact between their faces. The moment he was settled next to her in the water, he took her mouth in a kiss of rediscovery. Of passion and possession. Of coming home and welcome.
They made love in the giant bath, splashing more than a bit of water onto the marble floor, but Katrina didn’t care. She’d clean it up later. For now, she was going to enjoy every moment, every sensation, every inch of Ren’s possession. He came into her slowly, the warmth of the water no match for the fire in her blood as his body claimed hers beneath the dissipating bubbles.
He rocked her in the water, the warmth of him even greater than the warm water all around them. She was surprised there wasn’t more steam rising off the surface as the heat of them together soared ever higher.
Her blood boiled with passion, and his possession was total. She surrendered her essence to him and received his in return, straining higher as he brought her all the way to the pinnacle and beyond. She cried out and clung to his shoulders, secure in the knowledge that he wouldn’t let her drown in water, even as her senses drowned in pleasure of his making.
Ren’s muscles grew taut as he came, flooding her with his passion, showing her things about making love that she’d never known existed. Maybe they didn’t. Not for normal people or regular relationships. Maybe this intensity only existed between herself and Ren. The true mates he claimed they were. She felt the certainty of that thought in her bones and realized that she had, indeed, won the love lottery. She’d found her mythical true mate without even knowing such a thing existed.
As they came down from that intense peak of pleasure, Ren turned her in his arms so that they lay side by side in the giant tub, his arm around her, supporting her as they luxuriated in the hot water. His fingers stroked her arm as their breathing returned slowly to normal.
“I’m going to have to find a mop somewhere,” Katrina mused, smiling at the thought of how lost she’d been to passion that she hadn’t minded all the water that had sloshed out of the tub at the time.