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The tub was filling quickly. No petals floated on the surface this time, but Salas must’ve added some oils and fragrances from the vials on the stand nearby, turning the water creamy pink.

“Here we go.” He gently lowered me into the tub.

The warm water hugged my hips, soothing the ache. For now, it barely reached up to my waist. Kneeling by the tub, Salas scooped the water with his large hand, then poured it over my bent legs to warm them.

I raked my fingers through the water. “Do you want to join me? There is lots of space for two in here.”

He hesitated. “I should be going soon.”

His words churned with anxiety in my chest. I wasn’t ready for him to leave. I never was.

“Stay,” I begged. “We have a whole night still.”

“Don’t you need to get some sleep? There is another busy day of running the country tomorrow.”

“I rarely sleep, anyway.” I shrugged.

“Why?”

I’d hardly spoken about my insomnia to anyone. What was the point? The one time when I mentioned it to the royal healing witch, she gave me the same sleeping potion that the palaceguards used on their crossbow bolts. It knocked me out for the whole night but left me drowsy and aching for two days after. I never took that thing again.

Instead, I managed to do just fine by getting scraps of sleep on the nights after some less stressful days.

“I’m just not a good sleeper, I guess,” I said.

“You slept just fine both nights I’d stayed with you. The first night, you even slept in, remember?”

“I did, didn’t I?””

Salas proved to be better than a sleeping potion for me. Except that I didn’t want to sleep tonight. If this was our last night together, I didn’t want to waste a single second.

“Climb in.” I splashed the water in the tub in invitation. “It’ll fill faster with you in it. Besides, I really enjoy having you close,” I confessed, then added quickly, “Of course if you don’t feel the same way...”

“Oh Ari.” He shook his head in surrender. “The last thing you need to doubt is the joy I feel when I'm with you.”

He rose from the floor, then undid the closure of his pants, and I averted my eyes. He’d already been inside me. I’d felt him and loved the sensation. Yet I couldn’t bring myself to look at that part of his body. Maybe I feared it’d remind me of the one that’d been forced down my throat long ago. It was the only penis I’d seen so far, and I didn’t want any reminders of that memory.

Salas stepped into the bath. Despite being determined to keep my focus on the swirls of water, I failed and jerked my gaze up his muscular legs.

A wide, mangled scar marred his right thigh, stretching from just below his hip all the way down to his knee.

“Is this from the fire?” I asked, looking up at him.

“Yes.” He lowered himself into the tub.

Before he settled into the milky water, I caught a glimpse of his erection. To my relief, it looked very different from the dick that I hated to remember. Thicker and longer, Salas’s hard length also had a curious ridge and protrusions I’d never seen or even heard of before.

With a deep sigh of relaxation, Salas leaned back against the marble on the opposite end of me. The water instantly rose higher, hiding his peculiar appendage from view.

I turned off the faucet and drew my knees to my chest to give him space, but he found my ankles in the water, then stretched my legs comfortably for me, placing my feet on his thighs.

Every time we got together, it had always been about me. Salas had made my pleasure his mission, but now I wondered howhefelt. He’d never done anything for himself.

He’d said he was dying to find out what it felt like to be inside me, but he’d slipped out right after that one thrust that had absolved me of virginity. At the time, I was relieved to have him out, ending the invasion. But now, I wished I could make him feel at least a fraction of the pleasure I'd experienced because of him.

“Can you tell me something, please?” I asked, a little hesitantly.

Would he appreciate my attention to the matter? Or would he find it intrusive?