Page 11 of The VaDorok’s Unexpected Mate (The Mate Index: Dorok #1)
She looked up, her brows arching quizzically at him. He scowled back at her, and she smothered a smile. If he kept giving her nasty looks, she would find other things to ping off him.
Kull squinted at him for a moment and shook his head.
“Your horns are probably growing again. The root is always far too sensitive, and you are prone to imagining sensations whenever they grow. Were you not, just last month, making all kinds of noise in your sleep about someone touching them? Just ignore it.”
A look of mortification crossed Ren’s face. “Do not say such things in front of... her,” he stammered. “She does not need to know anything about my... my... horns.”
Kull lifted his eyes in what appeared to be a universal sign of a silent prayer before he closed them with a shake of his head.
“It is basic VaDorok anatomy, Ren. Of course, she ought to know things about our species if she is living among us. Better for her to know than to accidentally hit your horns with something when they are in a sensitive stage of growth. Do not be such a youngling.”
The younger male visibly sulked but nodded his head.
Katie bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. Poor kid. It seemed that puberty among the VaDorok had additional fun stuff going on. But it at least gave her a good target if he wasn’t going to play nice.
At last, the meal finished, and Kull stood and waited patiently beside the table for her to get to her feet.
He studied her with a cool gaze as she straightened.
She couldn’t help but think that there was something burning behind all that ice that she couldn’t quite see, however, when he focused on her so intently.
Her fingers twitched nervously as he continued to stare but it lasted for only a few heartbeats before his head swung away, his eyes shifting to a point over her shoulder.
“The bathing chamber is this way,” he rumbled before silently slipping past her.
Katie’s body turned almost instinctively to follow his movement, and she quickly fell into step as she followed to keep up with his longer strides as he left the table and walked toward a large fur hanging opposite the corridor that led to the bedrooms. He pushed it aside to reveal an entrance to another corridor, at the end of which another fur was pulled back to reveal a room with an enormous round, sunken tub.
She came to a stop, her eyes wide as she admired the stone basin as Kull continued alone over to the wall.
“There is no way this is your tub,” she muttered.
Kull glanced back at her over his shoulder, and his expression briefly warmed, his eyes brightening with his amusement.
“It is impressive, is it not? I believe I have the best bathing chamber in the tribe. I carved most of this myself, though Torok assisted me with some of the work along the base for the plumbing system to transport the water from here and distribute it further from the caverns with the rest of the waste from the den.”
She nodded thoughtfully, recalling the simple foot-push lever on the VaDorok version of a toilet that Kull had introduced her to.
There was no toilet in this room, however.
The entire room appeared to be built strictly for bathing and had an almost luxurious feel to it with the way the stone appeared to be smoothed and buffed to a warm gleam.
“So, when you said that you acquired a bath—” she began but Kull turned and opened a panel on the wall next to where he stood, revealing what appeared to be some sort of water heating system.
“The bath,” he said, gesturing to it.
Angling his body to provide her with a better view, he placed his finger on a button and pressed it. Water spurted from numerous holes along the inside of the tub that she hadn’t noticed at first.
“Check the water to see if the temperature is comfortable for you,” he instructed. “I can adjust it before programming it in for you.”
Katie nodded and crouched at the edge of the basin. Leaning down, she skimmed her fingers through the water pouring from the side. “A little warmer,” she instructed and smiled as it gradually began to warm. “There, that is the perfect temperature.”
Kull grunted in acknowledgment, and she looked over at him as he pressed another button to the lower right of it.
He glanced back at her and tapped his claw on it.
“Push this when you push the fill button, and it will give you the programmed water setting. To the right of the fill button is the stop fill, and to the left is to drain the tub.”
She nodded. That wasn’t going to be difficult to remember as the fill button was bright red. She wondered what all the other buttons did, but she could experiment with them later since it seemed that Kull was eager to leave since he was already heading for the door.
“There are bottles for cleansing beside the tub. I will leave you to your bath,” he said, without looking back at her as he ducked back through the curtained doorway.
She stared at the fur for a long moment, half-expecting him to return because he had forgotten something.
But he did not. Instead, she heard him calling out to Ren that he was leaving to hunt.
It seemed that she wasn’t going to get any kind of goodbye.
Katie shrugged. It was just as well. It wasn’t like they were a real couple, and Ren would probably have assumed that he said farewell to her before leaving her to her bath.
There were more important things at hand. .. like the tub filling with hot water.
Inching her way to the bottles and jars that Kull had mentioned, she began to sniff their contents and poured a small amount of one into the water.
She smiled as a slightly floral, herby scent filled the steamy air.
After several minutes passed, and once the tub was full enough, she turned off the water and began to quickly shuck off her clothes.
She moaned aloud as she sank into the fragrant hot water.
She knew exactly what she was going to do while Kull was out hunting. She was going to see just how much of the day she could spend pruning. After so long without a proper bath, she wasn’t in any hurry to leave it.