~

 

“Oh boy, should you look in the mirror, Mr. It’s not exactly all sunshine and roses on your side of the fence, you know?” Elizabeth sneered.

“You wanna know what I know?”

“From the look of you, very little!” she snapped back, and Rick snapped his head back in shocked annoyance, and then another rumble of a growl went through his chest.

“Move over – I’m coming in,” he growled long and hard as he started to yank the clothes from his body.

Elizabeth gasped at the thought of sharing space with the man. She was almost naked, and that didn’t fill her with overconfidence or a warm fuzzy feeling either.

“Oh, no you’re not!” She was already pushing over to the other side of the tub.

“Oh, you had better believe I am,” Rick growled.

Rick’s large hands went to the waistband of his sweatpants, and he hooked his thumbs inside.

“Oh, you had better not be naked under those pants,” Elizabeth gave a small growl of her own. Not that she’d meant to — but when in Rome…

“I hadn’t expected company in the tub. But what’s the difference? A thin bit of fabric here or there?”

The look on her face amused him to the point where he felt his anger slipping away. He knew that a cornered witch was just as dangerous as a cornered rogue, but still, she kind of deserved it.

“Don’t you dare drop those pants,” Elizabeth hissed like a rattlesnake that was ready to strike.

“Worried you will see something you like?” Rick would have grinned from ear to ear, but a part of him was still on high alert to the danger that she posed.

One moment only half of his naked body was on display, and the next; he was practically touching his toes, and the fabric was bunched around his ankles. Elizabeth meant to look away before the man straightened up, she really did, but the man was like a black hole sucking her gaze right at him.

There he was — as naked day was long — a big, tall, widely built man, full of muscles upon muscles, and to say that her womb exploded into life as it did a happy jig, would have been an understatement. It was highly possible that her tongue was hanging out of her mouth and she was drooling.

His half-mast was sort of lopped over in her direction, and it was waving at her. She had to wonder; if it was entirely wrong that she had the urge to wave back.

“I…” She stopped as confusion hit her brain.

Do not like what I see — or do I not like what I see — oh goddess, I so do like what I see.

I certainly don’t want to bleach that image out of my mind forever.

Is it wrong that all I can think about is — gimme, gimme, gimme!

What the hell is wrong with me?

It’s not like I haven’t seen a naked man before — ha! I have! But, oh my goddess! There’s naked, and then there’s naked, and that man is lick-a-bubble!

Ice cream on a plate — no, chocolate cake, chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, with chocolate sauce dripping down over his…

Nooo!

No chocolate cake!

No chocolate sauce!

No dripping — no licking!

No getting into this damn tub where the water has got so hot that I’m dripping!

Oh, my goddess, no I’m not dripping — neither one of us is dripping, or licking, or licking droplets that drip.

I’m doomed!

I need to get out of this damn tub before the Sex God gets in.

Sex God?

Seriously?

Too damn serious. I’m in danger of melting — I’m melting!

I think I need to crawl away, curl up into a ball, and stay there until hell freezes over – until I freeze over.

Why isn’t it a frosty night?

Am I going into the early menopause?

Oh my goddess, am I going to turn into my mother? Who cares!

I need to escape…

“I’m waiting,” Rick’s deep, gravelly tone snatched her mind back to the present, and him. Not that she hadn’t still been totally focused on him — at least – parts of him.

“For what?!” Her voice had a shrill quality to it that rattled his eardrums. Her eyes were wide, and she looked like a startled rabbit.

“You were saying?” Rick folded those big arms over his broad muscled chest once more, and her eyes were confused as her brain demanded that she look everywhere, at every inch of him, all at once.

Too many choices!

Big biceps — hard abs — big, thick, getting harder — length… Getting harder!

Oh boy, how big is it going to get?

“Huh?” Elizabeth couldn’t draw her eyes away from his hardening length, and it wasn’t her fault.

“So, you do see something you like,” Rick growled long and hard.

He wasn’t opposed to a holiday romance if she was up for it. Witch or not, the woman was definitely lick-able.

Even his beast, who normally had a healthy skepticism about being anywhere near witches, seemed to agree. Rick definitely could spend many hours getting lost within her.

“Yes — no!” Elizabeth grimaced at her slip up.

Tell me I didn’t say that out loud.

Okay, I know I did, but that’s not my fault — my brain is on the far side of the moon — I think I need a holiday.

Wait — I’m on holiday — kind of, sort of, not really, but… ooh, doesn’t that give me an out for doing things that I shouldn’t, or might regret?

No — yes!

Geez, can I pull it together long enough to decide if I want a holiday romance or not?

Not! Or… Maybe — I do.

I’m confused!

That’s not my fault either; it’s his fault. That body, that face, that growl, woof!

Woof?

How about the wolf? There’s no getting around the fact that he is a shifter.

But still, that man should be on the cover of a men’s magazine. I’d certainly buy it.

Look at me — a feminist objectifying someone’s body.

I’m a bad and evil person. And boy, does it feel good!

Shame on me. But if I’m owning that shame anyway…

“There’s a shocker — a woman who can’t make up her mind.”

He looked dark, even with the shock of silver hair at his temples, his black hair, black eyebrows, and black stubble that clung to his strong jaw, still made him look on the damn sexy side of darkness. It didn’t help matters that his eyes had turned almost black either.

Too damn sexy for his own good – my good – my poor womb had expectations that it hasn’t had in years.

Woe is me.

“Can’t you just…” she waved an absent hand in his direction. “Go away?” she was loathed to get out of the tub with him standing there eyeing her parts that were a slave to gravity.

“And miss my nightly soak?” he teased. “Not likely.”

“Then can you try to find one gentlemanly bone in your body and turn away while I get out?”

“One gentlemanly bone?” He took a long moment to ponder those words and Elizabeth would have folded her arms and tapped her foot against the ground with all of the lack of patience that she could muster if she could have.

It was kind of hard to do in a hot tub for obvious reasons.

“I see you’re going to be awkward,” Elizabeth said as she chewed on an imaginary wasp.

“Me? Awkward — never.”

When he grinned at her, he looked less dark and all the more sexy for it. She couldn’t win — her womb was going to jump around no matter what he did.

“You — a gentleman — never.” She returned fire.

“Never say never. But, you know…?” His grin widened from ear to ear, and he reminded her of the beast within him.

The man was definitely a danger to her, but she didn’t think it was her life more her panties that she needed to watch out for.

“Fine!” Elizabeth went to push up to her full height, but before she could, he took a long step forward, and she was mesmerized.

Her brain was confused again because her eyes had too many choices of where to look. Which muscle to watch first — or was it that waving length that drew her attention?

Whatever it was, Elizabeth was a stunned rabbit in the headlights of his approach.