Before she could answer, he shifted beneath her—just enough to make her weight shift forward as he eased out from behind her.
"Wait—what are you doing?" she asked, laughing, suddenly self-conscious in a way that only made her more aware of how bare she was, how on display.
He didn't answer. Just moved with deliberate ease to kneel at the edge of the tub.
The air hit her skin like a kiss. Her back met the smooth slope of the stone, her legs parting instinctively in the water.
Nicholas leaned over her, water dripping from his hair, eyes hooded and fixed on her with a kind of reverence that made her breath catch. He trailed a hand up the inside of her thigh—under the water—until his fingers brushed her center, featherlight.
Ella gasped, her hips twitching.
"Nicholas."
He only smiled and pressed a kiss to the inside of her knee. "Relax, baby. I've got you."
And then, slowly—achingly slowly—he dipped lower.
