Love's Cruel Redemption (The Ghost Bird Series)(17)

Luke opened his package completely, spilling the basket’s contents onto the floor. There was a pipe-shaped container that was the biggest and he took off the lid. He reached in, pulling out a big round bath bomb in a light blue shade. He sniffed it. “Cotton candy? I like this.”

I turned my basket around, checking out the inside without opening it. Everything was displayed so nicely, I didn’t want to break it open. “What’s a face masque?” I asked.

“Oh man, I want to try one,” Gabriel said, putting his basket aside and sliding over to look. He put his face to my shoulder to examined my basket and did some noise that was a cross between a grunt and a squeal. “Fuck it. We’re having a Victor spa day.”

“In honor of Victor?” Luke asked.

“Right,” Gabriel said. “For Victor.” He went back to his basket. “Okay, pull out everything you want to try. We’ll organize it a bit to put it in order. I’ve seen those spa night routines on YouTube. Been wanting to do that.”

Luke held up some bath bombs. “Do we want to smell like Korea or candy or ocean or...? I’d say candy but it makes me hungry.”

“First, we need to get ready.” Gabriel picked out a couple of items from his basket, putting the rest aside. He pointed to me. “Go get on a bathing suit.”

“Do I have a bathing suit here?” I asked. “I think I’ve only got one.”

Gabriel considered. “Like I said, go find a bra and underwear that won’t get ruined in a bath. Those are close enough to bathing suits...And then remind me later to get you more bathing suits.”

I considered the bikinis I’d seen in movies on occasion and was pretty sure he was right.

I raced to the closet, leaving the boys to sort out all the items from the baskets.

Victor’s closet was a small room in itself, larger than Kota’s bedroom. I passed a section of Victor’s white Armani shirts and dark pants. There were small sections around the whole room, each one had a display of various styles of men’s clothing. North’s was all black. Mr. Blackbourne’s mostly consisted of gray suits.

There was a section in the back that was spaced off for my clothes. It was mostly noticeable because of all the pink. A large number of them were completely new to me. Victor did a lot of shopping for me.

There were drawers below hanging clothes, and inside were various underwear and bras and other small items.

I reached in, pulling out a pair of underwear that was black with a pink heart on the butt. Then I found a bra that looked to me more like a bikini, with a band going around my neck instead of over the shoulders.

I got undressed, intending to go back after we were done and tidy the pile I left in the closet later. I put on the underwear and bra and then sought out a robe. I wore it but I left it open. Gabriel had pretty much seen me naked, and Luke had seen me in underwear before. I was just a little chilly.

By the time I returned, the boys were hovering over the tub as it was filling up. Luke had his hair piled high in almost a bun on his head. Gabriel wore a stretchy band over his head to hold his hair back. They were both shirtless. Gabriel’s button on his pants was undone, partially revealing the gray boxers underneath.

Luke held a cell phone to his face, watching a video. “Okay, wash our faces and then...” he waited as the video played on. The sound was really low, so I couldn’t hear what was said. “Then she’s...putting on the...” He looked at the pile of supplies on the corner of the large marble tub and selected one and looked at the packaging. “There’s an astringent? And then the black stuff.”

“Clean our faces, got it. That’s what I needed to know, if we had to wash our faces before the masque part.” Gabriel turned when he noticed me and smirked. “What the fuck? I thought you said you didn’t have a bathing suit.”

“It’s not a bathing suit,” I said.

His lips twisted a bit. “God damn, I can’t tell anymore.” He motioned to the tub. “Let’s get in. We’ll do everything in the tub.”

I put the robe on a hook near the tub. The heat from the water was steaming up the room, fogging the mirror a little.

I climbed up and then squatted on the side of the large marble tub, looking into the water. I reached in, touching it. “Do we have bubbles?”

“Let’s put the bombs in first,” Luke said. “I want to see them dissolve before we put the bubbles in.”

We all sat on the edge of the tub, leaning over as Gabriel picked out three bath bombs he thought smelled similar enough. We probably needed so many because the tub was huge. He tossed those in together.

We grew quiet, watching the bombs do small spins as bubbles fizzled up from them. Colorant escaped, making the water around them a purplish-blue hue.

Luke stuck his hand in and felt the bubbles over top of the bombs. “You can kind of feel it.” He squinted at his hand in the water and then reached further in. “Hang on, what’s this? There’s something in the bomb.”

Gabriel and I leaned in, and Luke pulled out a glowing cube, flashing blue green and yellow with an apparent LED light inside.

“Woah,” Gabriel said. “I didn’t know they put stuff in the bombs.” He reached into the tub. “Does this one have something?”

When he touched another bomb, it didn’t have a cube, but it released something that looked like soap flakes. The flakes were shaped like little rose petals and they floated on top of the water. The more the bomb evaporated, the more tiny petals appeared.