The Immortal Hunter(47)

I'm not some brainless twit who needs coddling. She's my sister, You should have woken me up. It's not your place to save me worry. Her words ran through his head, and Decker scowled at the bathroom door. Of course it was his place. She was his life mate.

Irritated now, he glanced around for somewhere to sit, but the only piece of furniture in the room was the bed. Decker moved to it and dropped to lie flat, his legs crossing at the ankles and hands resting on his stomach as he listened for sounds from the next room.

Was she in the tub yet or just now undressing? He wondered and wasn't terribly surprised when his thoughts immediately moved south, producing an image of her tugging her T-shirt off over her head and letting it drop to the floor as her hands moved around to her back and rose to undo the clasps of her bra.

Decker could still recall the silky feel of it as he'd tugged it away from her breast to touch her warm skin. He remembered the smell of her too and savored the memory as what she might be doing continued to play in his head, and she allowed the bra to glide down her arms and slip to rest on her T-shirt. In his imaginings, Dani then paused to twist her hair up on the back of her head so that only little wisps hung around her face. That done, she reached for the button of her shorts. Those shimmied to the floor the moment they were undone, and she stepped out of them, then slipped her thumbs beneath the elastic on either side of her panties and drew them slowly, lovingly, down over her hips, thighs, and knees until she could step out of them one foot at a time. They fluttered to the bath mat as Dani stepped carefully and oh so slowly into a tub full of bubbles.

A little moan of disappointment slipped from Decker's lips as the water and bubbles embraced his dream Dani, hiding her from view. He grimaced at the ceiling, telling himself that she was his life mate and it would all work out. The day would come when he would simply walk in there while she reclined in the bath. She'd smile at him welcomingly and crook her finger to bring him to the side of the tub, then reach out to run her hand slowly up his leg before slipping it around to caress him through the cloth of his jeans and ask, "Care to join me? The tub's big enough for two."

"Oh yeah," Decker breathed aloud as his Dani sat up and reached for the button of his jeans. She unsnapped it with a hand that had bubbles clinging to it, and then raised her eyes to watch his face as she drew the zipper down in a leisurely fashion. He pushed his jeans off his hips the moment she'd finished, letting them pool around his ankles, and she reached down to help him step out of them, then turned her attention to his boxers. Dani pulled those down much more slowly than he had his jeans. The elastic waistband got caught on his emerging erection so that she had to lift it over his shaft. A smile played about her lips, and she leaned forward to press a kiss to the tip before helping him to step out of those too.

Dani raised her head to peer up at him then, her eyes just skittering over what she'd revealed as she murmured, "Your shirt."

Decker reached to tug that up over his head. The moment his face was enshrouded in the soft cloth and he couldn't see what she was doing, Dani caught his erection in a suddenly soapy hand and squeezed gently as she ran her fingers along its length.

Shuddering at the explosion of desire that shot through him, Decker ripped the shirt off to toss it over his shoulder and then urged her hand away and stepped up to the top of the tub. Dani scooted forward, leaving room for him behind her as he stepped into the water. Decker sat down behind her, the warm water sliding over his skin like a caress as he settled, then Dani eased back to sit between his spread legs, and reclined to rest against his chest.

"I was waiting for you," she murmured, running her hands along his outer thighs under the water.

"Were you?" Decker asked. He'd been waiting for her for two hundred and fifty-nine years. His hands moved to her arms and smoothed down over the soft skin to her elbows, his fingers brushing the inside crook of her arms in a feathery touch that made her shiver against him.

"Yes," she breathed, wiggling against him. "I was hoping you'd wash my back."

Decker smiled faintly as he grabbed for the bar of soap. He slid it briefly under the water, and then began to rub it between his hands to make lather. He urged her to sit up and began to run his hands over her back, running them in circles until every inch of skin there was covered in the soapy lather. He then reached for the soap again and worked it for another minute before returning to the chore, his circles becoming wider and wider until they included her sides.

"Oh." Dani sighed as Decker let his fingers roam to where they wanted. His hands closed warm and soapy over her breasts, squeezing and kneading under the pretense of cleaning. When she leaned back against him, her foam-covered back sliding across his clean chest, Decker peered down her body, watching his hands cup and knead and then catch her nipples between thumb and finger and pinch lightly.

The action drew a long moan from Dani and had her tilting her head back and twisting toward him in silent invitation. Decker lowered his head at once, his lips covering hers and his tongue sliding eagerly out to fill her mouth. She tasted as sweet as he remembered, and his fingers tightened on her breasts briefly, then he let one drift away to find the washcloth, and dunk it in the water. He used it to rinse away the soap so that he could caress her without the slippery lather. The moment the last bit of soap was gone, Decker dropped the cloth and covered her breasts again, thrusting his tongue into her mouth as he tweaked her nipples lightly.