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"Do you like what you see, Amelia?"
She opened her arms so that we met under the water stream.
Especially in moments like these, it caught me off guard how perfectly our bodies melded together.
"I don't just like it," she murmured against my skin. "You have such a profound effect on me; I really wonder what I did to deserve standing in the shower with such an attractive man."
Amelia wasn't exactly someone who threw around compliments carelessly. Yet whenever she did offer one, usually when I least expected it, I knew that she meant it. She spoke the truth rather than just buttering me up, hoping to gain some advantage—unlike the women before her who had tried and failed.
"You deserve it more than anyone else," I responded, thinking of all the odd dating stories I'd gone through. I also thought about what Amelia triggered in me. "Here, let me wash your hair."
A continuous, dark-brown trickle flowed over her shoulders. Not only were the tips of her hair caked with mud, but splatters also clung to her neck, and the water from above was probably not going to be enough to clean her up.
The protest I expected from her did not come, which was clearly a sign that she was gradually getting used to being treated this way by me. In other areas, she had adapted much more easily, which just proved that Amelia was settling in. She felt a sense of security in my presence and no longer harbored distrust, believing it unlikely that anyone would feel the urge to care for her.
Amelia continued to lean against me, allowing me to wrap my arms around her and reach for the dispenser on the wall before I buried my fingers in her hair and began to wash all the dirt out. When the water finally ran clear, I proceeded to massage her scalp. Meanwhile, her fingers lazily traced my back, causing a gentle tingling wherever she touched me, just as always when she touched me.
I enjoyed the warmth of our hugs, like in this moment, where nothing else mattered but us.
She lifted her head. "Sometimes, I never want to let you go when we're hugging."
By now, I had stopped questioning it. Those moments when my thoughts revolved around one thing, and shortly after that, she would verbalize something similar without even having a clue what was going on inside my head.
My hands slid from her head to her neck, where I brushed the hair to one side so I could glide my thumbs over the tense muscles there.
Over the next few minutes, I focused on wiping away every single speck of mud before wrapping her in a towel afterward.
"How about I try to whip up a feast from our meager supplies now?" she asked, already leaning forward to shake her hair and dry it with another towel.
"Seeing you like this, food isn't exactly what's needed to quench my hunger right now."
She inhaled sharply before straightening up and giving me an almost indignant look. "Gray!"
"Yes?"
"You can't just say things like that."
"Hasn't stopped me before, has it?"
Her look conceded the point. "What if we eat first and then do whatever is on your mind?"
"Whatever it is?" I raised an eyebrow.
She shrugged. "By now, I'd say I have a pretty good idea what you like. So yes. Whatever it is, I'm in.Afterwe've eaten."
I liked that she didn't abandon her priorities just because I was tempting her with something different.
So I nodded, already secretly pondering how best to explain what I had in mind. But first, I watched as she took over the kitchenette, still wrapped in a towel, while her hair slowly dried in the warm air provided effortlessly by the fireplace a few feet away.
Having Amelia in my house was already a source of joy for me, but being with her in this place, essentially trapped within a few square yards, it became even more apparent how much I enjoyed her company—and what a blessing it was to have her in my daily life.
Not that I had been unhappy before. On the contrary. With her by my side, I simply realized what had been missing all along.
25
AMELIA
“Didn't it bother you that it was pouring rain?"
