Page 137 of Tamed By Her Touch

“It’s fine,” she murmured.

Turning her back to him, she began to disrobe.

As soon as she was naked, she climbed onto the table and lay on her stomach. To her delight, the massage table immediately changed to mold itself to her body. It dipped inward to make room for her breasts, which was a good thing, since otherwise her head would have been way too high. It also made a soft pillow under her lower legs, which took some of the pressure off her lower back.

“Has the table conformed to your wife’s shape adequately?” Varell called through the fabric partition.

“I believe so.” Kaelus looked down at her. “Do you feel comfortable, Lissa’ra?”

“As much as I can be laying here stark naked,” Clair muttered back.

Well, at least the massage was just her back, she comforted herself. It wasn’t like she was lying tits-up on the table!

“Now watch my technique and copy it,” Varell commanded.

Oh my God—here we go! Clair nibbled her lower lip and closed her eyes tight.

She just wondered how far they would have to go to prove they were married…and how awkward things would get if they went further than they had last night.

21

KAELUS

Kaelus watched through the privacy screen as their host poured a generous dollop of massage oil into one palm and rubbed his hands together briskly to warm it.

He did the same, picking up a bottle of oil that had a faintly spicy fragrance and rubbing some between his hands. He hoped that Clair was comfortable with him touching her this way. She’d said she didn’t mind, but he was worried that things might go too far.

You mean the way they almost went too far last night? whispered a voice in his head.

Kaelus pushed it aside. He would never do anything to hurt Clair—she was his to protect and cherish—at least while they were here on Titus Four. As much as he wanted to run his hands all over her luscious, curvy, bare body, he wanted to make her feel safe and protected even more.

“Now then,” Varell said, from the other side of the privacy curtain. “The first mistake many young husbands make is thinking that strength is everything.” As he spoke, he placed his hands on Maera’s shoulders. “It is not. Attention is everything.”

Kaelus watched as he began kneading the muscles along his wife’s neck and shoulders, adjusting the pressure whenever she moved or sighed.

“Do you see?” Varell asked him.

“I see,” Kaelus said.

“Then what am I doing?” his host challenged him.

“You are applying pressure to the upper trapezius and cervical musculature,” Kaelus said.

Clair snorted and from the other side of the screen, he could hear Maera laughing into her cushion.

Kaelus frowned.

“What is amusing? Have I said something wrong?”

“You are touching her like a physician,” Varell said.

“I am a physician,” Kaelus protested. “I have a degree in medicine as well as Xenopharmacology.”

“Tonight you are her husband,” Varell emphasized. “You must stop thinking about anatomy and begin thinking about her. Watch her breathing. Listen to the sounds she makes. Feel when her muscles relax beneath your hands. Your goddess will tell you what she needs even when she says nothing.”

Kaelus watched, his mind a whirlwind of conflicting protocols.

Varell’s hands moved over Maera’s back with a confident, worshipful rhythm, kneading the muscles of her shoulders, tracing the line of her spine with oil-slick thumbs, working down to the dip of her lower back and the generous swell of her hips.