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“You know what we also missed?”

“What?”

He cleared his throat. “Two kisses.”

She turned toward him, her eyes wide now. “What?”

“Two kisses,” he repeated. “You haven’t kissed me two nights in a row.”

Instead of a playful gleam in her eyes and an eager kiss to his lips, she frowned. “Neither of those missed kisses was my fault at all.”

He cocked his head to the side, startled by her reaction. “Yes, I was abducted. Such an inconvenience.”

She shifted in the bath and looked at him as if trying to stare into his heart as if searching for something she could read in his eyes. “And where were you abducted from?”

An odd question. “From the street.”

“Hmm…” She looked away again.

“Why did you decide to try this new perfume?” he asked, trying to change the subject.

She shrugged. “Perhaps I thought you wanted a change. Which perfume do you like best?”

He smiled. “As I said, my favorite scent is the scent of your skin. No perfume is required. Actually, my favorite scent is probably the scent of your desire,” he amended. As he predicted, her cheeks took on a rosy tint. Finally.

“I thought you liked the scent of roses,” she said with that odd look in her eyes again.

“Why would you think so?” When she didn’t respond, William couldn’t take her strange and cold behavior. So, he stood and stripped off his shirt.

Her eyes widened. “What are you doing?”

“Clearly, you are in a bad mood. And I think that’s because you’re lonely in that bath.”

“What?” Now her eyes were round from surprise. “No! I’m not lone—”

Before she could finish her sentence, William stepped into the bath.

“You’re still wearing your breeches!” she cried, but to his joy, that odd expression was gone from her face, and her eyes sparkled with laughter.

His hands clutching the rim of the bath, he crouched lower. Victoria sat up, her hand on his shoulder, her breasts bobbing in the air, pushing him up. “No!” she shrieked with a chuckle. “This water is so clean. You can’t sit here with your dirty breeches!”

William gasped in mock affront. “First off, they are not dirty. But if you wish me to strip off my breeches, just say so.”

With that, he straightened in the bath and quickly undressed, water sloshing all over the floor, and threw his breeches over the rim of the bath. Victoria now sat in a crouched position, her mouth forming an ‘O’ of surprise, her hands on her chest, hiding her succulent nipples.

He lowered himself to his knees, the warm water washing over him up to his hips and snaked his arms around her waist. “Better?” he whispered, his voice already hoarse from passion.

Her breathing grew shallow, her eyes darkening with desire. “William,” she said. The word was a plea, a benediction.

William decided not to wait any longer. He simply pulled her closer and took her mouth in a demanding kiss.

* * *

Victoria wrapped her arms around William’s shoulders, clinging to him with all her might.

God, she’d missed his kisses, his touch!

It had only been two days that they had missed their nightly kisses, she knew, but it felt like an eternity.