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Helen stared at her hand On his shoulder No big thing, right? She was a grooman and had touched plenty of men’s shoulders in her lifetime Even some naked ones Sure, never any quite so wide or well sculpted as Drake’s, and certainly none with intricately tattooed branches etched into the, unable to move or even blink It was just a shoulder It wasn’t even a naughty part

Which brought up a whole new set of ihty parts Yu it It was a statement of fact at this point Or perhaps lost it would have been closer to the truth Past tense No turning back No hope

"I don’t hear any splashing back there," he said "Need some help?"

Lots of help Of the psychiatric variety More than he could give "I’m fine" It came out as a squeak and Helen winced

"You don’t sound fine" He started to turn his head

Helen freaked and covered her sudsy breasts with her arasp and doubled over

Shit She’d let go of hih to reach hi a ainst his lower back--the closest thing to her--and Drake pulled in a deep breath

"Son of a bitch!"

"I’ to ease his pain

He was breathing hard and a fine sweat had broken out over his back It took hiether, but Helen didn’t try to hurry hi that he needed her to stay in contact After he’d put his body between her and a fire-wieldingshould have been the least she could do She felt horrible that she’d forgotten

"I’m okay now," he said, but it sounded like a lie He was still stiff, holding his arms around his middle as if his stomach hurt

He leaned back and Helen petted hi passes over his bare back That seemed to help him relax, so she let her hand slide up his spine until it settled at the nape of his neck His dark hair fell over part of her hand and she could feel the slippery width of the iridescent choker he wore There was no clasp that she could detect and she wondered how he got it off

"I’ to reach in that water and take hold of your ankle, and I swear to God if you pull your hand away or freak out again I’ to clih of our skin is touching so there’s no chance of another e in all its wet, slippery detail It would be a tight squeeze to get him to fit in the tub with her, but she was fairly sure that they could get creative enough toaround, he reached his hand back and found her ankle deep in the ater His fingers curled around it and only then did he let out a relieved sigh

"You think you canis a little harder onto ask how hard No Not even with an opening like that Instead, she threw herself into the washing process, scrubbed herself from head to toe, and was done in less than threeinto her face when she reached for the towel she’d laid by the tub Part of it had been soaked by the water that she’d sloshed out of the tub, but she didn’t care She also had no idea where her elastic hair bands had gone, but if she could find a brush, she would count herself fortunate

Helen unstopped the tub and rose a little aardly to her feet She was careful not to dislodge Drake’s hand while she did a quick job of drying off Everything froood When the toas securely around her torso, she said, "Okay I’m covered"

"Pity," he replied

She sallantly helped her out of the slippery tub, then laced his fingers through hers

"What now?" she asked "Other than the part where I stop being naked Obviously"

He looked like she’d punched hi to survive you, woman"

The vision of her death reared up for a split second, the fla out all else A moment later, she was back in the bathrooh her liive Drake a playful srimace "Actually, I’m fairly certain you’ll surviveat her funny, his head bent down so he was eye level with her "What’s that supposed to mean? And as that I just felt--that spike of fear?"

"Nothing Just forget it"

"Like hell I will It’s not the first time I felt it, either What was that?"