I had not anticipated that he would already be naked. He had not anticipated that I would be lurking in wait for him. Both of us froze like deer in headlights, staring at the other.

Dain was... built. I'd had him under my hands, sure, but it had been pitch black and it's not like I'd put my hands everywhere. The sight of him was more than a match for the feel of his ass and thigh. My prince never dressed in the clingy, revealing things that seemed popular in Stag Court, but he sure could have. He was solid beef, with a six-pack and pecs you could bounce a penny off of. Black scales edged down along his sides, and faint, silver scars traced across his skin. A dusting of wolf-gray hair across his chest darkened to a money trail that ran down past his navel to—

Nope. I was not going to stare at Dain's dick. That seemed like an extraordinarily bad plan. Peripheral vision only.

I dragged my eyes back up that magnificent landscape to his face, keeping my face as bland as possible. He didn't look angry or upset, which is what I'd been afraid of. He looked dumbfounded, as if he couldn't comprehend why I was sitting there.

"Hi," I said, when I managed to unstick my tongue from the roof of my mouth.

"You're in my bathroom," he said, as if he didn't know what else to say.

"Um. Yeah." I kept my eyes glued to his face, despite the fact that Dain didn't do anything to abate the full frontal nudity. Apparently he didn't care, after all. "I wanted to talk to you."

"...In my bathroom."

"I, um, figured this is where you'd come first?" I replied, my words getting squeaky and my face getting warm. "'Cause you've been on patrol for three days, getting all... sweaty?"

"So you're waiting for me."

I could almost hear the silent "in my bathroom" following after his words.

"...Yes," I answered after a moment. "I thought maybe you could take your bath and we could talk."

Dain stared at me for a few heartbeats longer, then heaved a sigh and raked the fingers of one wing-hand through his sweaty hair. "I smell like a wet dog when I bathe."

"That's not a no," I said hopefully.

He growled something under his breath and stalked over to the bath, reaching over and turning a knob. Water started thundering out of the faucet.