Grabbing up the unicorn soap, Allie quickly started to clean herself, but her hair was slimy too, and swung down into her face as she bent to clean her legs, so she gave up on that for now and switched her attention to her hair. She washed it using Sunita’s shampoo, something that had a friendly-looking monster on the front and smelled of coconut, apple, and some other fruit that Allie couldn’t name at the moment. There was no conditioner, and she had to wash her hair three times to completely rid it of the other smell, but after the third shampoo and rinse she pressed her nose into a handful of the wet hair and sighed with relief and pleasure. She smelled like a tropical fruit salad, and she liked it.

Chuckling to herself, Allie reached again for the unicorn bar soap, noticing this time that it too had a coconut smell to it. But instead of apple, here the coconut was mixed with citrus. Still a tropical fruit salad, though, she thought, and grinned as she cleaned herself everywhere, twice. Lathering and scrubbing to remove any hint of the previous odor that had clung to her.

Allie was much happier when she was done. She felt clean and . . . a little hungry actually, now that that awful smell wasn’t turning her stomach, she thought as she turned off the taps, wrung out her hair, and then stepped out on the bath mat. She was just looking around for the towel she’d used that morning when the door opened. Turning to look over her shoulder in surprise, she stared at Magnus, who had frozen with the door half-open.

Eyes wide, he stared at her standing there naked and then gave his head a shake, cleared his throat, and muttered, “Sorry. I woke up and you were gone.”

As explanations went, Allie supposed that was as good as any. She expected him to back out and close the door then, but he seemed rooted to the spot, his eyes locked on her naked back and behind and swimming all over both. Knowing he was seeing the scars there, she was embarrassed for about three seconds, and then his scent hit her and Allie’s embarrassment was pushed aside by something else. Nothing could have stopped her from turning and following that delicious scent to stand in front of him. But even she was shocked when she slid her hands up his chest, clasped the collars of his shirt, and used them to pull his head down toward her until she could nuzzle his neck and inhale that lovely aroma that had her stomach quivering with excitement.

After a brief start of surprise, Magnus relaxed and let his own hands slide up to clasp her waist on either side. He turned his head to nuzzle her hair and chuckled softly. “You smell like a fruit salad. Good enough to eat.”