Taking the soap from him, Adelaide began rubbing it through his hair, and, impossibly, Harrison felt himself relaxing far more than he usually did in any bath, let alone in her presence. There was something soothing about the way she touched him, the manner in which her fingers rubbed against his scalp and found parts of it he was certain had never existed before this moment. His breathing began to deepen, and he settled against the tub as comfortably as if it were his bed.

He lost all sense of time, most sense of himself; the only portion of him truly aware of anything was beneath the touch of the woman washing his hair. He exhaled very slowly, not minding in the least that she would hear what he might call a sigh.

“I am having… the strangest craving at the moment.”

Harrison chuckled easily, his eyes flitting open, though he did not turn to see her. “What is it this time? Toast in chocolate? Eggs with marmalade? Perhaps a vegetable soup with tea as its broth?”

Her fingers stilled in his hair, and he caught an odd catching of her breath. “You, my lord. I think I’m craving you.”

Startled, he jerked and turned, looking up at her.

Her own bewildered eyes met his, her full lips parting on unsteady breaths.

Then her fingers tightened in his hair, and she leaned in. He arched up and met her, their lips connecting with a sweetness they had never known in any of their intimate moments.

She opened to him at once, her fingers gripping further still in his curls, sending a fire shooting through him, crying out for him to kiss her into an absolute shattering.

Yet he forced himself to cling to restraint, keeping this kiss slow, leisurely, and deep. She gave generously, her lips molding to his with an ease that humbled him, enlightened him, confounded him.

She hummed against his mouth, the friction of the sound against their joining lips fairly incendiary, and Harrison leaned more fully into the kiss, following the incomparable draw of her like a sailor to a siren.

She broke the kiss softly, exhaling a shaking, satisfying sigh as she touched her brow to his.

Harrison had no thoughts. None at all.He only wanted to kiss her again. A hundred times again. A thousand, if she’d let him.

“There,” Adelaide said, her voice suddenly stronger. “That did it. And now I am craving toast in chocolate. I thank you for the idea.” She pulled back with a fond smile, her fingers leaving his hair, her demeanor entirely unruffled by the most transcendant moment of his entire existence.

He tried to form a word. Any word. Any syllable, but none would come.