Chapter 5

VERA

Bouncing on her toes, she watched the innkeeper with intense focus as he picked up the last, empty bucket and trudged to the door.

She tried to seem calm as she gave a quick wave of her hand and thanked him in Thyabathi, but the second he slipped out, she sprinted to the bathing room.

She plunged her hand into the water, squealing at the warmth that greeted her fingertips. She hadn’t had a real bath in weeks. Not since before…well, before Jaren.

And even then, she’d been lucky if the water had still been lukewarm by the time she’d finished filling it and climbed in. This was definitely the first time she hadn’t had to stand by a hearth, heating it, herself.

Wasting no time, she untucked her tunic from her trousers and yanked the hem above her head, nearly breaking her neck in her eagerness.

She held the garment out, wrinkling her nose and tossing it to the floor before moving on to her trousers and undergarments. She kicked the soiled pile across the floor, stifling the desire to burn it all. Having a good sense of smell was no blessing sometimes.

Naked as the day she was born, she picked up the new clothing Jaren had purchased her, running her fingers over the soft fabric before setting the stack next to the tub. It was going to feel like a damn cloud compared to the outfit she’d been wearing.

She’d never take clean clothes for granted again.

Twisting to lift her leg over the lip of the tub, she started, losing her balance and nearly toppling backward when she noticed someone moving in her peripheral.

She leapt back, arms raised, prepared to launch herself at the intruder. If that innkeeper came back, thinking he could take advantage of her being alone and naked, she was going to bash his head into the wall. Repeatedly.

But no sooner had she shifted to lunge, her arms fell slack at her sides, and she blinked. Then blinked again. “Holy Aleron.”

It wasn’t another person. It was her. A life-size version, to be exact, reflected at her in the largest mirror she’d ever seen.

She stepped closer, mesmerized. The mirror had to be at least five-feet tall and was tucked against the wall with a gorgeous bronze frame. She shifted and turned, watching in fascination as her image moved along with her.

Growing up with only her small opaque mirror, she wasn’t sure what to do with the clarity in which she could suddenly see her entire body. It was like seeing herself for the first time in twenty years. She slid her fingers up her stomach and over her breasts, grimacing at how her dirty, broken fingernails looked against her skin.

No wonder Jaren had rejected her advances. She looked like she’d spent the last year living off the streets. Her fingers trailed higher at the thought of him, tracing the dip of her shoulder.

She could still feel the ghost of his teeth sinking into the flesh there, feel his fingers circling her clit while he did, wringing the most intense pleasure she’d ever had from her body. Her center tightened at just the memory of it. It’d been erotic. A term she hadn’t understood until that moment.