by Sk Quinn
‘You’re out of luck there. No hot water in the east or west wing until suppertime. But there’s hot water in the gym. You can have a bath down there. Come with me.’
37
‘The gym?’ I ask, as Patrick leads me past the swimming pool and weightlifting equipment. ‘Oh. I get it. There are showers here, right? But you said … a bath.’
‘There are showers, but they’re not plumbed in yet,’ says Patrick. ‘But there’s a hot tub.’
‘There’s a hot tub here?’
‘Yep.’ Patrick opens a little arched door at the back of the gym. ‘Voila.’
‘Wow.’ I stare through the doorway.
I see a giant spa room, with a huge hexagonal hot tub bubbling away. There are hardwood sun-loungers by the tub and shimmering electric candles decorating the walls.
‘Welcome to the castle spa,’ says Patrick.
‘I love it,’ I say, breathing in jasmine and rose oil. ‘This is a complete fantasy for a girl who’s just slept in the woods.’
‘I thought you might want to unwind … after spending all that time with me.’
‘I loved spending time with you.’ I breathe in deeply, looking around the blue and grey mosaic walls and hearing the soft drip of steamy water. ‘And I loved the woods. But this is pretty amazing too.’
Within seconds, I’ve stripped off my clothes and climbed the mosaic steps to the hot tub.
‘I thought you were shy about your body,’ says Patrick, a half smile on his lips.
‘Not when I’m this dirty.’ I splash into hot, bubbly water and swirl around, laughing.
‘If I’d have known it was this easy to get you naked, I would have taken you down here a long time ago.’
I feel self-conscious suddenly, and wrap my arms across my chest.
‘Stop that,’ says Patrick.
I let my arms slip down, knowing that the bubbles are hiding most of my nakedness.
‘Better?’ I say.
‘A little,’ says Patrick, closing the door.
‘Do you watch all the staff bathe, Lord Mansfield?’ I tease.
‘Just you,’ says Patrick, his eyes fixed on me. I have that feeling again – like a little rabbit being hunted by a big wolf.
Patrick strips off his t-shirt and the candlelight glints over his toned, tanned chest.
Then he takes off the rest of his clothes and leaps into the hot tub.
There’s a huge splash when his body hits the water.
‘Oh!’ I say, as foamy water splashes onto my face.
‘Couldn’t resist it,’ says Patrick. ‘You said you wanted a shower …’
I laugh and splash water at him.
He laughs too, ducking as I splash him more.
‘Enough, enough!’ Patrick laughs, grabbing my hands and pushing me against the side of the hot tub.
I look up at him. ‘So.’
‘So.’ Patrick’s hands still grasp my wrists.
‘How come you never told me this place was here?’ I ask.
‘Maybe I like you dirty.’
I laugh. ‘That sounds about right. Mr Caveman.’
‘But as it happens …’ Patrick runs a wet hand over my hair, ‘I like you clean too.’
‘I’m not clean yet,’ I say, wriggling a hand free from his grasp and showing him my fingernails. ‘See? Still dirty.’
Patrick doesn’t take his eyes off me. He reaches up and grabs an oval bar of soap from a tiled shelf. The words ‘Mansfield Castle’ are stamped on it and a white looped rope dangles from one end.
‘Soap on a rope?’ I say. ‘Very 1980s. Nice to know Mansfield castle is keeping up with the latest fashions …’
Patrick dangles the purple soap from its long string. ‘It never went out of style in Scotland.’
‘Well this is easily the best spa I’ve ever been to,’ I say. ‘Tell me. Do they have a naked Patrick Mansfield in all the spas around here?’
‘Only this one.’ Patrick rubs the soap around his hands. He takes my fingers and moves soap gently over my skin, washing one finger at a time.
‘Mmm,’ I say, letting my head drop back into the water.
Patrick works the soap in circles over my hand. Then up my arm. Really tenderly. Like he’s touching something really delicate.
When he gets to my shoulders, he moves my hair around and turns me in the water so he can soap my back.
I lie against him and feel his warm, hard body.
Patrick washes me. From head to toe. One arm, then the other. Lifting my feet out of the water and soaping each toe like it was made of glass. Rubbing the soap over my stomach and making circles around my belly button.
I let out a gentle moan as he slips the bar of soap between my legs and slides it up and down.
Slowly Patrick turns me around, pressing me against the mosaic wall of the hot tub.
‘Oh! Oh, oh, oh!’ I shout, as I feel bubbling water between my legs.
Patrick has put me against a jet – shooting foaming water at 100mph.
I wriggle against it, but Patrick holds me firm.
‘Oh! Oh god!’
The jet shoots hot water over me, and I writhe and buck against it. It feels good, but intense too – a little too intense.
Just as I’m getting used to the rushing water, I feel Patrick slide the soap right up inside me.
‘Oh!’
I feel myself clench around the soap.
‘You … really are serious … about getting me clean,’ I moan, as Patrick kisses my neck.
Just as I’m getting used to the soap being there, Patrick grabs the string and starts pulling it up and down.
In out, in out. Oh, oh, oh.
I’m gasping with pleasure as I clench and pull all around the slippery bar.
‘Oh god. Oh god Patrick,’ I cry, as the jet pummels me.
Patrick pulls the soap right out then, and begins soaping my buttocks.
The jet is still hitting me hard.
Patrick soaps inside my buttocks, sliding the soap all around.
Warmth and pleasure is building up as the jet whooshes between my legs, and I find myself buffeted around.
The sensation is too gentle now. I want more.
I wriggle forwards to get more of the jet, and Patrick – ever the mind and body reader – pushes my backside so I’m pressed right against the spraying water.
‘Oh. Oh,’ I cry out.
Patrick is still soaping inside my buttocks, but now he begins teasing the soap inside my backside.
‘Oh Patrick. Oh. Oh. Oh,’ I moan, as he pushes me tight against the jet and works the soap back and forth.
Soon he’s worked the soap half inside. And the next thing I know, he’s pushed it all the way in.
I feel the string outside me and the hardness of the soap as I moan and writhe against the jet.
Just as I don’t think I can take anymore, just as everything is building over and threatening to make me scream with pleasure, Patrick pulls the soap out of my backside.
The sensation of the slippery soap pulling free is just too much.
I come straight away, writhing and wriggling around, pulling myself hard against the wall of the hot tub.
I collapse onto mosaic tiles, my hair completely damp now, my face wet with steam.
38
I pant against the tiles, feeling Patrick’s strong hands on my hips.
‘This is … definitely the best spa I’ve ever been to,’ I murmur, as Patrick pulls me onto his lap.
My back curls round against him, and he wraps his arms right around me.
I rest for a moment, my eyes closed.
‘Clean enough?’ Patrick whispers.
I laugh. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever been cleaner. It’s nice you’re so attentive to your staff, Lord Mansfield.’
‘Any time,’ Patrick murmurs, his lips dropping to my neck. He kisses me, then grabs a towel from the mosaic shelf. ‘You need to eat lunch,’ he says, stroking my hair with the towel. ‘You must be hungry by now.’
/> He rubs the towel over my shoulders.
‘Starving.’
We look at each other.
‘Now I see the appeal of the woods. If this is what you come back to.’
Patrick laughs. ‘I’m not really a hot tub man. This is more Grey’s type of thing.’
‘Oh? He comes and soaks in your hot tub often, does he?’ I say, raising an eyebrow.
‘Fairly often.’ Patrick grins. ‘But not while you’re here.’
‘Why not?’
‘I told him,’ says Patrick, drying my shoulders. ‘No strutting around naked in the spa area while you’re in the castle.’
‘Ha ha.’ I grab the towel and climb out of the hot tub. ‘Where is Grey, anyway? Will he be joining us for lunch?’
‘No. I sent him into the village.’
‘Oh? Why?’
‘He may be my best friend, but I don’t trust him around you.’
I laugh. ‘You’re joking, right?’
‘I’ve known Grey a long time. He’s a good man but when it comes to women he can’t help himself. A compulsive flirt.’
‘So what? Flirting doesn’t hurt anybody.’
‘It’s where it might lead.’
My smile drops. ‘What are you saying? That I’m going to open my legs for the first man who chats me up?’
Patrick grimaces. ‘Please don’t say things like that.’
‘Why not? You’re being pretty offensive yourself. What – you think because someone young and handsome flirts with me, I’m suddenly going to fall out of love with you?’
Patrick bangs his fist on the mosaic. ‘If you find Grey so handsome, go to the village right now. Just pick the nearest bar. Grey will be there with a couple of girls hanging on his every word.’
‘Patrick what’s wrong with you?’
‘It would kill me.’
‘What?’
‘It would kill me. If you ever … with anyone else.’ He squeezes his eyes closed. ‘I just couldn’t stand it.’
I shake my head. ‘I’m not with anyone else Patrick. I’m with you.’
‘Do you like Grey?’ Patrick’s eyes bore into mine.
‘What?’
‘Can’t you answer?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. I’m crazy about you Patrick. You’re all I can think about.’
Patrick runs a hand through his wet hair. ‘If you and he ever—’
‘What’s got into you?’
‘Promise me. Promise me you’re not attracted to him. Because if you are I need to know right now.’
‘Patrick you’re being crazy. Totally crazy. I’ve met Grey for what? Half an hour? And barely spoken ten words to him. Where has all this jealousy come from?’
‘He has a way with women.’
‘From what I’ve heard, you’ve got something of a way with women yourself.’
Patrick gives a harsh laugh. ‘I don’t go looking. They come to me.’
‘God, do you know how arrogant you sound?’
‘I’m just stating the fact. Grey likes the hunt. I’ve only ever hunted you.’
‘What do you take me for, Patrick? Some silly little girl who goes all starry eyed because a guy says the right words to her? This is stupid. You can’t kick your best friend out because you’re jealous. This is your problem. No one else’s.’
‘I told you. I don’t trust him as far as you’re concerned. He’s forbidden to be around you unless I’m there. End of story.’
‘You have to be kidding me,’ I say, heat rising in my chest. ‘Patrick, who are you to forbid anyone to be around me?’
‘Seraphina. I just want to protect you—’
‘No,’ I snap. ‘That’s not protecting me. That’s protecting you.’
‘The decision has already been made,’ says Patrick. ‘Lunch is laid out in the great hall. I can’t come with you. I have security arrangements to make. But I’ll come get you when they’re finalised.’
‘Come get me?’
‘Yes. You have a habit of getting yourself lost and I want to make sure you stay in my bedroom this afternoon. I need to know you’re somewhere safe.’
I laugh, but not in a good way. ‘You think I’m going to your bedroom after lunch? When you’ve forbidden me to be around your friend?’
‘Seraphina—’
‘I’ll go to my old bedroom,’ I say, stalking towards the door. ‘And I’ll sleep there tonight too. I can find my way. And I can find my way to the great hall. Believe it or not, I found my way around just fine before we got together.’
‘Just fine?’
‘Okay, maybe not just fine. But I was getting the hang of it.’
‘Seraphina. You don’t need to do this. You don’t need to pull the “independent woman” act.’
Oh good grief.
‘It’s not an act Patrick. I am an independent woman. And I don’t need you telling other men to stay away. You have to trust me. If you don’t we have nothing.’
‘It’s not about trust. It’s about protecting you. I know what Grey’s like.’
‘And you think I can’t handle myself? Or that I’m so weak willed I’ll be swayed by a few charming words?’
39
‘You might …’ Patrick looks away.
‘Might what?’
‘You might see in him what’s missing in me.’
‘What’s missing?’ I ask softly, turning around. ‘Patrick, I don’t understand.’
‘I’m not charming.’ Patrick shrugs at the water. ‘I don’t know how to say the right things. I don’t know how to be anything other than honest.’
‘Patrick, do you think I fall in love so easily? I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you.’
‘Sometimes life deals an odd hand. I never thought I’d lose my brother. Not while he was in my brigade. Under my protection. But I did. If I lost you to someone else …’
‘The last thing you need to worry about is me falling for someone else,’ I say. ‘The way I feel about you … it knocks me off my feet. It makes me feel giddy. I can’t imagine a life without you.’
Patrick climbs out of the hot tub. He takes my hand and turns it over in his. ‘Will you stay in my bedroom this afternoon? And tonight?’
‘So you can keep an eye on me?’ In my head I’m joking, but the words come out serious.
‘Maybe a little,’ says Patrick, moving his wrist back and forth so my hand dances in his. ‘Is that such a bad thing?’
‘Yes it’s a bad thing,’ I say. ‘You should trust me.’
‘It’s hard to trust anyone around Grey. He has something of a talent.’
‘Patrick.’ I slide my fingers from his. ‘I’m not liking what I’m hearing right now. Are you saying you don’t trust me?’
Patrick’s lips pull tight. ‘I trust you.’
‘Then what’s the problem?’
‘I just couldn’t stand it if something happened.’
‘You’re not making any sense. If you trust me how could something happen?’
‘Look, I didn’t know Grey would be here today. Maybe I’m just getting used to the idea of him around you.’ His lips curl in thought. ‘He’s a good friend. Deep down.’
‘How long have you known him?’ I ask.
‘We go way back. The army. And school before that. He’s stuck with me through thick and thin. And helped me out of a few scrapes. I would have died for him. Before you came along.’
I raise an eyebrow. ‘What changed?’
He smiles. ‘I need to stay alive now. To take care of you.’
‘If he’s such a good friend, why don’t you trust him?’
‘He just can’t help himself.’
‘Well. Luckily I can.’
‘Even so. I don’t want you anywhere without me while Grey is here. I want you where I can keep an eye on you.’
I step back, clasping the towel tight around me. ‘Oh my god.’
‘What?’
‘That was so the wrong thing to say.’
‘Wh
y?’
‘You really don’t get it do you? You need to work on your trust issues. And I’ll be sleeping in my old bedroom tonight.’
Patrick’s eyes grow stormy. ‘Seraphina, there’s no discussion here. Go to your room this afternoon if you must. But you’re not sleeping on your own while Grey is in the castle. It’s as simple as that.’
‘You seem to be forgetting something Patrick.’
‘And what’s that exactly?’
‘In this relationship you’re not my boss.’
‘I’m not trying to be your boss —’
I cut him off with a shake of my head. ‘Oh please. Don’t pretend this is about anything other than you being jealous.’
‘You don’t know Grey like I do.’
‘Well maybe I need to get to know him better,’ I retort. ‘Then we could all be friends and you’d see you have nothing to worry about.’
Patrick’s beautiful lips thin to nothing. ‘You want to get to know him better? Fine. Be my guest. At least I know sooner rather than later.’
‘Patrick, I didn’t mean—’ I reach out to him, but he stalks past me and out of the door.
‘I’ll have the housekeeper bring you clean clothes,’ he calls over his shoulder. ‘Lunch is ready in the great hall. You seem to think you know your own way. But if you’re not there in twenty minutes I’ll come looking for you.’
‘Patrick,’ I call after him. But he doesn’t turn back.
I feel a horrible, empty pang in my stomach. But I can’t run after him. Not after what he just said. I mean, how dare he? How dare he make out that if his friend pulls a few moves, I’ll fall into his arms like some dumb, helpless idiot? Does he just think women are pretty dollies waiting on shelves for men to pick them up?
It’s a long walk to the great hall, partly because I’m so lost in thought that I make a few wrong turns. I quickly retrace my steps though. I’m not having Patrick coming to rescue me.
Forbidding me from being near another man? Forget it.
I’ve met enough of my mum’s boyfriends to know that letting a man get away with that only leads to bad places.
I can’t stay with Patrick if he expects to control me. And yet how can I be apart from him?
I love him, I love him, I love him.
But sometimes love isn’t enough …