“Big jerk,” she said in a high-pitched voice, doubling herself over in a low bow like a folding doll so that her gray head nearly touched the floor.
“That’s telling him, sister,” Krysty said, giggling. “You sure have a way with a girl, lover.”
Ryan turned to the other two women, advancing with hands outstretched. They both burst into fits of fluting laughter, pulling their aprons over their heads, pattering past him, one on either side, while he pretended to grab at them. They joined their older colleague in the door, where they all stood bobbing up and down, bowing to Ryan and Krysty.
“Thanks, but, no thanks,” Krysty said, walking over and sliding the door panel across, shutting out the trio of servants. She waited a few moments. “Think they’re still there?” she whispered. “Bet they are.”
“Don’t look, lover. Don’t even think about looking. Let’s get on with this bath.”
It took them only moments to strip out of their trail-dirty clothes, leaving them in a pile by the sleeping mats. Ryan unholstered the SIG-Sauer and placed it by the side of the big tub. Krysty, still wearing her silk bikini panties, put her 640 Smith amp; Wesson beside it.
“Watch out for splinters, lover,” she said, grinning as Ryan swung a long leg over the wooden wall and stepped cautiously into the scented water.
“Hot,” he said.
“Funny. I thought that all the steam meant that it was going to be freezing cold.”
“Yeah. Lotta laughs, Krysty.” He slowly lowered himself to sit on the seat that ran just below the surface. “Hey, it’s real good.”
She slipped off her panties and joined him, gasping at the heat of the water.
“Not bad, huh?”
Krysty nodded, smiling, her vivid red hair slowly uncoiling across her shoulders as she quickly began to relax. “Not bad.”
Ryan closed his eye and leaned back against the smooth, polished wood, feeling the tension ease away. It didn’t seem as if they were in any danger at the heart of the fortress, as long as they had the protection of Mashashige. Just as long as his word could be trusted.
Where trust was concerned, Ryan’s feeling ran with those of the Trader.
“Trust is something that you don’t ever share with anyone else.”
“What did you say, lover?”
“Nothing. Didn’t even realize that I’d spoken out loud. Must be getting Alzie’s sickness.”
“Want me to scrub your back for you? There’s soap on that little shelf at the side.”
Ryan sniffed. “Guess so. This is nice. Haven’t felt as clean as this since I don’t remember when.”
Krysty had slid across the tub to get the soap, her superb body glistening like a leaping salmon, agile and muscular. She came back and sat close to him.
He closed his eye again, feeling the warm suds, scented with musk, across his shoulders, her firm hands rubbing heat into the muscles, trying to avoid the crisscrossing scars that patterned his skin.
“I reckon that I could get to like Japan,” he muttered. Her hands were busily soaping his chest, then lower across the flat wall of his belly.
Lower.
“Hey! Thought you said you were just going to wash my back.”
“I didn’t know something was going to come up,” she replied, grasping him tight.
“I didn’t know it was coming up, either.” He leaned sideways and kissed her hard on the mouth, his tongue slipping between her parted lips.
“It’s come a long way up, lover. Look. Even come peeking out of the water.”
He reached out with his right hand and caressed her breasts, finger and thumb sliding from the slippery, peaked nipples, making her sigh out loud.
“Nice.”
Ryan lowered his head to suck at them, tasting the musk in the soap, like an exotic perfume, while her right hand was working on him, just below the surface.
“Seems a shame to waste this,” she whispered, glancing at the door. “Wish it had a lock on it.”
Krysty stood and faced him, spreading her thighs and lowering herself onto him, guiding him inside with her right hand, mouth open, emerald eyes almost closed.
“Yes,” she breathed.
THEY LAY SIDE BY SIDE in the quietness of the room. Ryan had pulled on his shirt and pants, while Krysty was almost fully dressed. There had been a certain amount of muffled noise from the room next door, where J.B. and Mildred sounded as though they, too, were having a good time and also getting clean. But the giggling had quietened over the past quarter-hour or so.
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