ships passing in the night

Chapter 7: Soap and Scars

"Love has reasons which reason cannot understand."

– Blaise Pascal

//

Soft clouds of steam puffed from the surface of the water, saturating the small space within the tilted, four-cornered room. Jinny exhaled, feeling her tense, aching muscles slowly betray her as the warmth of the bath soaked into her skin. She defeatedly leaned backwards, letting herself relax into the bathtub and against the even warmer torso of the man behind her.

Kellan traced her jutting collarbones, leisurely drawing shapes along the curves and inflections of her body. The heat had coaxed her skin into a light shade of pink that seemed to redden even further with Kellan's ministrations. Jinny giggled softly and caught one of Kellan's moving hands. He responded with a chortle, his eyes slowly drifting to the small of her back.

With his other free hand, he touched the thin red gash on Jinny's back in concern. "When did you get this?" he murmured, feeling his heart sink a little. "Was it from just now?" Did I hurt you?

"No," Jinny replied, tilting her head slightly upwards so she could gaze into his eyes. "I got it a couple of days ago when I zipped my dress up the wrong way. Some skin was caught." She pressed an assuring hand to his cheek. No, you didn't.

He placed a kiss on the back of her palm. "Good," he breathed, "but you should still be careful."

There was something profoundly intimate about the way he touched her, looked at her. The eyes that burned only with lust their first night together were now softened, transfixed on her with warm adoration. His gaze sent little tingles from her shoulders to the tips of her toes, pooling warmth to the pit of her stomach. Even her usually agitated mind had been soothed into a phase of quiet bliss, a state Jinny hadn't been able to reach for a very long time.

Jinny reclined, resting her head on Kellan's chest. "Did you know," she began softly, "that the scars on someone's body can tell you a lot about them?"

"Oh, really?" Kellan gaped in mock-surprise. He propped his chin on the top of her head. "And how do you know that?"

"Well, take you for example." She lifted his elbow, eyes trailing over a familiar scar stretching over the inflection. "You told me this is from when you went snowboarding. It shows that you're active, and you probably like to travel."

"You're not wrong, but that's a bit of a slippery slope, isn't that?"

"Fair," she nodded. Her eyes traveled down his muscled form, stopping at another healed gash on his left shin. "How about that? How did you get that?"

"I fell into a ditch," he said, and to Jinny's questioning gaze, he added, "College. A night out at the club." Jinny burst into a fit of laughter, to which Kellan responded by tickling her waist. "Hey, we all have moments we're not proud of!"

"Stop, stop–" Jinny laughed, pushing his playful hands away and splashing some water to his face. "You always laugh at me too!"

He raised his brows, humorously pretending that it was the first time he had heard of it. "That's not true," he asserted exaggeratedly. "I always think you are a beautiful, elegant young lady, worthy of every bit of respect. I would never even dare to laugh–"

"Lies!" Jinny softly punched his chest. "You're so full of foolish flattery."

He clutched at his heart, feigning immense pain. "That's so hurtful, Jinny, especially after all the times I've showed you that I–"