Dragon's Khu'meir

Chapter Nine

Nakiirn looked me over, then arched his brow as he asked, "What is a shower?"

Wait... No showers? How was I going to wash myself? "Really? Never heard of a shower before?" I asked him with a lot of confusion in my voice.

He leaned back, detangling himself from my legs as he did so. I bit my lip as he moved and came free from me. "No," he answered after a moment. "But if you wish to wash, I can have a bath drawn for you. Shall I do that?" He asked, and then he gave me a small smile as he ran his fingers gently over my stomach yet again. "Shall I wash you too?"

Oh my god! A bath! I put the back of my hand over my face. Well... That was stupid of me. Of course I could take a bath, Nakiirn had taken me to the pools enough times that I should have known that.

"A shower is like rain falling over you, but you can control it. Turn it on and off. I guess you could say it's like a really big tap?" I told him, though I wasn't sure that I was explaining it in a way that Nakiirn actually understood me.

"Yeah, I'd like a bath. I'm not sure if I can make it to the bath on my own though, so if you want to help me, that'd be nice." I smiled at him, still covering my face with my hand.

The mattress shifted and a peek through my fingers showed Nakiirn standing from the bed. He turned to me then, and I was up in his arms without question. He made it look so easy too. "Like this," he said, and for a moment I could have sworn it sounded as if he were making a joke. But it was so odd to hear that kind of tone from him. I could feel he was amused though. That was enough to know he was making light of the situation.

Nakiirn moved slowly across the room. He was obviously not in any rush. Once we reached the opposite side, he stepped into the sectioned off area and inside was a large tub. He let me down on one of the chairs within the room. "It'll be just a moment," he assured me. Then walked away -still fully naked and giving me quite the wondrous view. I watched him as he went about the room. It was even more entertaining to watch when he bent over to turn the tap on. And I couldn't help the small giggle that escaped me. I quickly turned away in case he turned to see what I was snickering about. I glanced back, but it seemed like he hadn't noticed.

Water poured into the bath and he leaned away from it. Looking over to me, I watched as he looked me over, a small smile on his lips again. "Is something amusing? Should I get dressed?"

"No." I said without a second thought. "No, no. It's nothing." I was a bit hopeful he hadn't noticed. But I was wrong. I guessed I was still getting used to these new emotions I was feeling because I hadn't noticed his change in feelings.

"I see," Nakiirn answered. "I could have sworn I heard a soft laugh from you. But perhaps I am wrong," he offered with a shrug. "I will say, one thing we will work on is our attunement. You're very easy to read. All the time."

My face went red as I quickly turned away from him. Was it really that bad? Was it that obvious?

"I see." I said, still not looking at him. I had tried to not be that much of an open book, but I had gone wrong somewhere along the way. At that moment, I was hopeful that before we had bonded, he hadn't noticed me constantly trying to ignore my feelings for him. But because he had told me I was easy to read, had he noticed that as well?

I pulled my legs up into the chair and hugged them tightly. It was a bit annoying, but even more so now that he could feel what I was feeling...

Nakiirn straightened from where he was working with the bath water. He'd been stirring it with his hand and I had no idea as to what that was doing. He walked over to me, braced himself on the arms of the chair and spoke softly. "Are you alright? Did I anger you?"