She shook her head. “Ivan will call.”
“No.” Daire leaned down and smoothed hair from her face. “He’s going to let you stew for a while, and he’s going to make plans for the moment you walk into his trap. He’s not hurting Logan, but he’s preparing for a fight.” Daire turned her around and pushed gently. “In order to fight, you need a hot shower and sleep.” She’d been pale and shivering since they’d talked in the rain, and he was finished with that.
Zane glanced up from the table. “I agree, Mom. Shower and sleep.”
Felicity rolled her eyes. “Don’t gang up on me.”
Daire pointed at her still wet socks. “Go. Warm. Up.”
She twisted her lip and glanced down. “A shower wouldn’t hurt.” With a defiant toss of her still damp hair, she grabbed her cell phone off the sofa table and squished over the wooden floor to the bedroom.
Zane waited until the bathroom door had closed. “I don’t think Bychkov will call tonight.”
“I agree. It makes more sense to wait it out and make us tense.” Daire rubbed a hand over his hair. “He’s also not interested in Logan and doesn’t have a history of torturing people.”
Zane nodded. “Are you trying to reassure me?”
“Aye.” If it was Daire’s brother being held, he’d want all the logic he could get. “Bychkov goes for the quick kill, as you know, and he won’t kill Logan while your mother is safe here.”
Zane nodded. “I know.”
Daire exhaled slowly. “There’s a guest bedroom off the kitchen. Both your brother and Garrett have stayed there, so I make no claims as to the cleanliness, although I do have a service that comes through once a week.”
Zane leaned back in the chair near the fireplace. “You are not setting foot in that bedroom.”
Daire grinned. He couldn’t help it, although the last thing he needed right then was a fistfight. “Listen, kid. That horse is out of the barn.”
Zane leaned forward. “I can put the horse back if I cut off your head.”
True. “Your mother is a grown-up, and she can make her own decisions. If she wants me out of the bedroom and here on the sofa, I give you my word I’ll be out here.” Daire turned for the bedroom.
“I’m more worried she wants you in there,” Zane grumbled.
Daire swallowed down a chuckle and shut his bedroom door, heading immediately for the bathroom, shucking clothing on the way. He was nude by the time he reached the bathroom.
Steam coated the mirror and the phone set on the counter. He prowled across the stone tile and stepped around the stone wall to find Felicity, pale in the soft light, under a hot stream.
She jumped when he walked in behind her. “Daire.”
“It had better be,” he rumbled, sliding a palm down her hair.
“Um, you shouldn’t be in here,” she said.
He grinned and squirted shampoo in his hands. “This is exactly where I should be.” Indulging himself, he threaded the soap through her thick hair and then rubbed it into a lather. “You have the most beautiful hair I’ve ever seen.” His fingers went deeper, and he massaged her scalp.
She leaned into his hands with a soft moan.
The sound licked along his skin to kiss his cock. He kneaded her nape, noting the knots and working on each one until she’d relaxed. She turned around.
He bent her back. “Close your eyes.”
She complied, and he washed the suds from her hair. He wiped a couple of suds off her forehead. Her eyes glowed a dark onyx in the steam, a sexy contrast to her light hair. The warmth cocooned them. “We shouldn’t.”
He chuckled. “There’s nothing else for us to do right now.” A part of him wanted to relax her so she could sleep, while another part, one deeper and more primal, wanted to plant himself deep inside her and keep her safe. “I know you want to meet Bychkov by yourself, but that can’t happen.”