He was certainly a different Kyo from the one she had attended just a week before. Worn out, he relaxed by consuming large amount of sake and watching women at the local lodge. He was quiet for the most part - as he always was - but the strange look she had seen in his eyes when she had tended his wounds was missing.
While she'd never admit it out loud, she missed that look. His predatory glances, the way his body spoke of something more than casualness, they heated her beyond anything she'd ever known. Just like the hot water touching every curve, every line.
Yuya let out a sigh, sinking deeper into the water. 'The heat must be getting to me.'
She cared for Kyo, but...could she call it love? Certainly not! Love was something shared, cherished between two people. He didn't love her, of that she was certain! But...there was an attraction there. Something much more tangible...more physical. Scary as it was, she had given thought to those looks and glances over the past week, hoping for more.
There were none though, even as she tended his wounds that evening just before dinner. The meal had been eaten in silence and separate paths were taken as they left. He took off for only the gods knew where, and she to the bathhouse. It had been nearly a week since she'd taken a bath, and the only comment Kyo did give her was:
"You stink, woman! Bathe for gods sake!"
Recalling that comment was enough to spark a fire in her chest as much as those images from the prior week served to spark flames in other areas of her body. Slowly she released the anger, allowing those images she had conjured within her mind to relax her further. What harm would it do to dream, especially in the bath where Kyo would certainly not appear?
Shyly, yet boldly, Yuya's hands began to roam her body. Skin so sensitive, even she couldn't suppress a shiver while covered by the warm water. In fact, she suddenly felt as if her body had caught fire, real flames touching where her fingers touched. All the while images that would be forbidden to public view crossed her mind. Images grounded in real life. Of a man she knew she would never have. Of a man who barely showed emotion, even in the most relaxing and juvenile of circumstances. Of a man she would follow forever.
Or until she got the bounty, whichever came first.
One hand gently cupping and squeezing a breast, she surprised herself by pressing two fingers close to her sexual center. Shockwaves rifted through her middle, out into her aching limbs. She was slightly new to these forbidden feelings, but she couldn't help herself.