26

Sunday morning Liesl woke to find herself once again being held tightly in Isaias’ grip. Her body ached in ways she had never known possible, and she had a strange understanding of women who ran marathons. They were sweaty and sticky. Her mouth tasted like she’d licked the carpet in the room.

She slowly pulled away from his tight embrace and he murmured a complaint as his fingers reached for her when she crawled out of the bed. “Need to pee.” She paused, “please tell me there are toothbrushes in the bathroom.”

She gave him a sideways glance as he mumbled everything she could possibly need was in the bathroom before flopping onto his belly away from her and pulling a pillow over his head. She stopped and stared at the round firm ass, which was now exposed, and she had to stop herself from smacking it. She shook her head at her own physical response to him and made her way to the bathroom.

In the bathroom after quickly relieving herself, she did indeed find everything a girl could dream of for a night away from home. Toothbrushes, makeup remover and even deodorant were all in a cute little bag on the counter. She took in her appearance in the mirror and was grateful Isaias was still asleep. Her mascara was smudged down her cheeks, and her lipstick was partly smeared over her lips, chin and partly long gone. Her hair which had been pretty curls before she’d left was now a tangled mess of knots and she grabbed a clump of it and held it out sideways with a sigh. It was going to hurt brushing it out with as equal intensity as the pleasure of putting them in. Her head had been slid all over the bed and pillows from Isaias’ lovemaking and she considered she was probably going to need the entire bottle of conditioner to fix it.

She started with the make up remover, made her way to the toothbrush and then with a decisive nod, made her way to the shower, taking the hairbrush with her.

A few minutes later she was wide-eyed and staring at the tiled wall of the shower when Isaias barged into the bathroom complaining the sound of the shower running made him need to pee and without any warning, lifted the toilet seat.

She had moved in with Merlin the day of their wedding and in five years he had never once peed with her in the bathroom. It had taken a full year before they’d showered together. She was stunned as she stood frozen unsure of what she was supposed to do. Then his voice behind her as he followed her into the shower and pressed a kiss to her shoulder made her jump.

“Pass the body wash” his voice was warm and gravelly in her ear.

She reached for the bottle, passing it to him, trying to quell her thundering heart. She resumed dragging conditioner through her hair. Weirdly, sharing a bathroom felt far more intimate than the crazy amounts of sexy they’d had over the last two days. This felt a monumental step in a brand-new relationship.

“I didn’t ask you last night if you’d had any big plans for today. Is there a set time you need to be home?” he stepped under one of the two overhead rain showerheads and faced her. Evidently, he had no problem with nudity.

“Not really. I have laundry to do for the week but otherwise I don’t have anything scheduled. Why?”

“I thought maybe we could spend the morning and part of the afternoon playing tourist, if you wanted?” he was vigorously washing his body as if completely comfortable with the very intimate act of showering together.

“Um sure.” She turned her body, feeling on display. She forced herself to relax. He had no qualms so neither should she.

“Great. Have you ever been to the Met?”

“No.” she shook her head as she turned sideways to look at him gripping the brush by the handle and began tearing through her hair. She noted the expression of horror on his face as she tore out chunks of her knots with the brush.

“What are you doing?”

“Brushing my hair. We made rat’s nests in the bed.”

“Give me that,” he took the brush from her and turned her around, smacking her nude backside with the back of the brush.

“Ow,” she rubbed her bottom.

“My mom’s hair is quite curly, almost wiry. She used to make me brush her hair when I was a boy. Hell, she still does on occasion. She’s spoiled. I know you’re supposed to start at the ends and work your way up, not rip it from your scalp.”

“Isaias,” she chuckled as he very gently worked through her knots. “My mother toughed up my scalp as a kid. She once threatened to shave my head bald because I was always a mess.”

“My sister has very short hair. I’m certain it’s short because my mother used to beat her with a brush for her tangles.”

“What is her name?”

“Enia” he said with a smile to his voice as he worked through her hair. “We are very close. We share a lot of secrets. I’ve already told her all about you. She’s currently in the UK deciding whether or not the man she is with is the one she wants to marry. She cannot decide if she loves him or if she’s simply feeling the pressure of the family to settle down.”

She had her head tilted backwards as he set the brush down and began massaging her head in soft sweeping motions. He had gotten her tangles out with relative ease.

“Is there such pressure to get married?”

“There is. Our family is very traditional. My grandparents have been together seventy years. We do a family reunion each year and the first question out of every auntie’s mouth is when you will be getting married and when can they expect a baby. It’s worse for Enia because she’s a woman but I will be forty by the next reunion. My sister is confident all eyes will be on me.”

She giggled at his words, “you should do something incredibly scandalous for your fortieth.”

He laughed, the sound echoing off the shower tiles as he wrapped his arms around her middle and hugged her tight. “I can never top Joaquim’s thirtieth when he brought two hookers with him. His mother was furious with him. There was more skin than clothing showing. My grandmother was terrified my grandfather would have a stroke.”

She laughed as he turned her in his embrace. “Isaias, I haven’t laughed as much as I have in the last week in years. Thank you.”

He grinned, “I aim to please.”

“I’m very glad you did not turn out to be a stuck-up asshole.”

“I am very glad you crashed my date.”

“Are we really going to go to the Met?”

“Yes. I will take you to the Met, we will go for a stroll around Central Park and then we’ll head home. We should be back by dinner time. First though, we need to have breakfast and get dressed.”

She blinked, “I don’t have clothes. I don’t want to go to the Met in the dress I wore to dinner and dancing last night.”

He laughed and hugged her, “did you not look in the bag?” He reached behind her and shut the water off and then motioned to the bags by the door of the bathroom. “I told you, everything you need is here. I had my PA call Janka to get your sizes. Everything you could possibly need is there.”

“You think of everything, don’t you.” She questioned quietly staring at him.

“I wanted our date to be special, but I also wanted it to be a surprise. If I’d asked you to pack an overnight bag, it might have spoiled the surprise.”

She cupped his cheek. “I like you very much, Isaias Machado.”