Be Gentle, Immortal Master

The crisp spring enveloped me, soaking through my clothes that had turned sticky against my back long ago, replacing the unpleasant feeling with a silky touch. I gasped at the relief. In no rush to doff my own garments, I pointed to a flat top rock a few paces away and said to Bai Ye, "Will you sit over there for me?"

He gave me an amused look. "I'm getting a bit worried about what you might do to me," he said, though he obeyed without hesitation.

I laughed while I ran my hands down his collar and removed his drenched robe. His skin sheened from the moisture, glowing lambently against his ink-black hair flowing down his broad shoulders and sculpted chest. He looked like a statue of a god.

"What could I possibly do?" I asked, rinsing off his clothes in the water. "What kind of power do I have that could possibly threaten you?"

I wrung his undershirt half dry—I didn't pack a bathing cloth, so this would have to do—then squatted behind him and ran the makeshift towel slowly down his back. Tiny water droplets trailed the wet shirt, sparkling like a jeweled shawl over his smooth skin. The scent of fresh spring water mixed with cedar filled my nostrils, and I took a deep breath, savoring this sumptuous treat..

"You underestimate your power then, Qing-er," he said. "And after last night, I think I need to reassess it myself."

I chuckled and rewetted the shirt. When I pressed the cool fabric back onto him, I let my forefinger trace lightly down his spine along with the cloth. His muscles tensed at my touch.

"You are saying that I've become a seductress?" I leaned into his ears and whispered.

Well, regardless of what he had meant to say, this much was already true, I thought, and the fact that I wasn't ashamed of it at all surprised me. Even if I had a good reason for seducing him last night, I certainly didn't right now, but here I was, doing it again. I wondered what had happened to me. Since when did I become so defenseless against this temptation?

"You've been a seductress for long enough." He didn't look back when he replied, though I could tell that he had said it with a smile. "Just getting better and better at it. Every day."

I dipped the shirt into the water once more and repositioned myself in front of him. He was smiling indeed, his dark gaze glinting with a softly burning heat. I moved his hair behind his back and ran the cloth over his chest, pausing only a little when my fingers brushed over his scar.

"I can get better still," I said, "If you let me practice more."

Dropping the shirt, I planted a light kiss on his chest and cupped a handful of water with my palms, dripping it over him as I caressed his lean muscles. He took a sharp breath in. My hands grazed over him, feeling and measuring all the dips and ridges from his hard stomach to his tight abdomen, taking in every inch of him until his breeches stopped me.

I pulled on them, and he complied almost meekly. When the last barrier between us was gone, his sculpted perfection was finally, fully in front of me. The most sensational sight I could ever imagine.

And his hardness … seemed … even larger than I remembered.

I felt my heart starting to race, but I forced myself to stick to my original plan and not rush through it. I wetted his breeches, rinsing them off the same way I did to his shirt, and repeated the wash on his legs, darting a few furtive glances at him when the cloth reached his inner thighs.

He closed his eyes. "Will you finish it soon?" he asked. His voice was a rasp. "Your practice comes at great cost to me."

I laughed softly. Having teased him enough, I set the clothes onto the side of the rock he was sitting on. "I will finish as soon as I can—" I said as innocently as I could sound, "—as soon as I'm done bathing every part of you."

I brought my free hands to roam over him again, skimming over his thighs in the softest touches, and when I reached the top, I curled my fingers around his shaft.

A low groan escaped his throat. Even with all the cold spring water that I just poured over him, he was hot and throbbing within my palm. I stroked him slowly, keeping the same rhythm that I just ran the bathing cloth over him with, and I straightened to seek his lips.

"Qing-er," he rasped, "this isn't bathing."

I pecked the corner of his mouth. "Why isn't it?" I asked and nudged his bottom lip. "Doesn't it feel more comfortable with my hands rather than a rough bathing cloth?"

I delved into his mouth in a deep kiss, and when I heard his breaths starting to quicken, I moved my lips to his chin, his neck, below his ears. Another groan escaped him. I hadn't kissed him like this before, and I remembered all the places where I elicited the most responses from him, locking them into my memory.

Then I trailed down, dropping kisses over his chest, his stomach, his abdomen. I heard my heartbeat thudding in my ears—I was second-guessing myself about what I had planned to do next, because I didn't know if I would be able to do it right—but I wanted to try it. After all the times that he had brought me into the realm of unimaginable ecstasy, I wanted to do something for him too, and I might as well live up to my new name as a seductress.

He must've realized my intention, as his eyes snapped open when my kisses didn't stop. On my knees before him, I met his astonished gaze and swallowed his tip into my mouth.