I swallowed hard on the sudden heat that surged through me, and hurriedly resumed sorting the treasure so as to be occupied in other pursuits than spying lustfully upon him. I had not been wrong, I thought. The dragon’s reading and wine drinking companions bathed in the water. I watched out of the corner of my eye in voyeuristic fascination as the beautiful man washed his hair and rubbed oil through it and across his skin. The soap and oil he used carried the mysterious scent of incense on it.
For all I tried not to watch, the angle was precisely right that I caught a tantalising glimpse here and there. He took his time, soaking and removing the stubble from his face, before stepping out of the water and drying himself on a length of cloth that had been meant for grander things… or had it? I amended. What grander aspiration could a cloth have than to rub against the skin of such a man?