Merciful Buddha help him, but he was about to do it. Actually turn around and feast his eyes on what he’d been dreaming about for the past two years. His fingertips itched at the thought of how her skin would actually feel to his touch.

At that moment, Inara reminded him, “Mal, did you want to wash off?”

He cleared his throat in embarrassment. “Uhh…yeah. I’ll just duck behind the bushes over there.”

He quickly shed his clothes and wrapped the towel around his waist, praying to his forgotten god that she had gotten out of the creek and was now wrapped up in that robe, more for his sake than hers. He knew of a certainty that if she wasn’t all safely tucked away in that terrycloth, he’d very well do something they’d both regret.

Hell, Reynolds, nothing to fuss about. She ain’t the least damnable interested in…

His train of thought derailed as he came back out from the bushes to find her still standing knee-deep in the water. With not a scrap of terrycloth on her.

“Hey, uhh…thought you were done there.”

“Do you want me to go and leave you in privacy, Mal?”

“Well, I could use some help with washing my back…”

She smiled and held out her hand. If he just could make himself focus on the water running off her elbow, it might distract him from other places on her with water dripping down.

“Well, hand me…is that one of my soaps?”

Mal at least had the good grace to blush.

“Yep. Guess I am a petty thief after all. That mean you rethinking the back-washing offer?”

“Only one way to find out, Captain.”

He decided that meant she was OK with back-washing duty. Then he realized that he’d have to drop the towel in order to get that back wash. Was one thing when she saw him buck-naked after Saffron ditched him, because at least then, she’d been fully clothed. Quite another with her as naked as he was, knowing that his body was damn near about ready to betray his thoughts on that matter.

On the other hand, she’d agreed to the back-washing proposition. And in her line of work, not l