her, though. Even from behind, even with nothing more than her back to go on. Her hair was swept up in a loose ponytail, but that wasn't unusual. She was wearing her swimsuit cover-up, a sexy number of black crochet full of tantalizing holes and knots...but he had seen that before.
“Lovely,” Helena said.
She turned around, and the “something” that was different met Steve right in the face: underneath the swimsuit cover-up she was wearing nothing.
Well, almost nothing, he realized as he looked harder. A few blue strings criss-crossed her skin and came together in a knot at the top of her neck, and he could see little patches of blue fabric beneath the cover-up. Very little patches. Mostly her saw the curve of her flesh as her breasts rose from her chest. Her abdomen was bare, and he couldn't see lower than that because of the counter, but if the top of her swimsuit was anything like the bottom, well...
It was a long way from the tankini she'd modeled for him a month ago, before she knew she'd be spending every day at “Palace Tehrani.”
He stared, and his mind went to the Tehrani's house. He wondered if the usual consortium of men were there, watching Helena in her tiny bikini. Lusting after her. Looking at the underswell of her breasts.
It made him both aroused and bitter to think about it.
She looked down at where his eyes were planted and smiled. “Oh. Yeah. Zahra made me get a new suit,” she explained, as if the explanation were of the sort that one could not argue with or ask questions about.
Which really, if anyone knew Zahra, they knew it was true. If it occurred to Zahra to “make you” get a new suit, then there wasn't much you could do about it.
“It's...” Steve said. It was hot. Fucking hot. Hotter than he had seen Helena dress in...well, ten years. But the another, competing emotion got the better of him.
Jealousy. Before he could even think about what he was doing, he heard his voice saying:
“Did you...drive home like that?” he said. Or go somewhere else? he thought. A shudder flashed through him as he pictured his wife slinking through the grocery store in that get-up.
He instantly regretted it, and he knew he had it coming when Helena's eyes flashed at him in anger. “And what if I did?”
She turned around and began to place dishes angrily into the dishwasher, her body rigid. Steve, instead of trying to save himself, craned his neck to get a better look at the bikini bottoms.
Dear god. Definitely a Zahra creation. At the very least, they were not a thong. They barely met that distinction, however. Only a tiny triangle of material covered the sweet hollow between her buttocks, and the tiniest portion of her rounded butt.
“No. No,” he said quickly. “You look great. You look fantastic . Just...it's very...you know. Risqué.”
Helena dropped a dish into the dishwasher carelessly. “Right. Risqué. Too risqué to drive in a car with tinted windows from one place another?”
Steve rolled his eyes skyward. Dear god, he wished his brain would catch up to his mouth one of these days. Just a one-second lead would do it.
“No, you're right. I'm sorry I said that. I just...it took me by surprise...” He was flailing. Desperate, he flung this at her:
“Your ass looks great. ”
She dropped another dish into the dishwasher without saying anything, but he felt like she did it more humorously.
Somehow, he could feel a thaw.
“You need a filter,” she said, finally.
Relief.
She turned toward him and tapped her fingers on the counter. “And my ass does look great, doesn't it?”
“Yes.”
Helena took a step toward the counter, and Steve felt like pinching himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming, because she seemed to do it sexily, and she seemed to be flirting as she leaned on the counter toward him. Her breasts pushed together to make a full, poofy ledge of fleshy pillows, and the motion pushed her skimpy bikini down, revealing the tops of her nipples. Not only