He watched passively from the corner as she, recumbent in their over-sized king bed, read. The glow in the room was an interesting contrast of candlelight escaping through the carved pattern of her own thrown clay pot and the low-intensity of a 60 watt bedside lamp. As was his responsibility, he had prepared the bed: fluffing pillows; turning down the bedspread; adjusting the lighting; and warming the sheets, while she soaked in the tub.
When he had completed the nightly preparations which always occurred prior to their retiring, he stepped back into the bathroom he left just twenty minutes earlier. When last in this room he'd drawn her bath. This included selecting fragrant bath oil he thought would fit her mood, putting soft instrumental music in the CD player, and laying out a large and a medium-sized towel on the vanity counter alongside the tub. She'd walked into the bathroom while he was preparing her bath. Seeing her in the mirror behind, he turn and without a word he undress her, carefully folding and stacking each item of her clothes one upon the other. Once naked, she stepped into the perfectly hot water, squatted down and closed her eyes. Watching her, he sighed, turned and moved away to the bedroom.
Now back, he quietly coughed. She opened her eyes, looked into his without a word, rose and stepped from the tub to stop inches from him. While her eyes commandingly held his, he reached his arm out to grasp the smaller of the two towels. With delicate care he blotted her face with the towel, never allowing for the slightest rubbing action. When every trace of water and perspiration was gone from her face, he laid the towel back down on the vanity and picked up a jar of rich face cream. His middle finger pressed deep into the pure white ointment, he withdrew a dollop from the jar and applied a small amount to her forehead, each cheek, and her chin. She closed her eyes. The finger tips of both his hands moved to her forehead and he slowly, in tiny clock-wise circles, rubbed the ointment into her skin. She breathed out deeply through her nose and her knees bent slightly. He felt her body warm with pleasure.