It did not take long before all of Théadan’s clothing was removed and he stood before her naked. She had seen him naked dozens of times, yet she still found him distracting and worth a lingering gaze. Her brown eyes wandered across broad shoulders, down a defined chest riddled with scars including a brand new one, and on to his manhood. Unable to help herself, her gaze lingered there and she nearly reached out to brush a couple fingertips along it, but he was speaking of the aches in his legs and moving to lay down on the bed like she had instructed, causing her to step back so he could do so. Sighing, knowing she was just missing the intimacy they created together, Navia watched him get comfortable.<br/><br/>Once he was settled, Navia reached for the hot oil and stepped up to the side of the bed. Since they were bothering Théadan the most, she figured she’d start with his legs, then join him on the bed for his shoulders and back. He had complained of his feet being sore as well, so she’d make sure to pay those a decent amount of attention as well. “I did suggest massages at the last tavern we stayed at, I think,” Navia reminded him instead of answering right away why she knew how to massage. She uncorked the bottle, checked again to make sure the oil was hot enough to be enjoyable but not burn, and slowly poured a line of oil down the length of his leg from hip to heel. She repeated the action on his other leg while she went on, “But we didn’t have oil then and it’s really the only way Khluri do massages. The heat is supposed to loosen your muscles and the oil slickens your skin, making the massaging easier.”<br/><br/>Her hands moved slow to skim over the length of the back of Théadan’s legs to spread the oil out, her eyes following her movements. She had never paid his thighs or calves much attention, but she wasn’t surprised to find them muscular and dabbled with a few scars. Once she had the oil disbursed, she returned to the top of one of his thighs and laid her hands flat and side-by-side. Then she began to slowly pull them down toward the front of his thigh, applying the most pressure at her thumbs to rub them over the muscles of his thigh, moving closer to the back of his every time she started over again. “I first learned how to do this after I was married,” Navia explained while she worked, her voice quiet to keep the mood relaxed for Théadan, “Devam used to come home from some of his harder trainings with his soldiers worn out. He often trained them by showing them or working right beside them, so he had to keep up with men far younger than him.”<br/><br/>“Warriors are always hard on their bodies,” Navia pointed out even though she knew Théadan knew as much, her thumbs passing over one of Théadan’s scars as she continued down to his calves, making sure to press slightly harder and more slowly to ease the muscles there, “That’s something those Marroan women had right. And he was nearly a decade older than us, so his body didn’t bounce back the ways his new soldiers’ did. I guess I could have paid someone to give him massages when he came home aching, but I thought it would be a nice way for us to relax together.” As she spoke, Navia moved to repeat the methodical actions of rubbing her hands over Théadan’s other thigh, gradually moving down to do the same to his calf, hoping to dispel the discomfort his muscles were causing him, “It was nice. He’d talk about his day and I’d listen or tell him about mine. We had a good friendship; I always liked that about our marriage. But there was never…” Navia frowned thoughtfully, trying to decide how to best word what she was thinking while reaching for the oil and pouring a little on each of Théadan’s heels so it could roll down the bottom of his feet, “Well, we were never as hopeless for each other as you and I are now."<br/><br/>Where she had been using the entire length of her thumbs and her palm before, Navia adjusted her hold on one of Théadan’s feet to use the tips of her thumbs instead and began to work her way along the bottom of his foot slowly, “You said it’s been some time since your last massage. When was it? Who gave it to you?”