The warm water trailed down my body tinting my skin red in its wake.
Steam bellowed all around me, it bounced from the ground and caresses my legs causing goosebumps to rise.
The water rained down from above me, not a shower curtain in site, the whole room was tiled with pretty brown textured tiles.
It made me feel as if I was standing in the rain letting the droplets cleanse my soul of all of its impurities.
I was in love and I could easily stay in here all night. I'm glad I let the other girls go before me and didn't have anyone waiting on the shower.
I lathered some soap onto my hand, sitting the bar back down on the shelf off to the side.
I rubbed the suds all along my body, watching as the white turned brown from all of the filth that was caked onto me.
I rubbed some onto my calloused thighs, hissing in pain at the contact.
Pants. I wanted pants.
I had never worn them a day in my life but I knew I would not be leaving The OuterWall without any if I could help it.
I tried to run my hands through my messy, tangled hair and quickly realized that it wasn't going to happen. I would need to let it soak in conditioner overnight if I was going to attempt to get these knots out.
I closed my eyes and lifted my head so that the water was pouring down on it.
I opened my arms wide and spun around in circles. This was magnificent.
The door opened...
I shrieked...
"Shit." Haldis instantly turned around facing toward the door he just walked in from.
Naked as a jaybird.
His muscular back had nothing covering it and I knew his ass was on display but I kept my eyes trained upward out of courtesy.
"I didn't know..." He tried to explain.
Had I not locked the door? Did it even have a lock?
"Oh God..." I whispered looking around for something to cover up with but I came up empty. My towel was on the other side of that door.
The door that he was currently standing in front of.
The way the house worked on the inside was unusual. There was a large hallway leading to the shower, you had to open a door to get to that hallway which would explain where his clothes were, considering he didn't walk through the house naked with three women under his care, one of them being his cousin.
"I'll leave."
He was filthy, covered in everything we came across in the last week. Animal blood from his kills to feed us, sweat from the sun beating down on him and me, our body heat doing little to help the situation, dirt from sleeping on nothing but a thin blanket.
"I was just finishing up. You stay I'll leave." I would have liked to savor the water longer...
"I won't look. I promise." His voice was husky and slightly strained as he slowly turned around. He trained his gaze on anything but my naked body glistening with water beads all over it.
Oh good heavens...
Don't look.
And I didn't.
"Enjoy the shower. I won't be a bother..." He then proceeded to walk over to the water, only inches from me. He was so close I could feel his body heat, though it wasn't as close as riding horseback with him, the lack of clothes made it feel ten times closer.
We faced back to back, but it did little to ease my racing heart. "Are you sure, I can leave?"
I really should leave...
"I'm sure. I know women savor their showers and you haven't had one in a week or better." This was insane, there was no way this was happening.
If it had been anyone else I would have left but it was hard to explain, after spending that much time with our bodies pressed together on top of that horse, he was... Comfortable.
He groans when the hot water touches his skin, his sore muscles must have appreciated the heat as mine had.
"How are your thighs?" My heart stuttered and heat went through me like a tidal wave. If we had clothes on the question might now have been so...
I didn't even have a word to describe the way it made me feel.
"Sore. I have blisters and callouses." My fingers brush against them and I hiss in pain.
"Here use this..." I glance at him, he has his hand outstretched behind him, still facing the other wall. "It should help, it has healing herbs in it."
I reach for the soap he had bring with him having to turn to face him. My cheeks heated when my gaze caught on his backside, "Ayumu..."
He stretched out the soap further and I coughed trying to unclog my throat.
I grab the soap from his hand. I lather my hands with the bar before pushing it back into his grasp.
I take my lathered hands and rub them along my tender thighs, groaning and hissing as the sensitive flesh grated against my palms.
"You okay?" He looked over his shoulder questioningly.
I bristled. His lips part as his eyes slowly rake across my body, stopping and starting at my soaking breast.
"I'm sorry, I..." He falls short on his words but still, he didn't look away from them. "It's just been a long time since..."
Something dark lurked in the back of his gaze, something that sent a tingle through me at the thought.
"It's okay." I cut him off and I'm not sure why I say that but it seemed as if he was in distress and I didn't like the look on him.
"It's not, I promised." He jerked his head back around and placed his hands on the wall.
"Really, it's okay. I understand. I may or may not have been staring at your ass." The admission rolled off of my tongue and it received the desired response I was wanting.
He laughs. Loudly. It boomed around the shower walls.
His laugh made me laugh.
We finished showering that night, a smile never leaving my face.
For a moment I was glad he intruded the tiled room because that was the first time I'd laughed in a really long time.
I can't even remember a moment I felt so carefree and amused.
I thought about it for hours before I finally drifted off to sleep in the bedroom I shared with Clementine and Jade.
Sleep. Something my body could use some of.