“It’s me. I’m just checking you’re okay.” Scott’s voice rang through. “Alex has just gone for beer and take out.”
She moved the bubbles to make sure they covered strategic points, although it wasn’t anything he hadn’t seen before. But did she want him to see it again?
“It’s unlocked. You can come in.” She double checked her underwear was in the laundry basket.
The handle was depressed but then there was a pause, as if he wasn’t sure whether or not to enter.
“How are you feeling?” He lingered at the open door.
She had never seen him this hesitant.
“Close the door, Scott. The warm air will get out.”
“Which side should I be on?” He was seriously unsure.
“This one.” She tried not to laugh at him. One, she didn’t want to be unkind and two, her ribs hurt something shocking. Patsy was pretty certain she’d badly bruised them, maybe worse, but there was no need for a trip to the emergency department.
He stepped a bit closer and closed the door. “Okay. This feels odd.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re in a bath. Naked.”
The laugh that she couldn’t help dislodged some of the bubbles, exposing a nipple.
His eyes went straight to it.
“People are generally naked when they take a bath. You’ve seen me with no clothes on before, Scott.” She tried to move more bubbles to cover herself again.
“True. But this is different.”
It was. He was right. Although there was arguably nothing more intimate that having someone inside your body, or being in someone’s body, this was intimacy on a different level.
“I’m okay. I’ll be fine getting out. You go and get set up for your games playing session.”
He shook his head. “We’ve decided on a Hitchcock night.”
Keren laughed. The bubbles moved again. “It’s a good thing I’m not one of those women who gets scared in their own home after watching horror films.”
He looked down at the floor and she figured the bubbles had moved again.
“I was going to stay. Just to check you were okay during the night. I can crash on your sofa.”
She was no shrinking violet and she hadn’t managed to think herself out of this with Scott. She was attracted to him, more so each time she saw him, more so after he’d been so good today. More so after he was desperately trying to not look at her breasts in the bath. She sat up, moving her arms to the sides of the bath, her tits now on display for him to see.
The thrill of being exposed made her forget any pain.
“Key, I’m trying to be a gentleman. You’re not helping.” To his credit, he was looking her in the eyes.
“Maybe I don’t want you to be a gentleman right now,” she said, surprised with how sultry her voice sounded. It was probably the acoustics in the bathroom.
“Fuck it.” He strode over, wearing his trademark jeans and a t-shirt, his feet bare and his curly chin length hair down. He reached down to her or she pulled him down, she wasn’t sure, and his mouth met hers, her skin wetting his t-shirt.
“Take it off,” she said. “Get in with me.”
He laughed. “We’ll flood the room.”
She was so glad he hadn’t pointed out her bruises.
