I am increasingly curious about being naked with him.
Fuck.
I swallow and force a normal answer. “Sure. I’ll take a shower after you,” I say. “There’s a towel and a washcloth by the sink.”
“Great,” he says brightly. “I’ll just rinse off and be right back.”
Nicholas disappears into the bathroom, and I hear him stripping, and it’s almost more than I can handle. When the water starts blasting and he hums to himself, I turn and order the pizza.
It’s creepy to stand outside a bathroom and listen to someone hum, and the fact that it got my dick hard only makes it creepier. How I feel about men might be theoretical, but it’s getting damn difficult to ignore how my body responds to Nicholas specifically.
Just as I’m finishing my order with the pizza place, the lights in the kitchen flicker and the whole apartment goes dark. It’s night, and only dim, gray light flows through the windows from the street outside.
“Shit.” I walk through the near darkness, toward the bathroom. “Nicholas?”
“I’m okay!” he yells, but his voice is pinched.
“Are you?”
“Yes! I’m just using the last of the warm water before it turns COLD!” I hear him jump out, and he lets out a laugh. “Cold water!”
I’m horrified that my power just went out. But he’s laughing, so maybe Nicholas isn’t angry with me that he’s been left in a dark, cold shower.
“Sorry,” I holler. “I’ve been trying to wrap up everything with the house, but I haven’t been able to get through to the electric company.” Another thought hits me. “Will this affect your shop?”
Nicholas pushes the bathroom door open. “It’s okay,” he says. “We’re on separate accounts.”
I swallow. He’s wearing nothing but the towel that’s wrapped around his waist. In the dusky light, I can barely see the shape of him, but the details come in and out of focus.
The dark of his nipples. The V above his hips. His bare feet on the floor.
His face is half-covered in shadows, but his features are familiar enough now that I can still see him and read his expressions.
“Will you be okay without electricity tonight?” he asks.
“Fine,” I say with a wave of my hand, and I will be.
Nicholas is nearly naked, and it’s challenging for my brain to get beyond that fact.
When he hitches the towel at his waist, I catch my eyes lingering, and I jolt myself into action.
“I’ll just rinse myself off, too,” I announce.
Nicholas tilts his head to the side. “In the cold water?”
“Yup,” I say as I hurry past him and step into the bathroom, tearing my shirt off. “Cold shower won’t bother me.”
Nicholas swoops up his clothes. “I’ll get dressed in the other room,” he says as he backs away.
My cheeks are burning. “Okay, sure. I’ll be a couple minutes.”
I close the door, strip, and jump in the cold shower. Water sprays me, soaking me in a wide blast, and the bolt of cold is like the icy grip of reality. It clutches me from the inside, taking the heat right out of me, and my dick thankfully deflates.
“Shit,” I say against the tile. “What is wrong with me?”
When I’m good and cooled, I put on a fresh pair of jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt. I’m still embarrassed that I don’t have electricity, but I see Nicholas has found some candles, which he’s lit and scattered around the room.
“Enough light to eat pizza by,” he says.
Nicholas sits on my couch, and I get that feeling again.
Like I’m about to get myself in trouble.
