Page 25 of Puck with Karma
My fingers feel numb, making it almost impossible to grab the tag of the zipper. The relief I feel when they’re finally off is short lived. The bottoms of my feet just catch a break when I step on the tiled floor in Xander’s bathroom.
Without hesitation, and almost in a rush by now, I pull on my clothes, desperate to get into the tub. The steam from the water is beckoning me, killing all my inhibitions.
“Oh my god, that’s too hot,” I cry out when I stick my toes in. I’m not sure if the water is that hot, or if I am so cold that it is a shock to my skin.
By the time I manage to stick one leg inside, I have second thoughts. For one, it feels like I am about to get third degree burns. And for two, I have to remind myself that I am standing naked in a stranger’s bathroom. No matter how good looking he is and how he makes me feel, it doesn’t erase the fact that I just met him yesterday.
Live for once, Abby, a small voice whispers in my head. It sounds like Hannah, but Riley is right there cheering me on.
I say a quick prayer, take a deep breath, and finally step into the tub with both feet. The heat from the water is threatening to skin me alive, but I don’t even care anymore. I lower myself down, little by little so that I get used to it. When my butt finally hits the bottom of the tub, I wince in distress. But, in all honesty, it’s getting better with each second that passes.
I giggle to myself when I am lying back, hair in the water but face still out. I take a breath in and puff my cheeks, then pressmyself down until the back of my head touches the bottom of the tub.
With my eyes closed, I almost feel rather than see a presence with me in the bathroom. Through squinted eyes, I notice something moving, making me gasp for air. I pop back out of the water, coughing and spitting mad, scared that I was about to drown.
“Easy, baby,” a deep voice tries to calm me down. It takes me a minute to realize that it’s Xander talking.
“You scared me,” I finally say once I am able to breathe without inhaling water.
“I knocked.” His voice sounds soft somehow, coaxing me out of my stupor.
“I didn’t hear,” I whisper back.
Without another word, he grabs a hand towel, rolls it into a makeshift headrest that he slides under my neck, right where the hard material of the tub would meet my skin.
“Better?”
The sound grumbles out of his chest, then travels all through me, stopping in places that I never really thought of being erogenous.
“Much,” I tell him, my voice barely audible over the water that’s still running.
Xander stands up and makes his way to the corner where a shower is enclosed in glass. Scared that he’s leaving me here, I attempt to grab him by the hand, but it’s too late.
I’m grateful he doesn’t comment on that because, in the next instant, I feel embarrassed by it. Why am I so needy all of a sudden?
I don’t have time to think about it too much when I see that he is coming back, hands full of what seem to be different kinds of soaps.
“W-what are you doing?” I stutter when I see him dropping to his knees next to the tub. He ignores my question.
“Still cold?”
He’s not even looking at me when he asks that. Instead, he is busy with whatever he’s doing on the floor.
With a start, I notice that he’s now wearing a pair of loose jeans and a t-shirt that’s so tight to his torso, I can see the definition of his muscles clearly through the material.
My eyes go wide in wonder when I see him dipping a washcloth in the water, then pouring some soap on it.
“What are you doing?” I force myself to ask when I see him rubbing the material together.
“I’m going to give you a bath.”
I want to say that shock runs through my veins at hearing his words. But I’d be lying. It is excitement like I’ve never felt before.
“What about you?” I raise an eyebrow in question, although my cockiness is not genuine, and he can see right through it.
The beginning of a smile forms in the corner of his mouth.“What about me?”
I am nervous, and when I try to swallow, there’s a lump in the back of my throat choking the words down.
