Chapter 16
Korren
By the evening, our cabin has a queen-sized mattress on the bed, a futon in the main room, two chairs, and a coffee table.
We also managed to pick up curtains, bedding, and a couple towels from the used clothing store.
It’s lucky the kitchen is already stocked with the essentials, because I could see Dex cringing more with each purchase.
The few packs of instant noodles we stocked up on at the end have probably cleaned him out.
I’m hoping it’ll be easier to sleep tonight knowing there’s a wall between me and Dex.
And it’s a thick log wall, too, so I’m praying he won’t notice if I yell in my sleep again.
I don’t know if I’ve been doing it every night, or if last night was different, because the fucking nightmares happen all the time.
We’re just finishing dinner—another pot of instant noodles, of course, this time shared around the rickety table on our new chairs—when Dex fixes me with an evil smile that tells me I won’t like whatever he says next.
“I dare you to let me wash you off in the shower,” Dex says, raising his eyebrows suggestively.
I can feel myself go bright red. I know I’m disgusting. I’ve been meaning to have a shower since we moved in yesterday, but there wasn’t much point until my clothes were also clean.
“That’s a cop-out,” I protest, trying to hide my embarrassment. There’s a difference between knowing you’re filthy and having someone else point it out to you. “Are you afraid of doing anything riskier?”
“Are you saying you’re not willing to jump in the shower with me, then? Am I winning this easily?”
“Fucking asshole,” I mutter.
I’ve never even done this with a girl before. It might not be a big deal to Dex, but to me it is. And there are other reasons I don’t want him to see me naked.
“I’ll let you wear my swim trunks,” Dex offers.
I give him my best scowl. “I guess I don’t have any fucking choice, do I?”
“Oh, and there’s a clean pair of clothes over with the towels,” Dex says. “For you to wear until we can visit the laundromat.”
I’ve finished my noodles, so there’s no point delaying any longer, as much as I’m dreading this. The clothes Dex mentioned look like another pair he’s snuck into our purchases today, because they don’t look like they’d fit him, and I hate the way my chest tightens at his generosity.
I lock the bathroom door behind me as I strip down and change into Dex’s swim trunks, only letting him in as I’m stepping into the shower.
In the bathroom, he strips off his clothes unselfconsciously—I notice he doesn’t have a second pair of swim trunks for himself.
“You’re unbelievable, Korren, you know that?” he says as he drapes his towel over the top of the shower.
“What d’you mean?”
“Last night you were asking me for a hand job, and now you’re afraid of me seeing you in a swimsuit! I swear, the next thing I know, you’re going to be daring me to have sex with you while I’m still stuck on G-rated things, and you’ll be raising a much bigger stink about my dares.”
This surprises a laugh out of me. I’m standing in the shower with my arms crossed tight over my chest, the water pouring over my shoulders, and it’s the most delicious sensation. I’d forgotten how good showers are. Not just the cleanness afterward, but the whole damn thing.
I get a look at Dex as he steps into the shower—muscle all the way down, and a thick cock that I really didn’t need to see. I turn pointedly away from him.
“What does that say about us?” I ask.
“Probably that I’m more interested in having a house than in kicking you out of it, and that you’re more likely to be gay than me.”
“Fuck you. You’re the one who went along with the dare last night.”
“I know.”
Dex reaches for a bar of soap and starts lathering up my shoulders, which is fucking wonderful. I want to be annoyed at him, so I stand stiffly and pretend I’m not enjoying this way too much, but now he’s digging his thumbs into the knot in my back and it’s impossible not to loosen up a bit.
He turns next to my hair, dousing the matted, shoulder-length mess with half the shampoo bottle and lathering it in vigorously, and I close my eyes and relish the feel of his fingers working across my scalp.
This is a completely new experience for me. No one has ever touched me like this except when it’s a lead-up to sex, and as much as I’ve always been obsessed with personal space and boundaries, this is way nicer than it has any right to be. Maybe letting someone into my life wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Next he’s washing my arms and my lower back, and when he kneels to scrub my legs, I’m tempted to shove my dirty-ass foot in his face.
A moment later he’s back to massaging a second round of shampoo into my hair, and even after all that washing, I can see a trail of brown running across the tiles and down the drain.
I reach for the soap to wash my chest while Dex is digging his knuckles into my lower back, and that’s when I realize he has a massive boner. This makes me weirdly gleeful.
“Who’s gay now?” I tease. “You’re so fucking turned on by this.”
“Stop staring at my dick, asshole.” Dex sounds embarrassed but not angry.
“What, are you wishing you could put your dick in my ass?”
“That’s gross.”
His cock doesn’t seem to agree. And I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but the idea that he’s hard because of me—because some part of his brain thinks I’m sexy—is fucking hot.
As soon as my mind goes in this direction, I’m out of that shower so fast you wouldn’t believe it, because there’s no way in hell I’m letting him see that my cock is stiffening as well.