Chapter 25 Physical Intimacy
Chapter twenty-five
Physical Intimacy
Zef
Back at the house, Bernice fretted over them, but Bryce easily dismissed her worry. “They just twisted their ankle. I’m gonna take them inside so they can get cleaned up.”
In the kitchen, he set them on the counter and retrieved an ice pack from the freezer. He wrapped it in a towel and handed it to them to hold while he picked them back up and carried them up the stairs to the bathroom. Once there, he set them on the counter beside the sink and shook his head.
“Can’t take you anywhere,” he teased.
With a pout, they shifted until they could prop their leg up beside them, setting the ice pack on their ankle. “Do not make fun of me when I am in pain and covered in mud.”
“Or you’ll be cross with me?” he said, leaning in to drag his nose along their cheek bone.
Unable to hide their smile, they refused to look at him. “Yes. I will be so very cross.”
“Well, we don’t want that,” he said with a minuscule brush of lips to the skin in front of their ear. They shivered, and they felt him smile against their cheek. “Let me get the shower warmed up for you so you can wash off the mud.”
As Bryce played with the temperature gauge, Zef worried their bottom lip, an idea taking root in their brain. It was not exactly a brain-brain thought. If anything, it was almost a penis-brain thought. Well, more penis-brain-adjacent. But it was not… unwanted.
So far, they had embraced courage today. Why not keep the bravery going?
“I think that’s warm enough,” Bryce said, drying his hand on his jeans. “I’ll grab you a towel and get out of your hair.”
Setting the ice pack aside, Zef carefully climbed off the counter, testing their foot. Their ankle twinged, but it could hold their weight fine, at least for the amount of time necessary for a shower.
But they were being brave today, so when Bryce set their towel on the closed toilet and made to leave, they said, “What if I fall over?”
“What?” he said with a chuckle.
“In the shower. What if my ankle gives out, and I fall?”
His brow furrowed. “You’re standing fine on it now. I really don’t think you twisted it that bad, but I can check it again.”
Oh, he was so wholesome; it was one of Zef’s favorite qualities about him. Except for right now, when they were trying to be suggestive.
“Well, yes, but it is still painful.” They took a step toward him, exaggerating their limp. “I do not want to slip.”
Pointing at the door, he said, “Do you want me to get you a stool or something to sit on?”
For deities’ sake, and everyone said Zef was the oblivious one.
They hobbled closer to him, and he reached out to steady them automatically.
Having never had to woo anyone before, they were not quite sure how one went about it.
They could have simply asked him to join them in the shower, but that felt too bold, too blunt.
As the bathroom filled with steam, Zef lifted quaking fingers to the top button of Bryce’s shirt. “I got mud on you,” they said as they stumbled their way through unfastening the first button.
Before they could accomplish anything more, he was grabbing their wrists in a firm but gentle hold. “Zef?”
“You could stay,” they said, avoiding eye contact as their wings fluttered nervously. “To ensure I do not fall.”
The silence stretched as Zef’s heart pounded in their ears. Bryce didn’t speak, but his gaze burned their face until their skin ignited in a blush. A finger tapped under their chin in silent command, but they could not tear their focus from his unfastened button.
“Zef,” he said softly, and they finally met his stare.
His eyes were boiling thunderclouds, and their stomach plunged to their toe barbs. “I would like to share physical intimacy with you,” they said, voice shaking with nerves. “If you are agreeable.”
He scrutinized them closely, and they did not look away. They allowed him his search, and only when he was satisfied did he release their wrists.
“You don’t have to prove anything to me,” he said, but they were already nodding.
“I know. That is not my intention.”
“We don’t ever have to—” he started, but they interrupted him.
“I know, Bryce,” they said, pressing their forehead to his as their antennas danced over his hair. “I would not offer if I did not want to.”
His eyes shuttered closed as a rumbling noise vibrated in his throat. Almost like a Mantodean thrum. Zef returned the sound as they, slowly, unfastened the rest of his buttons until his shirt splayed open over his undershirt.
Smoothing their palms over his shoulders, they pushed the fabric down his arms until it slumped to the floor. Next, they slipped their fingers under his shirt and pushed the fabric up. He raised his arms, and Zef removed it completely, dropping it to the floor on top of the button-up.
Their hands were shaking harder now, but they pushed through their nerves and reached for his belt buckle.
As they unthreaded his belt, Bryce captured a chunk of their hair and rubbed it between his thumb and forefinger.
They unbuttoned, then unzipped his jeans, and with a gentle push, they dropped down his legs.
He stepped out of them, never taking his eyes off of them.
With the same amount of caution, he started to undress them until they stood in their undergarments as well. As their camisole plopped onto the pile of clothes on the floor, Bryce’s fingers traced their collarbone, and goosebumps exploded over their skin.
“You’re so beautiful, Zef,” he said reverently.
They glided their top palms through his thick chest hair and thrummed their satisfaction. “So are you.”
As they hooked their lower hands in their underwear, they fortified their courage, then shoved the final piece of modesty to the floor.
They had never been naked in front of another before, not since they were a hatchling, and they resisted the urge to fidget as Bryce scanned them from head to barbed foot.
They were not insecure, as bodies were bodies and they could do nothing to change how they looked anyway.
But they still possessed the base desire for acceptance, to be found pleasing in the eyes of their suitor.
His large hand pressed to the center of their chest, warm and heavy. “Good or bad?” he asked hoarsely, and they smiled.
“Good.” They closed the distance between them, top arms circling his neck as their lower arms wrapped around his thick waist. Their bellies met, then their chests, skin-to-skin for the first time. “It is good when you touch me.”
Bryce shuddered, rubbing his hands up and down their bare back as their foreheads met once more. “You need to tell me when it’s not, though. Okay?”
“I will.” They cupped his neck, their antennas dancing over his head, absorbing his rich pheromones. “Come bathe with me, beloved.”
With a nod, Bryce stepped back just enough to wriggle out of his underpants.
Now, Zef was aware of what humans looked like; they had seen depictions before.
But it was different being faced with alien genitals in person.
They cocked their head, inspecting the soft penis and scrotum between his legs, nestled in a thick thatch of dark pubic hair.
They were curious what it would feel like, but they did not want to give the wrong impression. Seduction was not the purpose of this, so instead of indulging their curiosity, they took his hand and allowed him to lead them to the shower.
Since everyone in Bryce’s family was tall and broad, the shower was spacious, and they laughed as Bryce hooked an arm around their waist and lifted them off their feet to place them under the warm spray.
He followed them, shutting the opaque glass door behind him.
The air was thick with moisture and steam, and they smiled shyly as he smoothed their wet hair out of their face.
They turned to the side so he could join them under the water, and he stepped into the spray.
Water carved paths through his body hair, and Zef followed them with their fingertips, admiring the hills and mountains of his body.
Bryce explored them too, tracing the bones of their torso and mapping the subtle curves of their waist and hips.
He did not attempt to touch them between their legs, but they had not expected him to. He was a gentleman, after all.
Soaping up a washcloth, they lightly scrubbed his shoulders, chest, and arms, cleaning between his fingers and in his armpits where the whorls of hair were even longer and thicker.
They prodded him to turn and proceeded to wash his back as well.
Not brave enough to wash lower, they kept their hands above his hips.
They massaged shampoo through his hair, making him groan in appreciation, and once he was clean, he took the washcloth from them and added more soap.
Bryce washed them with just as much diligence and respect as they had him, avoiding their genitals and backside.
He scrubbed the dried mud on their arms until they were clean again.
When he rubbed shampoo through their long hair, they trilled in pleasure, and he smiled at them so brilliantly.
Overcome with the magnitude of the intimacy being shared between them, Zef tucked their face into the nape of Bryce’s neck and cinched their arms around him.
They were touching everywhere, skin wet and warm, and they trembled, overwhelmed in a wave of pleasure.
They held each other under the spray for a long time, hands wandering innocently, sharing the comfort of touch without expectation.
The human’s fingers blazed fiery trails over their skin, and how they burned for him.
When they lowered their hands to his backside, he chuckled in their ear. “Are you getting fresh with me, Zefryn?”
“It is for science,” they said primly, and Bryce laughed again before boldly cupping their butt in his hands. They squeaked but did not bat him away.
“For science,” he echoed, and they hid their flushed face in his shoulder.