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He inches forward. “Relax,” he whispers before pressing his lips to mine for a chaste kiss. “We’re still on your timeline.”
I stand. “Shower?”
He smiles. “I’d love to.”
I’m not sure where we’ll go from here, but I like these baby steps so far.
He turns on the shower as I rinse off my hand and undress, tossing my soaked pajama bottoms on the floor while he takes off his boxer briefs and folds them up with the wet stain inside, then sets them on the counter.
Tension fills the room the same as the steam of the shower as we stand five feet apart, fully naked for the first time. His body is one of an Adonis, pure muscle with trimmed pubic hair and his long thick cock pointed up again, balls tight. He’s ready for round two, and I’m still mentally adjusting to round one.
His gaze travels the length of my body. “You’re so beautiful. Stunning really.”
I push away the feeling of wanting to cover myself up from his examination. He holds out his hand to me and leads me into the shower, putting me under the warm spray of the water first, tipping my head back as his chest rests against mine. The light sprinkle of hair on his chest pokes my nipples and they tighten.
I hold on to his side and again coast my fingers over the raised scar. “Does this have to do with the nightmare?” I turn us around so that he gets under the warm water.
“No.” He shakes his head.
“Oh. I just assumed.”
He takes my shampoo and squirts it in his hand before putting it in my hair. I close my eyes at the sensation of his fingers on my scalp. Pure relaxation.
“This scar was the final straw that made me move out of my mom’s house.”
“Your stepdad?” I frown.
“Uh-huh.”
“Is that why you never got stitches?”
“He was really going at my mom one night, all because she went out with her friends and didn’t have dinner ready for him when he got home. He was supposed to be out, but his event got canceled, and my mom didn’t know. He got angrier and angrier that night. My mom’s cell phone must’ve died because she didn’t answer when he called. When she got home, she wasn’t even in the door two seconds before he backhanded her. I was bigger than him, so I’d made a decision the month before that the next time he hit her, I wasn’t going to let it happen again.”
He stops talking and turns us around, tipping my head back so the water falls down my hair, rinsing away the shampoo. “I shouldn’t have pried.”
“Please, you’ve trusted me with so much. It’s not an uncommon story—I got in the middle, and my mom begged me to leave, but I started hitting him, pummeling him to the floor. He called out to my mom to give him his knife.”
My heart sinks to the depths of my stomach. Please tell me no.
“At first I was startled she did, you know. That she’d give a man a weapon to harm me, her son, when I was defending her. But I shouldn’t have been surprised. Her loyalty had been to him for years. We both got to our feet, and he jabbed out with his knife. Thankfully he didn’t plunge it inside me. Ended up being more of a flesh wound.”
I bend down and kiss his scar from top to bottom. “I’m sorry, Van,” I say, rising on my tiptoes to kiss his lips.
“It was a long time ago.” He says that, but I can see the pain in his eyes. I know better than anyone that years can pass and life goes on, but it doesn’t mean the pain ever completely disappears.
“You have all these beautiful tattoos. Why not cover it up with something? My dad does things like that all the time.”
He puts his hand on his side. “It’s a reminder.”
“Of?”
He looks at me for a long beat before I see the reason in his eyes. This is why he joined the military—to find his worth because his mother didn’t see it in him.
“You don’t need that to prove how far you’ve come. You should get it covered so that you can see another memory, a happier one, when you look at it. Because you’re a wonderful man, Van, and what happened wasn’t under your control.” I hug him tightly, and he wraps his arms around me.
“Okay, let’s get this shower over with before we become prunes.” He hands me the conditioner, ending the conversation.
With how patient he’s been with me, the least I can do is give him the space he needs.
