11. Klaus

11

KLAUS

Klaus shivered as he stripped out of the soaked Santa Suit . Damn it, how could snowfall so fast? Or melt so quickly, for that matter. He felt like he had fallen into an icy lake with all his clothes on! It was almost like the damn suit was meant to get as wet as possible so he would have no choice but to take it off.

He frowned at the thought—would the Questarions do something like that? And what were they really studying here? Was it truly the effect a beloved holiday had on people who observed it, as they had claimed when they first contacted the Kindred ? Or was it something else?

He got all the way naked, since the suit and everything under it was completely soaked, and then wrapped the red and white blanket Kelli had given him around his waist. He went to stand in front of the fire, but he was still freezing—his skin was covered in chill bumps and he just couldn’t seem to get warm.

“ Hey , we have a problem.” Kelli reappeared with a worried look on her face.

“ Another one?” Klaus raised his eyebrows in disbelief. “ What is it this time?”

“ It’s the shower— I can’t get it to turn on.” She shrugged her shoulders. “ I’ve tried everything—do you want to give it a go?”

“ Might as well.” Klaus fought back a shiver and followed her down a short hallway and into the back of the cabin.

“ It’s in here—through the bedroom,” Kelli told him.

She led him past a large bed that looked big enough for three or four people. It was covered in a green spread decorated with red flowers Klaus thought were called “point-setters” or something like that. At the very back of the room was another door that led into the fresher—or the bathroom, as the humans called it.

The fresher was tiled in a neutral beige color, which Klaus found refreshing after all the Christmas colors. Inside was a shower stall and a toilet, which was set in a small alcove, maybe for privacy. But it was the glass-walled shower stall that Klaus was interested in.

There was a round, flat, black panel embedded in the shower’s tiled wall. It was clearly meant to be the on/off device as well as the temperature control because it had a capital H for hot and a capital C for cold on either side of it.

Holding onto the blanket he had wrapped around his waist, he reached in and tried touching the panel—but nothing happened. By now he was so cold his teeth were chattering again, much to his annoyance.

“ F -f-fucking thing’s b-b-broken,” he snarled, somehow getting the words out.

But Kelli had a thoughtful look on her face.

“ I don’t know—is it?” she said. “ Here —let’s try touching it together.”

“ What the f-f-fuck good is th-that going to do?” Klaus demanded, feeling annoyed. But when she reached into the shower stall to touch the control panel, he did the same.

The moment both their hands touched the panel at the same time, a rush of water started streaming down from overhead, drenching both their arms and the front of Kelli’s coat, since she’d been leaning into the stall to reach the shower controls.

“ Hey !” she gasped, jerking back. Her hair had gotten wet too, Klaus saw. Now she was the one who was dripping.

As soon as she jerked her hand away, the flow of water stopped. Klaus touched the control panel—rubbing and tapping it—but nothing worked.

“ How come it stopped working?” he asked, mystified and irritated.

“ Because of the list. Ugh — I’m drenched!” Kelli shrugged off the fur coat and hung it on a hook behind the fresher door.

“ What about the list?” Klaus asked. He was a little warmer now—the spray of water that had drenched his arm had at least been hot. But now he was wet all over again and he was sure it wouldn’t take him long to start shivering.

“ The next to last item on the list,” Kelli explained, swiping her wet hair out of her eyes. “ It said, ‘ Touching Required —nothing works without help.’”

“ So ?” Klaus still didn’t get it.

“ So I think we both have to be touching the shower to make it work,” she explained. “ Meaning we have to, er, take a shower together,” she finished in a low voice.

“ What ?” Klaus frowned. It was hard enough to resist the curvy little human when the two of them were fully clothed. He’d already gone further than he should, kissing her to get the front door of this damn cabin open. And now they had to get naked together? How in the Seven Hells was he going to manage this without getting a massive hard-on?

“ I know—it’s embarrassing. Like really embarrassing.” Kelli’s cheeks were bright pink. “ But look at you—you’re freezing. And I’m pretty cold too, now that I got wet. Not to mention my hands are still like ice from digging in the snow.” She shivered.

“ So you’re saying you really want to get naked and take a shower together?” Klaus raised his eyebrows at her.

“ I mean…if it’s the only way to warm up…” She trailed off, looking embarrassed. “ It should be easy for you—you’re so big and muscular and buff. I’m the one who’s not exactly thin, you know.”

“ Hey …” Klaus reached out to cup her flushed cheek in his hand. “ You’re fucking gorgeous, baby,” he told her. “ You’re an Elite —do you know what that means?”

Kelli shook her head.

“ I’ve heard some Kindred warriors aboard the Mother Ship mention it, but I wasn’t sure what they meant by it.”

“ It means a woman the Goddess has blessed with extra full curves,” Klaus told her.

“ And you think I’m Elite ?” She gave a little laugh. “ Because my ex, Mitch , just used to call me ‘fat.’ Well , not fat exactly—he mostly said ‘pleasingly plump’ but the way he said it…”

“ He sounds like an asshole,” Klaus growled. He hated the idea of anyone hurting her— Kelli was his to protect. He made a mental note to pay her ex a visit, the next time they were on Earth . Some retribution might be in order.

“ Well , he did cheat on me.” Kelli sighed. “ I try not to let it bother me and to be honest, I was glad to get away from him.” She gave him a tremulous smile. “ If we hadn’t gotten a divorce, I never would have come up to the Mother Ship , you know? But of course if I hadn’t, then we wouldn’t be standing here talking about taking a shower together which I know is really awkward.”

Look at me…” Klaus lifted her chin until she raised her eyes.

“ It’s not that I don’t want to see you naked—because I do,” he confessed, his voice going slightly hoarse. “ I’ve thought about it before, even though I knew I shouldn’t.”

“ You have?” Her big gray eyes widened.

“ Hell yes, sunshine! We Kindred love curvy females and you’re curvy in all the right places.” He let his eyes roam up and down her body, lingering on her breasts which he knew were bare under the green dress she wore. He could see the tight points of her nipples poking at the fabric and wondered what they would look like with nothing covering them.

“ Klaus , you’re making me blush!” she exclaimed, but he noticed she didn’t try to hide her breasts. In fact, she stood up a little straighter and pushed her chest out, making the fabric over her nipples tighten even more.

“ Sorry , baby—just telling it like it is,” he said. “ I’m just saying that getting naked with you doesn’t bother me— I just thought it might bother you because you’re shy. And since we’re coworkers, we probably shouldn’t be, you know, getting into it with each other.”

“ You’re right—we shouldn’t.” Kelli nibbled her lower lip. “ Maybe …maybe we could keep our eyes closed,” she suggested tentatively. “ And just kind of keep to opposite sides of the shower stall. The water seems to rain down from the ceiling and cover the entire area, so it’s not like either of us would be out in the cold.”

“ Good idea.” Klaus nodded. It would definitely be easier to keep his hands to himself if he wasn’t looking, he decided.

“ Okay , then let’s do it.” Kelli shivered again. “ I’m getting really cold. It almost feels like the temperature has dropped in here.” She rubbed her hands up and down her arms briskly, trying to warm up.

Actually , Klaus thought she might be right. It had gotten colder in the fresher since they’d started talking. His skin felt like it was about to freeze right the fuck off his body!

“ Let’s make it quick then,” he said. “ I’ll take off my blanket, get in the stall, and turn my back to you. Then you get undressed and climb in behind me.”

“ Got it.” She nodded.

“ All right—here goes.”

Klaus dropped the blanket and stepped into the stall.