12. Kelli

12

KELLI

Kelli knew she shouldn’t look. But damn, did her Protector have a fine, tight ass! She had always admired a man with a nice backside and Klaus had the nicest one she’d ever seen. His broad, muscular back, wide shoulders, and long legs were easy on the eyes too. And since he was facing the shower wall, she felt free to stare at him while she stripped.

Can’t believe I’m doing this! she thought as she shrugged out of the green elf dress and hung it and the striped stockings on a hook on the back of the door. Can’t believe I’m actually going to take a shower with him!

But she wasn’t nearly as anxious as she would have been if they hadn’t had their little talk about “ Elites .” Kelli still wished she was thinner, but it was nice to know that her Protector actually liked her curves. It made her feel more confident—in fact, it made her feel downright sexy.

Her breasts weren’t as firm as they had been when she was younger, but they were still full and heavy and tipped with ripe, juicy nipples. And she always made sure to trim the curls on her pussy mound neatly, so at least if he happened to peek, she was looking good.

But right now, her main objective was to warm up. She quickly twisted her long, wavy hair into a makeshift bun on the crown of her head and stepped into the shower behind the big Kindred . Then she closed the door behind her firmly.

Klaus turned his head slightly but kept his eyes closed.

“ You in?” he asked, his deep voice rumbling like thunder in the enclosed space.

Kelli nodded and then realized he couldn’t see her.

“ Uh -huh,” she said and touched his back lightly with her fingertips. “ I’m here. Should we try to turn it on?”

“ Yeah —let’s hurry the fuck up. It’s getting colder in here all the time,” he growled.

Kelli reached for the flat, black control panel and Klaus did the same. The minute both their fingers touched the panel, the water began to rush down from overhead again.

It was blessedly warm and though Kelli’s hair was immediately drenched—which she would have liked to avoid—she felt her body beginning to thaw, which was nice.

What wasn’t nice was the way the cold glass of the shower stall pressed against her back. It felt positively icy and Kelli jumped away from it instinctively with a little cry.

Unfortunately , this move propelled her front directly into Klaus’s broad back. She could feel her bare breasts pressing against his wet skin before she quickly moved away.

But then the shower glass was there again, rubbing against her like the wall of a glacier. Ugh —what was going on? Why was it so close to her when she could have sworn there was a good foot between her and the stall door when she stepped in?

Kelli tried to step forward to get away from the icy glass while still avoiding rubbing her bare breasts against Klaus’s back…and found it was impossible. Mainly because he had stepped back himself.

“ Hey , what in the Seven Hells is going on in here?” he growled, turning his head to look over his shoulder. “ Is the fucking shower getting smaller?”

“ I … I don’t know.” Kelli looked around her uncertainly. The shower didn’t look any smaller but everything she tried to take a step back from her big Protector , she felt the freezing glass against her back again.

“ The wall keeps rubbing against me and it’s fucking cold,” Klaus grumbled.

“ Me too!” Kelli exclaimed. “ It looks normal, but every time I step away from you, it comes up and gets me in the back.” She hesitated. “ Do …do you think it’s trying to force us together?”

“ Who the hell knows?” Klaus growled. “ Look we’re pretty warm now—maybe we should just get out.”

“ Okay .” Kelli turned to push the door open…and found that it wouldn’t budge. “ Well , crap,” she muttered, trying again. But no matter what she did, the shower stall door remained stubbornly closed.

“ What is it?” Klaus asked over his shoulder again.

“ It’s stuck.” Kelli pushed harder—nothing. “ Maybe you should try.”

“ Okay , here— I’m coming around you.”

They did some maneuvering, trying not to touch or brush against each other as he took her place by the door and Kelli went closer to the tiled wall. But not touching proved to be impossible. Her nipples were tingling where they had rubbed against his side and chest when they finally got into their new positions.

At least the water kept running, even though neither of them was touching the control panel, Kelli thought. Maybe they just had to both be in the shower at the same time for it to work.

“ Okay , let’s get the fuck out of here.” Klaus pushed on the glass door but it didn’t budge—not even a little. “ Hey , what the fuck?” he muttered, trying again. “ It’s stuck!”

“ Maybe we should ask for help,” Kelli suggested. Raising her voice, she addressed the air. “ Hey , cabin lady—we’re stuck in the shower here!”

For a moment, no one answered, but then the soft, feminine voice of the cabin spoke.

“ Apologies , but you cannot exit my shower until you bathe each other.”

“ What ?” Kelli exclaimed. “ What do you mean by that?”

“ If you look to your right you’ll see a soap dispenser mounted on the shower wall,” the cabin’s voice told her. “ Please wash each other thoroughly. When romance is detected and both of you are clean, my shower door will open and allow you to exit.”

“ You’re saying we have to wash each other?” Klaus demanded, frowning. “ But what if Kelli doesn’t want me putting my hands all over her?”

Actually , Kelli didn’t mind that idea a bit. But she was still a little nervous about where this might lead.

“ The two of you entered the shower as a couple, it is understood that you do not mind intimacy with each other’s bodies,” the cabin’s voice said. “ The ‘shower together’ protocol is part of the Maximum Romance setting which you chose at the beginning of your stay.”

“ Can we cancel the Maximum Romance setting?” Kelli asked, raising her voice to be heard over the shower.

“ Regrettably , once activated, all settings are locked in for the time period specified,” the cabin said.

“ What time period? How long are we going to be in ‘ Maximum Romance ’ mode?” Klaus demanded.

“ Your cozy night of Christmas romance will end at approximately 9 AM Earth Standard Time tomorrow morning,” the cabin told them. “ Please enjoy the rest of your shower and be sure to get clean!”

“ But you can’t just lock us in here! You can’t—” Klaus started to protest again but Kelli put a hand on his arm.

“ I don’t think it’s going to do any good to argue,” she told him. “ We’re fighting with a computer program that’s clearly not very flexible.”

He gave a frustrated sigh.

“ Well what the fuck are we supposed to do, then?”

Kelli shrugged.

“ I mean, I guess we have to wash each other. We don’t have to, er, touch intimate parts if we don’t want to. I mean, we can just scrub each other’s backs so?—”

Before she could even finish, the cabin’s voice spoke again.

“ The shower door will not open until intimate romantic encounters are detected. Please proceed to wash each other thoroughly.”

“ What the ever-loving Fuck is going on around this place?” Klaus demanded.

“ I wish I knew,” Kelli said. “ It’s like the cabin is trying to force us to be intimate.”

“ It’s not just trying—it’s fucking succeeding.” He blew out a breath. “ Look , I can’t talk like this. I’m turning around. And I’m going to open my eyes, but I’ll try to just look at your face.”

“ That’s fine.” Kelli shrugged. “ It’s kind of late to be shy anyway.”

Klaus turned to face her and looked down at her, his eyes staying firmly on her face.

“ Okay , that’s better. Now , how do you want to handle this?” he asked, pushing his hair back from his forehead and raising his eyebrows.

Kelli felt a thrill of something like excitement mixed with embarrassment go through her. “ I , uh, guess we’d better just wash each other,” she said, looking up at him. “ I mean, I know it’s awkward.”

“ That’s a fucking understatement,” Klaus growled. He looked at her earnestly. “ Look , I’m not going to lie and say I haven’t imagined things like this— I’m not going to pretend I haven’t fantasized about touching your gorgeous breasts or petting your soft little pussy, but I don’t want you to feel taken advantage of.”

“ That’s , um, okay.” Kelli was suddenly breathless. So he had fantasized about her? “ I thought of you, too,” she admitted. “ I just never thought, you know, that anything would ever happen between us.”

“ Well it’s about to happen if we’re ever going to get out of this fucking shower,” Klaus pointed out. “ The question is, who goes first? Do you want to wash me…or do you want me to wash you?”

Kelli bit her lip.

“ I think… I’d like to go first, if you don’t mind,” she said.

“ All right.” Her Protector nodded and spread his hands. “ Go ahead, sunshine—wash me. I’m all yours.”