CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Blake

T hankfully the toilet was behind a privacy door, but the shower itself was open to the small room where a generator was running, and a water heater sat exposed in the corner. The generator was exhausted to the outside so according to Dirk we were perfectly safe to be enclosed in the building.

There was no curtain or defined space to have a private shower. A nozzle came out of the wall and the concrete floor had a drain in the middle that I guessed was designed to let shower water run into and out of the small space.

"We shower in the open like this?" I asked. "Both of us?"

"Yes," Dirk said. "And there is one other issue," he added. I raised an eyebrow and waited. I'd lucked out and not had to embarrass myself by using the toilet in front of him so I was confident things couldn't get any worse. "We have about four, maybe five, minutes of warm water. That usually works good for one person but there's the two of us," he advised. "So…?"

I interrupted him. "So let me guess, we'll need to shower at the same time." He nodded. "Naked…both of us…at the same time?" I repeated.

"Yep, and it would probably be wise if we helped each other out with washing backs and stuff," he added. "There's only one bar of soap down here."

"And stuff?"

"Well, you know, you get your front and I get your back and then we switch," he suggested. "The water heater empties pretty quickly."

I had two choices. Be embarrassed and skip a shower, or just get it over with. "Can you not look too close at me?" I asked. "I've always been gym-shower shy and well…you have such a better body than I do," I admitted. "And I've been having a tough time lately."

"Promise," he said, tossing his stocking hat into a corner. He stepped out of his boots and waited for me to catch up. "Once I turn the water on, we wait for like ten seconds for the pipes to eliminate the ice cold water in them. Got it?"

"Got it," I confirmed, nervous as hell to be naked in front of a man that looked practically like a marble statue.

Dirk turned the knob and water sprayed near our feet, the temperature reminding me that there was four feet of snow outside. He gazed at me, his hand on the edge of the foil near his neck, ready to expose himself to me. I watched as he nodded and mouthed the countdown from three. "And now," he said, peeling the thermal wrap away and giving me another unfiltered glimpse at his incredible body.

I'd had a brief view when I'd woken up next to him, my shock interrupting a desire to check him out then, but now he was right there, inches away, and he was stunning. Broad shoulders and a massive chest with arms the size of small tree trunks. His narrow waist had chiseled obliques that pointed to the promised land like handles for my desires.

I refocused and yanked my foil protection off, exposing myself to a complete stranger even though he'd carried me naked from my campsite a day ago. I was unconscious then so there were no secrets now. "What first?" I asked.

"I have the soap so I'll suds up my front and then you can do my back," he instructed. "There's no shampoo so it looks like soap for the scalp too," he added.

Dirk quickly soaped himself up and handed me the bar of soap from over his shoulder. I grabbed it and started rubbing the bar side to side across his back. His back was also solid muscle with the top of his shoulders rounded from either hard work in the gym or another gift from the DNA gods. When I got to the small of his back I was unsure about touching his athletic ass but didn't have the time for a huge internal battle so I began rubbing the bar along his crack, using my free hand to rub the soap onto his solid ass cheeks.

Being this close to a man that exuded such power was a huge turn-on, something I hadn't felt in a year. I imagined being pinned under him and used by his strong body. "Three more minutes," he announced, killing my fantasy. I squatted and soaped the back of his thighs, moving to behind his knees and the smattering of hair below that on his calves.

"Done," I said, standing up and beginning to soap up my front half. My cock had jumped to attention and swollen to half of its potential size, so I quickly turned away. I felt the spray of water as he rinsed, and then he tapped my shoulder to let me know he was ready for the soap.

"Close your eyes," he said, beginning to shampoo my hair. He'd done his own so I was taken aback when he massaged my hair and built lather. I felt something against my back, when he leaned forward to reach the top of my head. If both of his hands were sudsing my scalp, what was tapping on my ass? "Rinse," he ordered, guiding my head to the nozzle.

Once I'd rinsed my hair, he brought his hands to the sides of my neck and across my shoulders, gently massaging as he disbursed soap. He hadn't backed up an inch and I felt his erection pressing against my cheeks. "Your back is lean yet powerful," he said, speaking into my right ear. "You're very attractive, Blake," he added, bringing his hands to my ass cheeks and dragging the bar over my mounds. "May I?" he asked, running his finger down my ass crack until he touched my opening with a soapy finger, not waiting for approval.

I flinched and moved away. "Umm, I'll wash there," I said, not truly wanting to shut him down if he was in fact making a move on me. I'd felt unattractive for months so my reaction was instinctual and came from the shame of letting myself get so malnourished.

Dirk placed his hands on my hips and turned me around. I kept my eyes above his waist but I could see the outline of his cock peripherally. I wanted to drop to my knees and relieve him of the obvious need he was displaying, but fear kept me transfixed on his face. "One more minute," he whispered.

"I'm done…I think," I mumbled, our eyes locked. Was I?

"You are a beautiful man," he stated.

"I'm too thin," I responded, crossing my arms and trying to hide the fact.

"Slightly. Maybe," he agreed. "But you're still very attractive, Blake. You do see that, right?"

I continued to stare into eyes that had me thinking I could drown at any moment. I needed a lifeline and quickly. "No one has told me that in quite some time, is all," I confessed.

"That's a shame because I would tell you that every single day if given the chance."

His words had me hypnotized, and I found myself both shivering in anxiety as well as in excitement. Dirk reached for my hands and brought them apart and to his chest. His warm smile was melting an iceberg of hurt from the past twelve months. There were those months of grief after Mark died, and then another year before that of living under the suspicion that my guy was cheating on me. Not a good past couple of years for sure.

And then the water immediately went ice cold. "Fuck!" I yelped, jumping back and out of the spray while Dirk scrambled to turn off the flow. Whatever fire had been happening for a moment got doused in an instant.

We stood on the wet concrete, both naked, and simply stared at each other, ignoring the room's temperature and our own modesty. What seemed like hours was seconds, and then Dirk reached for the two fluffy towels we'd brought down with us. "Come here," he whispered, holding the towel open and having zero concern for his own warmth. I stepped into his arms and let him towel me dry, moving when he manipulated me, a willing body in a dance he led.

I remained still in the middle of the room and let my mind drift to another period as Dirk took his time making sure every inch of my body was dry. I'd been happy once. There had been love in my life once upon a time, and I'd wanted so badly to feel exactly like this again. Cared for. Loved.

Why had I allowed myself to die when Mark had?