Chapter 4: Hot Water

The water heater ran on propane and a pilot light, so the only hot shower in the valley was in my mother's downstairs bathroom.

By dark the power was still out.

Reeve came in from his second plow run with ice in his beard and his hands too stiff to undo his boots.

I knelt on the mat and undid them for him.

"I can do that," he said.

"You can't."

He stood in the entry with melting snow running off his coat and let me pull his socks off.

His ears were bright red.

"Shower," I said. "With me."

His eyes went to the front door and back.

"No camera in the bathroom, Reeve."

"No," he said. "I wasn't thinking that."

"What were you thinking?"

"That I'm filthy and you're not."

"Then I'll fix that," I said.

I took his hand and led him down the hall.

The bathroom was small, with a tall window sealed in frost and one candle on the sink that I had lit an hour ago.

I turned the tap, and steam rolled out in a slow white cloud.

He stood just inside the door, huge in the small space, watching me.

I pulled my sweater over my head.

I took off my leggings.

I stood in front of him in the candlelight in my underwear, and I watched his chest start to heave.

"Your turn," I said.

He took off his shirt.

He took off his jeans, and his boxers with them, and he was already hard.

I looked at him all the way down and back up, and I didn't hide that I was looking.

"Get in," I said.

He stepped into the tub and under the spray, and I took off the last of my clothes and followed him.

The water was hot enough to sting.

It ran down his shoulders and over his chest, washing the cold out of him, and he put his face up into it and groaned.

I put my hands on his back.

There was a long muscle on each side of his spine, knotted hard from the plow, and I dug my thumbs in.

"Oh," he said. "Page. Christ."

I worked up to his shoulders.

He leaned his forehead against the wet tile and let me.

I soaped my hands and ran them down his back and over his ass.

Then I reached between his legs from behind, and he sucked in a breath and went rigid.

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