Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 6-10 - Laurell K. Hamilton [442]
Jason started to shiver almost as soon as the water began to cool. Frankly, I was amazed that the cabin’s hot water heater had kept up this long. The floor was wet and the water soaked into the legs of my jeans. I had another pair I could change into.
I found the bar of soap but the washrag was black. I threw it into the sink and got the last clean one. I’d have to remember to ask for extra towels. I should have done that anyway.
Jason finally looked at me, a slow turning of his head. His blue eyes looked almost glassy, as if he were slipping into his own version of shock. “I can’t go through it again, Anita. I can’t.”
I soaped the clean washrag until it squished white suds. I touched his back and he flinched. I would have given almost anything in that moment if he had grabbed for me, or teased, or even made a pass. Anything to let me know he was okay. Instead he sat there naked and wet and miserable. It made my throat tight, but damn it if I cried, I was afraid I wouldn’t stop. I was in here to comfort Jason not to make him comfort me.
Worse yet, I couldn’t get it off his back. It had been hard enough to get off my own skin, but the extra hour Jason had sat around waiting for me to finish my shower had turned the fluid into glue. I finally resorted to using my fingernails, glad that I’d refused Cherry’s offer of fingernail polish. I would have chipped it all to hell. I scraped it off a piece at a time with my fingers while the hot water ran and Jason shivered. But it wasn’t the cold that made him shiver. I was so hot in the moist heat, I didn’t feel well.
I’d cleaned everything but one last patch low on his back, very low. It was like the fluid had soaked into the band of his pants, low enough that the curve of buttocks started just below the patch. I was squeamish about that one. Because, though Jason seemed unaware that he was nude, I was very aware of it.
I was also having trouble keeping the oversized T-shirt I’d put on for bed from getting wet. Normally I wouldn’t have cared but I’d forgotten to pack a second nightshirt. I finally turned the shower off and adjusted the temperature on the faucets so I had water without having to try and dodge the shower.
I moved back to Jason and started peeling that last patch off his skin. I tried talking to get my mind off of where my hands were. “We killed all the vampires, Jason. It’s okay.”
He shook his head. “Not Barnaby. We missed him, and he was their creator. I can’t stand the thought of him touching me, Anita. I can’t do this again.”
“Then go home, Jason. Take the jet and get out.”
“I won’t desert you,” he said. His gaze stayed on my face for a moment. “And it’s not just because Jean-Claude wouldn’t like it.”
“I know that,” I said. “But all I can do is swear to you that if it is within my power to protect you from Barnaby, I will.”
I was leaning very close to him, my arm down the length of his back. I’d finally gotten over the embarrassment with the sheer concentration of prying the dried bits from his body. It was like dissecting that frog in high school. It was gross until the teacher told me to cut out the brain. Then I got so interested in scraping the skull away, ever so carefully, so as not to damage the brain, that I forgot the smell, the poor pitiful frog, and just concentrated on getting the brain out in one piece. My lab partner and I were the only pair to get the brain out whole.
Jason turned his head towards me, brushing my hair with his face. “You smell like Cherry’s base makeup.”
I spoke without looking up. “I don’t own any base so she put some of hers on me earlier. She wears base that is way too pale for her, so it works for me. I thought I got all of it off.”
“Hmm,” he said. His mouth was very close to my ear.
I froze in mid-movement. My body pressed against his back, my hand touching the smooth skin just above his buttocks. There was a tension now that hadn’t been there. My pulse sped up