Nicolette giggled to herself as she stood at the sink, testing the stream of hot water with her finger. She and Jake had hauled in the short water heater after work yesterday, and although it hadn’t been working when she got home, Jake had returned later and gone straight down to finish connecting it. Judging by the current temperature, he had succeeded.
“You okay?” Jake’s voice broke the quiet as he approached. Every floorboard in the house squeaked, making it impossible not to hear someone coming.
Nicolette turned, checking the time on her phone, before giving him a mischievous grin. “Let’s take a shower.”
Jake blinked, clearly still waking up. “A shower? Now?”
“Yep. I said I’d blow you if you got the hot water working.”
“I thought you were joking. And I thought you were gay.”
“I’m more hetero-flexible. Guys are hot too.”
“Hetero-flexible?” Jake leaned against the archway, rubbing his eyes. “Hmmm, when’s your cycle?”
“Wow. Blut.” Nicolette gave the man a faux frown. “Next month. I’m good with Nadotropin, though I can’t say I might not like a good pounding once or twice.”
Jake glared at her as if he was unsure if she was fucking with him or not. He clearly wasn’t a morning person. “You are doing auditions?” He asked, eyes wandering slowly to the empty coffeepot.
“Maybe. If you’re interested.”
She could almost see the gears turning in his head. She was Tel’ani. He was an invader-race. He couldn’t get her pregnant, even if he wanted to. STDs were less of a concern for the same reason. She was offering sex and what fully functioning straight male wouldn’t want that? His only hang up would be the possible emotional issues. She could see his face twitch as he came to that conclusion. His gaze flicked toward the empty coffee pot before returning to her. “We agreed—no relationship drama, right?”
“Right. This isn’t about that,” Nicolette said, leaning casually against the counter. “No strings, no expectations. Just keeping things simple.”
Jake frowned, clearly weighing her words. After a moment, he shrugged. “Okay. Just remember, the water heater is small.”
Nicolette grinned, appreciating that he wasn’t jumping at the offer without thinking it through. An asshole would have jumped at the chance to get inside her. It said something about his character. She made a shooing motion toward the bathroom. “Shower now, make it hot. I’ve got work soon, so let’s make it quick.”
Jake chuckled quietly as he pushed off the wall and headed toward the bathroom. Nicolette pulled off her shirt, pausing as she heard the water start.
“No kissing above the neck. No sweet talk,” she said lightly. “Sound good?”
Jake nodded. “Sure.”
Keeping close to an appropriate mesocarnivore diet and hitting the gym a few times a week kept Nickolette’s figure lithe. Jake was nearly a head and a half taller. Decent sized, even for a human. He wasn’t bulky, but there was firm muscle under his sun soaked skin. Nicolette grabbed the soap first and started lathering up. Jake just stood there, as if unsure of what he was supposed to be doing.
“Turn around.” Nicolette said.
The big man compiled with her order, and Nicolette placed her hands on his back. The skin, a lighter color, where his shirt covered. She rubbed the soap over his back until there was a rich lather and pressed herself against his skin, her arms reaching around to clean his dangling bits. She could feel the tension in his muscles. He stood stock still. More a brick wall than a man.
Nicolette wondered if the man she was pressed against had much experience with this sort of thing. Then she berated herself for being stupid. Jake had been married for several years. Theoretically, he’d only been with one woman during that time, and likely longer. Even if he wasn’t a prude, this was likely a novel experience for him.
Nicolette backed up a bit and ran her hands over his shoulders, up his neck, and dragged her fingernails over his scalp. She couldn’t be sure why men responded so well to the action, but Jake’s tension visibly faded. She stopped before it became too intimate. He complied with her pushing him against the wall of the off yellow shower tiles and she dropped to her knees, tail undulating gently behind her.
With one hand, she lifted Jake’s now hard and clean member and ran her tongue from base to tip. Her lips wrapped around his shaft as she watched his expressions shift. Jake seemed unsure of what to do with himself. His hands reached out before clenching shut and drawing back. As if we wanted to grab her by the horns, but was too polite. She smirked up at him and considered the reciprocation she would be due before starting a cock-bob-and-weave motion she was frankly out of practice with. She paused. Jake’s awkwardness wasn’t the only thing cooling the mood. Pulling her face away from Jake’s man parts, she looked at the shower controls before voicing the rapidly decreasing issue.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“The water’s getting colder.”
As if summoned by the words themselves, the water temperature dropped from distractingly cool to subzero. Nicolette tried to launch herself out of the frigid stream. “Cold!” She shouted as her foot lost its grip and she fell.
Jake caught her before she hit the edge of the tub, but it only prolonged her exposure to the cold water. There was a hiss of air being sucked through teeth as Jake interposed himself between her and the shower head. The water stopped and silence descended onto the little room, broken only by their combined panting.
“Sorry.” Jake started. “I should have warned you about that. It’s the reason the guy I got it from was upgrading.”
Nicolette had to laugh. Shivering, dripping wet, and covered in goosebumps. It was an absolute failure, the kind never portrayed in the media, but happened all too often in the real world. Even Jake chuckled. The icy water had been just the right ice breaker for him.
Though his member was now mostly flaccid.
“I was hoping when I finished, you’d pick me up, throw my legs over your shoulders and eat me out like that, ya know? I’ve never been with anyone strong enough to do that.”
Jake shook his head, a bemused smile still on his face. “In the shower? That sounds dangerous.”
Nicolette had to agree he had a point. The floor was way too slippery. She let out a startled yelp as one of Jake’s hands hooked around her thigh, the other grabbed her waist, and she found herself unceremoniously thrown up to the ceiling, where she hit the back of her head as Jake tried to maneuver her legs onto his shoulders. It was just like she had been hoping, but I wasn’t working. She was bent over Jake’s head in such a way that he couldn’t get to her vaginal folds and her head was still pressed up against the ceiling.
She patted his back. “The ceiling’s too low.” She laughed. “Either flip me around or put me down.” Nicolette expected to be returned to the floor. Instead, Jake manhandled her until she found herself upside down, her legs still over his shoulders and his once again erect member pressed to the side of her face. She giggled as she maneuvered her mouth around the tip of the appendage. Jake’s strength was a novel experience for her. One in which she hoped to thoroughly explore.
Just as Jake found the right position, Nicolette’s alarm went off. She moaned in displeasure, pulling back and patting Jake’s thigh. “Put me down. I got to fucking go.” The moment Nicolette’s feet hit the floor, she snatched up her clothes, disabled the alarm on her phone, and swung the bathroom door open. She then swung the bathroom door shut with a thud that rattled the mirror.
“What’s wrong?” Jake asked.
“The bathroom opens into the living room.” She stated.
“Yeah?” The word a question as Jake leaned over her and cracked the door open.
“There’s nothing covering the big window.”
Jake looked out into the living room. The big window showed a dark scene lit only by a streetlamp and the front porch light of the house across the street. The living room light was on. Which meant they were standing in a fishbowl. Or would be standing in a fishbowl the moment they left the bathroom. And, of course, they had grabbed no towels. Jake withdrew his head back into the bathroom. “Well, that’s a design flaw. Where’s your towel?”
“In my duffel bag.”
Jake held his shirt over his privates and disappeared out the door. His footfalls beat a steady staccato as he rushed up the staircase. Part of her wondered why he did that. He was just as dead set against relationships as she was, but didn’t hesitate to be chivalrous. Another point to his character. What kind of bitch would leave a guy like that? Maybe in a few years, when they are both back on their feet and ready to try trusting others again, she would ask him out.
***
“There’s pork belly if you want some,” Nicolette said as Jake walked through the door after work, her tone casual as she sat at the table, poking at her phone.
Jake gave her a wary look. “You’re cooking for me now?” There was an edge of suspicion in his voice.
“No. I’m cooking for myself. I’m just offering you some if you want it.” She said, her tone unoffended, merely matter-of-fact.
“What’s pork belly?” he asked, stepping toward the oven.
“The belly of a pig,” Nicolette replied without a hint of sarcasm.
Jake opened the oven and found cubes of pork, each with a crispy, golden layer on top. One side looked like tough skin, the middle was a squishy layer of fat, and the bottom was tender meat. He popped a cube into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully. “Why have I never heard of this?” he asked, grabbing a plate and sitting at the table across from Nicolette, who was idly scrolling through her phone.
“I don’t know. Maybe because most people turn it into bacon,” she said, not looking up.
Jake paused mid-chew, eyeing the chunk of pork in his hand. “Oh.”
After a moment of silence, Nicolette spoke again. “Hey, I had a question. How’d you find out this place was for rent?”
“It wasn’t,” Jake said with a shrug. “It’s for sale. Twenty K.”
Nicolette glanced up, her eyes widening slightly. “Twenty thousand? Seriously?”
“Yep. No buyers, though. It’s not on any realty sites, and you can’t get a conventional loan because of the damage.” Jake popped another piece of pork into his mouth, chewing slowly.
Nicolette’s gaze drifted around the small kitchen, as if seeing it for the first time. “Twenty thousand…” she muttered, more to herself than to Jake. She did some quick mental math. If she made three thousand a month and somehow managed to save two thousand of that… “I could buy it in a year.”
Jake nodded. “I asked the owner for six months. Either I buy it by then, or I move on.”
“Oh. Do you think you’ll make it?”
He shrugged. “If I had all my tools, a truck, and my business? Sure. But I don’t.”
Silence settled over the room as they both considered their options, the weight of reality pressing down on them.
“What about doing it together?” Nicolette asked, breaking the silence.
Jake looked up from his plate, raising an eyebrow. “Buying the house?”
“Yeah. We could buy it together, fix it up, and split the profit.”
He leaned back slightly, thinking it over. “I’m not opposed, but we’d need a contract—something clear.”
“I can agree to that.”
“Alright,” Jake said, finishing the last piece of pork and getting up to clean his plate.
As he set the plate in the sink, Nicolette added, “Take a shower, and we’ll finish what we started this morning.”
Jake paused, turning to look at her, his eyes sharp. “Why?”
She couldn’t tell if he was annoyed or just curious. “Because my cycle starts in about three weeks, and I need to know if we can do this without feelings.”
“And if there are feelings?” His question hung in the air like a challenge, heavy and deliberate.
“Then I need to find something else. I’m not ready to deal with that shit right now.”
Whatever tension had crept in vanished. Jake gave a satisfied nod before heading off to get cleaned up. Nicolette stayed at the table, waiting a few minutes before standing, the anticipation growing.