[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
Chapter Eighteen: The Bath


Nick was downstairs putting the food in the fridge when his phone started vibrating on the counter. It was Desi. Nick picked it up, "Hey man."

"Hey... I texted Kelsey a few minutes ago and she didn't answer. Just checking in everything's okay," Desmond sounded nervous.

"Yeah it's all good. She's taking a bath," Nick said.

Desmond was quiet a moment. Nick smirked to himself at the thought of what Desi was picturing. He'd spent the last fifteen minutes trying not to picture it himself and he knew he'd spent at least fifteen minutes later on in bed picturing it after she'd left. It was hard to ignore the fact that she was just above him, completely naked... but if he thought too much about it he'd be in need of an ice-cold shower.

"Oh," Desi finally managed to get out.

"I thought you worked 'til like eleven or something she said?" Nick asked.

"I uh, was supposed to," Desi said, "But I got out early."

"Sweet deal," Nick said.

"Yeah." Desi was quiet. "Hey, thanks again for the song deal," Desi said. He hoped this would encourage Nick to reply with the exact time he could expect the other twenty-thousand, but it didn't.

"Hey no problem, it's a good song," Nick answered. "Anyways I'll bring Kelsey back when she gets out," he said.

Desi sighed, "Okay."

"Bye man," Nick said, and he hung up.

He put the phone down on the counter and threw the dishes they'd used into the washer.

He felt guilty for Desi's excitement about the song. He knew he was screwing Desmond over. He wondered how long he could keep that secret from Desi, and what would happen if he found out what a song like that was really worth. Nick's palms got sweaty thinking about it and he busied himself turning off the TV and putting the DVD away.

It wasn't until he realized it'd been over an hour since Kelsey had gone upstairs that he finally decided it was time to stop delaying her from going home. He jogged up the steps and walked into the bedroom, the entire way imagining a scenario where he rounded the corner and saw her standing there all naked and stuff but it didn't happen.

Instead he knocked on the door, "Kels, Desi just called, was wonderin' when you'd be back?" He paused, leaning against the door. No answer. "Kelsey...?" Nothing. "Kels?"

Kelsey had her ears under the water. That's why she didn't hear it when Nick called, didn't hear it when the door opened. She opened her eyes and found his shadow looming over her, looked up and his eyes were covered as he looked away, "Kelsey?" he called.

She stared up at him, her instinct to curl into a ball so he couldn't see her, and she pressed herself against the wall of the tub nearest him, her breasts hidden by the ceramic. "I'm okay," she replied.

"Okay. Sorry. Just, you were quiet and... I called you..." he said, his voice faltering. He uncovered his eyes but he was still looking away.

Kelsey said, "Sorry. I was under the water. Washing my hair," she added.

Nick nodded, "Okay. Sorry. I don't wanna interrupt. Just Desi called. It's all good, I'll tell him you'll call him after."

He started to walk away.

Kelsey bit her lip as a strange, almost lonely feeling filled her. "Wait," she said. And he paused in the doorway, hands on the frame. She felt her heart rate increase, her stomach did a couple backflips. She drew a deep breath, in disbelief she was about to say what she was about to say. "There's r-room."

Nick stared into the dark of the bedroom, his shoulders extended in his grip of the door frame. He swallowed, and closed his eyes, processing what she was suggesting. He turned slowly back, his eyes opened and met hers, and they stared into each other's faces. His palms sweat just thinking of the fact that behind the bathtub wall was the rest of Kelsey, completely naked and asking him to join her. He stepped back into the candlelit bathroom and closed the door and she sank back into the bubbles of the tub, the briefest flash of the top of her chest registering in Nick's peripheral vision.

He reached for his shirt, acutely aware of her eyes on him as he peeled it away, and he felt self conscious, though he knew the reaction most women had when he pulled his shirt away was positive, there was something more pressuring about pulling it off in this sort of situation than in front of a camera or on stage... Here, he supposed, it wasn't an act of showmanship, here it was the real deal, and that made him more vulnerable.

It was crazy, she realized, that this was happening. Downright insane, even.

But she wanted it. She wanted him. She wanted this to get out of hand, for things to happen.

Kelsey watched until he put his hands to the waistband of his sweats, then she sank into the water until only her nose was above. Nick pushed down the sweatpants and slid into the water at Kelsey's feet, their legs touching under the water. He wasn't a bath kind of guy (stuff floats in baths, if you know what I mean) and the sensation of the warm water coupled with the energy of her presence coursed through his veins. He grabbed onto her foot under the water and rubbed her ankle and she lifted her face out of the water, still hovering among the bubbles. She grinned at him, her face all flushed from the water having touched her face.

"You're so far away," she said.

Nick laughed. He hadn't been sure how close she wanted him when he'd joined her, so he slid up the length of her so they were laying side by side in the tub, which thankfully wasn't as small as most tubs and therefore fit them both comfortably. Kelsey turned to him. He still couldn't see anything because of all the bubbles (damn soap), but he felt her chest press against his under the water, felt her leg slide between his, felt her wet, slippery fingers slide across his skin. He felt like he'd swallowed a bunch of those soap bubbles and they were all fighting for top spot in his esophagus. He stared into her eyes.

Her hand left the water and she slipped a bit of his hair back and then laid her palm on his cheek. He felt the heat entering his skin from the water and she smiled as he flushed. After a few minutes, she took her hand off his face and rolled onto her back, her head on the inflatable pillow she'd suction-cupped to the inside of the tub, and he leaned over her and kissed her and she slid her hands down his side as he straddled her and the water fell from his back like Niagara as he lifted himself out of the water leaning over her.

She laughed and sank under the water, her hair floating like a sea creature around her face, her eyes squeezed shut, little bubbles coming out of her nose, and he watched her for a second before pressing his face through the surface and kissing her. They resurfaced with their lips attached, her hair streaming water across her face, his hanging limp in the front. And Nick pulled her close so their bodies met, pressed against one another. He slid his hand to the small of her back and she felt his pelvis against hers.

She closed her eyes as he slid into her and bit her lip to keep from crying out. It was the first time she'd been with anyone except Luke, and he'd always been so rough, she wasn't expecting the degree of gentleness that came with Nick's brand of making love. She opened her eyes and met his. He was staring directly into her, as though seeing her soul. "Are you okay?" he asked, the words riding his breath, his chest heaving with each inhale.

She nodded.

"We don't gotta -- if you don't wanna ---" he said.

"I wanna," she replied.

He continued staring at her as he moved and she gasped and pushed her palms against the walls of the tub and tilted her head back into the inflatable pillow, her mouth open in a gasp. Nick kissed her chin softly, and then along her jawline to her ear, and he whispered words into her ear - good words, gentle, soothing words. Words she couldn't string together in her scrambled mind but that she knew meant beautiful things. Words that should've been a song, she thought.

When they were finished, Nick just held her until the water started getting cold and she shivered a little and he laughed and helped her up. He got out and grabbed a big fluffy thick towel and wrapped it around her. He grabbed one for himself, wrapping it around his waist, and then turned back to her and helped her pat away the water that dripped from her hair across her shoulders and down her legs. He kissed her when they were done, pulling her to him with the towel around her back.

She slept sound that night among the dark blue and black blankets that covered Nick's bed, the darkness complete as the cicadas chirruped out the open window and the ceiling fan hummed overhead. It was like a dream and she kept imagining waking up in the hotel to the sound of Desi's snorts and snores... a sound that she sort of missed, actually, though she wasn't sure why.



In the hotel, though, there were no snorts or snores from Desi. He was sitting up on the bed, the TV flashing before him as reruns of MASH played. He was holding the tank top she'd had on the day before like it was a security blanket, his eyes sad as he stared at the TV without seeing it.

It was all so close, everything he'd dreamed of, everything he'd worked for, and yet it was all just slipping through his fingers at the same time. Nick Carter was simultaneously giving him everything he'd ever dreamed...and taking it all away.