Nick opened his eyes and smiled. At some point in the middle of the night, the sleeping couple migrated toward each other and ended up in each other’s arms. He was content and he didn’t want to get up but his bladder had other ideas. He maneuvered his way out of Erica’s arms and headed toward the bathroom. He reached for the light switch and turned the light on. He looked at the switch in confusion when nothing happened. As he became more awake, he remembered the storm and how it knocked out the power the night before.
Nick shed himself of his clothes, automatically dropping them on the floor. Then he remembered his sleeping companion and he quickly picked them up and placed them in the hamper. He turned the water on and tested the water before stepping in. He washed his body and hair and then got out. He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist. He opened the door and headed to his dresser. He had his back to the bed as he rummaged through his draws.
Erica woke up and sat up in the bed. She spotted Nick by the dresser wearing nothing but the towel wrapped around his waist. She giggled, which caused Nick to turn around quickly in shock. The towel around his waist loosened and he wasn’t quick enough to grab it before it fell to the floor. Nick looked down at the towel on the floor in a state of mortified shock. He was frozen in his spot. Erica gasped in surprise. Her eyes were wide open and starring at the towel on the floor before trailing her gaze up his legs until her gaze landed on his impressive package.
Nick snapped out of his shocked trance. He was about to pick up the towel when he realized where she was looking. He smirked “Like what you see baby?”
“I, uh…” She blushed and looked down, biting on her lower lip.
“Oh, you know you want me.” He chuckled before he turned around and grabbed a pair of boxers. He slid them on and made his way back to the bed. He sat really close to her on the bed, still smirking. She refused to look him in the eye and her cheeks were getting redder by the second. Noticing her embarrassment wasn’t going away. He backed away from her slightly. “Erica, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”
“You were naked.” She said in a high pitch squeal.
He laughed slightly and shook his head. “Tell me. What is there to be embarrassed about? It’s not like you’ve never seen a naked man before.”
“I’ve never seen a naked man before. Well, that is, until your towel hit the ground.”
“What? Are you serious?”
She nodded with her face still flushed from embarrassment. Not so much anymore from seeing Nick naked, but from what she was about to admit. “I’m a virgin.” Nick’s eyes widened in shock. He got off the bed. “Where are you going?”
He gave her a small smile. “To get dressed. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.” He grabbed his clean clothes and headed back into the bathroom. He closed the door behind him and then hit his head purposely on the door. “You idiot.” He scolded himself. Once he was dressed, he exited the bathroom again. Their eyes met briefly before Nick broke eye contact and silently went downstairs.
Erica got out of bed and got dressed. She went downstairs and made her way into the kitchen, where she found Nick sitting at the kitchen table, leaning his head on his clasped hands. She entered the kitchen and approached him cautiously. “Nick?” His silence scared her. “Are you mad at me?”
He straightened his arms keeping his hands clasped. “No, I’m not.”
She could hear the venom in his voice. “You’re acting like you’re mad.”
He sighed deeply. “I am mad. Just not at you.”
“If you’re not mad at me, then who else is there to be mad at? We are the only two here.” She knew she sounded ditzy because he could very well be mad at himself, but she just couldn’t think of any reason why he would be.
He stood up quickly, knocking over the chair he was sitting on. “I acted like such a jerk, or jackass, or better yet a chauvinistic pig up there.” He headed over to the wall furthest from her. He couldn’t stand himself right now and he didn’t understand how she could stand to be near him.
She approached him and gently placed her hand on his shoulder. He shrugged her off. She tried to get his attention only to be met with resistance from him. She approached him once more to try and break his mood. She was about to grab his left hand when she saw him punch the wall with his right hand with enough force to cause the windows to rattle. Erica jumped back shocked and scared. She wasn’t sure if she was scared of him or if she just didn’t expect him to punch a wall.
Nick pulled his hand back from the new hole in the wall. He was starring down at his now bloody hand. He knew he should feel pain, but he didn’t. Erica gasped when she saw his hand. She expected a few cuts but not the excessive amount of blood. She grabbed his non injured hand and led him to the nearest bathroom. He complied wordlessly.
She reached the bathroom and turned on the faucet and made him put his hand under the water. Once most of the blood was rinsed off, she put the seat cover on the toilet down and pushed him to sit on the toilet while she cleaned his hand. He just starred at his hand while she cleaned it.
Erica examined his expression as she cleaned out the cuts. His expression never changed, not even a wince when something stung or hurt. “Does it hurt?” She asked him.
“Of course it hurts.”
“You don’t look like you’re in pain.”
“You get used to it after awhile.”
She went back to silently cleaning off his hand. “I don’t think it’s broken. I think it’s just badly bruised.”
“No. It’s broken.”
She gave him a weird look. “How can you be so sure?”
“Because I broke this hand a couple years ago.”
“How did you break it then?”
“Same way. Punched a wall.”
“If you knew punching a wall would break your hand, why would you do it again?”
“I don’t know. It was kind of an uncontrollable urge.”
She found an ace bandage and wrapped his hand loosely. “If you think that’s broken, you should get it wrapped properly.”
“I will. When we get back to the mainland.”
She gently moved his hand out of the way and sat on his lap. She kissed him. He pulled back. “Nick?”
“How can you still stand to kiss me after how I acted upstairs?”
“I think you’re beating yourself up enough. I don’t need to do anything but make you feel better.”
“I wouldn’t have acted like that if I had known.”
“I know Nick. But you didn’t know. There was no way you could have.”
“But I shouldn’t have assumed.”
“Nick, I’m not mad at you. There’s no reason for you to be mad at yourself.”
“I just feel like such an asshole.”
She put her arms around his neck and kissed him. He tried to pull back but she held his head in place until he gave in and returned the kiss. Once he started to return the kiss, she deepened it. Then she released him and pulled back. She caressed his cheek. He leaned into her touch and closed his eyes. “Feel better?” He opened his eyes and nodded. “Good. Now come on. I’ll make breakfast and then after breakfast we’ll leave so you can get that hand of yours looked at.” He agreed and they left the bathroom. He pulled her back to him and kissed her. They pulled away breathless. “Wow, what was that for?”
“I felt like it.” He looked into her eyes and smiled at her.
“There’s that gorgeous smile.”
He chuckled as his cheeks turned pink. She smiled at him and kissed his cheek. “Come on. What do you want for breakfast?”
They went back to the kitchen and made breakfast. Erica watched Nick struggle to eat with his right hand. She knew he was in more pain than he was letting on when he switched his fork to his left hand. They finished breakfast and Nick went to help clean up. Erica quickly grabbed the plate from him. “Erica. I’m not crippled. I can help.”
“Just relax Nick. While I’m here to help you, I will.”
While she was cleaning up from breakfast, he made a phone call to get some to fix the hole. Once they were finished with the respective tasks, they headed back to the boat. Soon they found themselves pulling up at Nick’s house. Erica helped him unload his car and gave him one more kiss before heading to her car and back to her apartment. Nick got back in his car and drove to the emergency room for his hand.
Erica pulled up to her apartment complex and was shocked to find the roof gone. She was immediately glad that her and Nick didn’t come back last night. She approached her landlord and got permission to go up to her apartment and get as much stuff as possible. She cautiously made her way up stairs. She didn’t live on the top floor but her ceiling was obviously hit with a lot of water damage. Some rooms had parts of the ceiling missing. The kitchen was flooded. She went to her room. Her windows were blown out and there was glass all over the room. Her trinkets were knocked over, but none of them were broken. She packed her trinkets and headed to the closet. In her haste to pack quickly she nearly forgot about her dog. As she neared the closet, she heard a small whimper. She opened her closet and found the dog piled under her clothes that piled on her when they fell off the hanger. She packed her clothes and took her things down to her car. She went up to her apartment one more time and grabbed her dog.
She put the dog in the backseat and sat behind the wheel contemplating where to go. She could go to AJ. He was her best friend and would accept her with out a doubt. Knowing that he could be a bit over bearing, she contemplated Nick. They’ve known each other a short time, but a lot has happened. They were comfortable together. And in light of Nick’s new injury, she felt he might need a little help. She pulled into his driveway and noticed his car wasn’t there. She grabbed the dog and sat on his porch waiting for him to come home.
A couple hours later, she saw his car pull up. She stood up as he got out of the car. He saw her on his step and approached her. He gave her a small kiss before asking what she was doing there. She explained what happened to the apartment and how she needed a place to stay. He petted her dog, which elicited a small park from the young dog. “You can stay here. I have no problem with that.”
“Good. That’s what I was hoping you’d say. I just have one request.”
“Ok, what’s that?”
“I’m not ready for a repeat of this morning, so would you mind if I had my own room.”
“Not at all. Just remember if you ever want to cuddle, my room is only down the hall.”
“Thank you for understanding.” She went to her car to get her bags. Nick helped her carry them and put his free arm around her as he led her into his house and up to the guest room, which would be her new room.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Sorry it's been so long. I hope you enjoy this update and I'll try and have a new one for you by the end of the week. Thanks for reading and please review.
