Page 9

It wasn’t at all what I was expecting from the house. I thought it was all going to be just like the cabin I was staying in, but there was definitely more technology in here. And not the type supported by a weak generator either, not that I knew much about generators, but considering the bathroom light was bright here and the cabin lights had dull orange glows that brightened after fifteen minutes.

“Once you’ve finished checking yourself in there, let me know and I’ll show you were all the stuff is for the bath,” Hardin called out to me.

I’d almost forgot the reason I came in here. I was far too distracted by how masculine and stubbly my face was looking. I hadn’t shaved in a couple days, and the patchy roughness was really coming through. “Do you have a spare razor?” I asked.

“Why?”

“Oh. It’s ok.” Hardin’s face was beardy, but not so much that I assumed he didn’t have a razor. “I just took a look at myself. You know these mirrors in here are much better than the ones in the cabin.”

He laughed. “I can grab you a spare razor head for mine,” he said. “But you’re really gonna have to promise me nobody finds out how accommodating I’ve been.”

Dragging a hand across my cheek and feeling at my skin, I let out a groan. I was so pale and sickly looking in the overhead lights. Maybe the orange ones at the cabin were nicer, at least they gave me a glow. “First time I get internet access, I’ll leave you a positive YELP review.”

“Don’t you dare.”

“The onsite cowboy was an absolute delight to be around, very accommodating, he went out of his way on multiple occasions to help me,” I teased.

“Boy, I’ll come in there and—”

Holding myself upright on the edge of the sink, I glanced in the direction of his words, wondering what was going to come next.

“Let’s leave it at that,” he mumbled.

“You didn’t even finish your sentence,” I said, tsking at the pain in my thighs.

“You focus on dealing with yourself. I’ll be back.”

Making my way through two pairs of pants, I pulled them down to my ankles. Standing in my cute blue pair of briefs with stars on, I spread my legs slightly, and that’s when I saw the light purple on the inside of both thighs. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. Kicking the pants off from my ankles and freeing up movement, I sat on the cold tile floor. With my legs spread, I had a better view of my thighs and the bruising. The floor was oddly relieving to the sensation, so I sat for as long as it took Hardin to get back.

“All good?” he asked, knocking on the door.

“It’s bruised,” I said. “Not the worst, but it’s like purple-blue.”

“Can I come in?”

“I’m just in my underwear and t-shirt,” I said, struggling to stand after getting comfy on the floor.

“You wanna put clothes back on, or I’ll close my hands and bring the stuff in.”

Once standing, I pulled the front of my t-shirt down over my briefs. “Just come in,” I said.

The door opened and Hardin stood there with his eyes screwed shut. In his arms, a large bottle of red liquid, and hanging from a hand, a small wire basket filled with yellow rubber duckies of all sizes. “You sure you’re decent?”

“I thought you’d want to see the bruises for yourself as well,” I told him. “Just open your eyes. I thought you were a cowboy, I’m sure you’ve seen worse.”

He smirked, still closing his eyes. “I mean, I wouldn’t say you were anything bad to look at.”

“I wasn’t talking about me.”

“I know, it was a joke. I’m capable of those.” Even with his eyes closed, I could see a slight roll happening behind the lids.

When he looked at me, he hummed and nodded. “Doesn’t seem too bad. I was expecting your entire inner thigh area to be covered in large purple blotches.” He placed the red bottle on the sink and rubber duckies on the bath mat.

“It is,” I said, still pushing the t-shirt to cover my crotch.

“Well, a bath should help,” he said. “It’ll take about five minutes to fill, if you want to call your friends while it’s happening. The phone is on the wall. Pick it up and listen to a dial tone just to make sure it’s actually working first, then you plug in the number.”

“Good idea!” I squealed. “Oh. Fuck.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know their numbers. And I didn’t bring my phone out with me because no signal, why would I?”

He blinked, almost dramatically and tilted his head. “I thought the whole reason you were coming back was for the phone.”

It had been, but I didn’t any of my friends numbers. The only numbers I knew were the ones accompanied by jingles that had been in the commercials I saw on TV as a kid. “I’ll just get dressed, take those duckies and head back to the cabin then.”

“You’re here now, you might as well make the most of it,” he said. “Plus, I’ve got food out for two.”

“Ok, Mr. Prepared.”

“I’d like to think everyone should be prepared,” he said. “I take it you like biscuits and gravy, home recipe. I’ve even got chicken steaks. Not sure if you’re veggie or not.”

“Whatever you make, I’ll eat,” I said, not to sound desperate, but I absolutely hated cooking.

“Great. I’ll also make some tea, there’s a couple of great vitamin boosting teas and you could probably use it,” he said, looking me up and down. His eyes lingered over my thighs and then up to my eyes where he smiled. “I get this started, then you can finish it.”

“Yeah. I can do that. And thank you, again, for letting me crash your homestay vacation or whatever it is you do during the month alone,” I said.

He didn’t say anything else, just hum as he got on with running the bath. He poured the red liquid from the bottle into the water under the tap, it immediately foamed and bubbled. “That towel is clean, and if you need anything to wear, let me know and I can find something.”

“I’ll be fine,” I said, and waited until he was out of the bathroom before letting out the largest sigh.

Something about him forced me to hold deep breaths in and push out my chest as if I was competing on a masculinity scale. After all I’d heard, I wanted to impress upon him that I wasn’t like everyone else he’d met before. I was significantly better.

Waiting for the bath to fill, I threw the duckies in and sat on the edge of the tub. “I’m gonna have so much fun,” I giggled to myself. I pulled my t-shirt off as the heat of the water got to me. “Should add some cold water to it.”

“I’ve got that razor for you,” Hardin said, startling me. For a cowboy who stomped everywhere, Hardin was light-footed in the house.

Wrapping my arms around my naked torso and leaving my cutesy blue briefs on show, I was in a state of shock. “Uh.”

He turned his head. “The door was open, I thought—”

“It’s fine,” I said, putting my arms down. “And thank you, again. I’ll make sure to add this to my review as well.”

“Don’t you dare,” he grumbled, feeling out in front of himself to place the razor on the sink. “The head is new. And there’s some cream for shaving in the cabinet.” His wild gesturing pointed to the wall when he’d probably meant the mirror cabinet. He stepped back out and closed the door.

I shouldn’t have been nearly naked with the door open, he could’ve walked by and seen me with full ass out. Maybe I wanted that to happen, it was no secret to myself that I found him attractive in a—he’s a warm-blooded man with an air of cowboy danger about him that got the blood pumping in all directions.

The moment I was actually naked, I discovered my cock was chubbed. Navigating the pain in my thighs had distracted me from the tickle growing in my cock. At least the door was closed now.

With some cold water in the bath, the temperature was just right. I stepped into it, my legs shaking as my thighs were going to crumble if I had to stay standing any longer. I relaxed into it, almost sitting on a duckie, and that wasn’t the idea shape I was requesting inside me.

Laid in the tub with my head above water and the mountain of bubbles obscuring views at either side of my head, I was relaxed to the max. The warmth in my thighs matched the warmth of the water. The stillness didn’t last long. I had like ten rubber duckies to play with. My little side came out to play with them but no sudden movements on my lower half.

I played with the duckies for a short while, giving them named, lining them up, creating stories of this giant duck family who were all swimming from one side of their pond—the bath—to the other but because of a monster—my hand—hiding in the pond, it was scary for them.

I hadn’t realized how long I’d been in the tub until Hardin knocked. “Food will be ready in about fifteen minutes,” he said.

“Fifteen?”

“Yeah, you’ve been in there for over half an hour.”

I hadn’t even washed myself. “Ok. I’m just finishing up.” I was nowhere close to finishing up. My usual reference point for baths were the bubbles, but these bubbles had staying power. A lot of them had dissolved into the water, but more than half of them were still collected in corners of the tub, and behind me.

One final trip across the tub for the duckies, and I gave my body a once over with a bar of soap and then a quick lather of my hair with the shampoo to hand. It was definitely Hardin’s given how strongly scented it was, minty and somewhat cinnamon.

I didn’t know if I’d be able to go back to the cabin and bathe there, thankfully, I had plenty of reasons and excuses to try and take my baths here. I was forming all the responses to why I couldn’t, like the heater not working, or the water coming out dirty.

Hardin knocked again. “I’m just making sure you’re not stuck,” he said through the door. “I realized your upper body strength and core might not be in such great shape.”

“Excuse me.” I mean, he was somewhat right. I struggled to push myself to my legs again, but he didn’t have to call me out because of it. “I’m just fine.”

“I’m just saying, it’s a bit of a deep tub. Well, I’m not offering to help. I’m just making sure you’re not suffering.”

As much as he made a big deal about not wanting to help, he was going out of his way to make sure I was being helped.

Out of the bath, I wrapped myself in the towel. It was full body and fluffy. I wrapped myself in it like a hug. I needed more towels like this in my life. It had that hotel quality about it, the type that whispered, take me home in my ear.

I wiped the mirror clean with the edge of the towel. “Still look pale as hell,” I said, tilting my face up to the overhead light. “Let’s see what you’ve got in your cabinet.”

There was only a small bottle of shaving cream inside the cabinet. It wasn’t really giving any information about Hardin. I bet he didn’t even use this bathroom. The cream itself was old, but no expired. I squirted it into my palm before applying it to my face to create a beard of foam. I shaved, only nicking myself twice, which was an improvement. In all my years shaving, fourteen or something, I’d never managed to do it without cutting myself. I applied a torn dot of toilet tissue to the cut and called it a day.

“Let me know when you’re out so I can start plating,” Hardin’s voice boomed.

“Give me five minutes!”

I got dressed in the clothes I’d been wearing, only the first layer of pants, my sweatpants, and t-shirt made it back on. I wasn’t going to be getting that layered again, especially since I still ended up cold and bruised. But the pain in my thighs wasn’t too bad anymore.

Meeting Hardin in the kitchen, he smiled at me, brows furrowed slightly. “You smell great.”

“Don’t seem so surprised. I used your stuff.”

“That’s not my stuff in there,” he said. “It’s whatever the owner left. The shampoo is a growth stimulating thing with stuff that encourages growth, it’s all herbal, don’t worry.”

I walked around the kitchen to where the biscuits were resting in a tray. “At least it wasn’t dog shampoo or something,”

“Oh no, that stuff isn’t in there. And hands off,” he said. “Sit at the table. I’m almost done.”

I only caught a brief look at the chicken steaks bubbling on the griddle pan, but the smell was divine. “If being a cowboy doesn’t work out, you could open up a restaurant,” I told him.

“And interact with more people?” he let out a single laugh. “Don’t be ridiculous. I like to cook for myself. Cooking for others isn’t for me.”

“You do a good job at it,” I said, sitting at the table where he’d already set a place with cutlery and a glass. “You should take the compliment.”

“Compliment taken,” he said. “And I’m still cooking for me, you’re just an extra plate.”

I’d accept that. “Thankful for letting me have a bath here, by the way. I was worried about the whole thing. I’ve never had to do the whole heating and settings thing.”

“You’ll have to get used to it.”

“And the towel,” I said.

“You have towels,” he said.

“I know, and the bubble bath stuff.”

“Please, take it back with you.”

He wasn’t going to let me back in that tub again.

Hardin was focused in on the food. He brought the chicken steaks over to the table, still in the griddle. He set one on my plate and another on his.

“You make these yourself?” I asked.

He didn’t say a word, focused still on the food. He brought the tray of biscuits and dished out two each.

“Are these your own recipe as well?” I continued.

“I’m not ignoring you,” he grumbled, coming back to the table a third time with a creamy white gravy in a small gravy boat. “I’m just focused on putting the meal together. But yeah, most of this is recipes I’ve adapted from other things. And there’s more gravy in the pan.”

“But like, you breaded the chicken and everything too?”

He nodded, sitting across from me. “Yeah. Well, not today, but it’s from one of the chickens. The bread was pounded out, breaded, then frozen. The biscuits and gravy, from scratch. And if you have anything bad to say about them—”

“I’ll just add them to my review.”

Hardin smirked, hiding his face as he picked his cutlery up in one hand. “Or just keep it to yourself.”

“Or, I guess I could do that.”

“I’ll let you add the gravy yourself.”

From the outward look of Hardin, the food he created was the last thing I had ever expected. He made my mouth crave the food that was on the plate. I couldn’t get enough of it. There was something about it, and something about him too. I just couldn’t put my finger on it, but it was probably just my inability to be face-to-face with another homosexual and not think about having sex with them.