But Stef just smiled. He walked over to the small closet where the towels were kept and reached toward the back. He produced a sign. Closed for repairs. Someone had drawn two naked people climbing into a hot tub and then placed a large X across them. “You’re not the first, Flanders. You won’t be the last. I’ll hang it on my way out. You’ve got an hour before they’ll be in here setting up for the Hot Tub Fun Spa party. You really want to be out of here by then. I hear they’re waxing some of the men in an effort to keep the Squatchers off them.”
The door closed behind Stef.
“Dare I ask?” Henry pulled his shirt over his head, and Nell couldn’t help but watch. She was mad at him, but gosh, he was so very pretty. She knew she shouldn’t think like that. He was a human being, and he deserved more than to be seen as a sexual object.
She forced her eyes away and concentrated on the question at hand. “The wax thing or the Squatchers?”
She heard the rustle of clothing being folded away. “I get the wax thing. Hairy guys, lots of pain. Yeah, the Talbot guy is right. I should avoid that at all costs. What the hell is a Squatcher?”
“It’s a sort of cryptozoologist.”
“So a scientist of some type?” She heard the smallest splash as Henry slid into the hot tub.
“Yes. They study Sasquatch, or as the creature is known in other circles, Bigfoot.” She felt comfortable enough to look at him again. She shouldn’t have. It wasn’t just his hunky body that got her heart racing. His face was so handsome, all square-jawed and warm brown eyes.
Those eyes widened slightly. “Bigfoot? Seriously?”
“Henry, are you being judgmental?”
An innocent look crossed his face. “Not at all, sweetheart. Bigfoot is probably very serious around here. Now why don’t you come over to my side of the tub and give me a kiss?”
She wasn’t ready to just melt in his arms. “Henry, you can’t treat my friends like you just treated Stefan.”
All innocence was gone, and his jaw formed a hard line. “He was naked in the tub with you, Nell.”
“It’s a nudist resort. They don’t allow clothes in the hot tub. What did you expect, Henry? That he would hop in wearing a turtleneck and jeans?”
He didn’t seem willing to give on this subject. “I would expect he would respect a few boundaries. You’re lucky I didn’t start a fight.”
She couldn’t help the way her eyes rolled. “See. That’s why this can’t work. Violence isn’t the answer.”
“It can be, but I’ll give you that this time it wasn’t. The minute he stepped out of the tub, I had all the answers I needed. I have to admit, the naked thing can be very useful at times.”
She shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
Henry leaned forward, his hands finding her knees under the water. “He wasn’t hard. He doesn’t want you that way. He really is just looking out for you. And he’s a lifestyle guy. Serious from the looks of it. If he says he’ll take care of you, he means it.”
Nell gasped and pulled away. “You were looking at the size of his penis to decide if he was interested in me?”
Henry pulled her back. “No, I was looking at the state of his erection. You see, I’ve been hard since the moment someone told me you were in the hot tub. A man who wants you is going to have a hard-on whenever he thinks about how soft your breasts are or how good it feels to slide inside your pussy or how much he wants to fuck your mouth.”
Her vagina was definitely threatening to take over. His hands moved up her thighs. “Henry, anyone could walk in. Shouldn’t we talk about what you found out? Is it safe for me to go home?”
She had to start cleaning up. She needed to find a job. She had to sell her computer. Surely someone would pay a few hundred bucks for it. She would miss her computer. She had a whole community of friends on the Internet, and she would have to go without them.
“Hey.” Henry pulled her close. “Don’t disappear on me. No. It’s not safe to go home, but I have a list of suspects I want to check out. So I don’t want you to worry.” His fingers came up and brushed away tears she didn’t know she’d shed. “Don’t cry, baby. I’ll take care of everything.”
He would try. She had no doubt he would find the culprit and try to make things safe for her before he left, but then she would be alone again. Her mother would still be dying. She would still have to move, and she would do it without any support this time.
And that wasn’t Henry’s problem.
“You’re killing me, Nell.” His arms wrapped around her, and just for a minute, she felt safe. She let her head find his shoulder. “Tell me what to do. I don’t know how to help.”
He didn’t sound like a man who just wanted to get his happy fun time in and leave. He had a job to do, but maybe they could keep in touch. She cuddled close. “Just take my mind off things for a while.”
It was really all she could ask.
“I can do that.” Henry’s lips touched her forehead. “I want to play, Nell. Will you play with me?”
Submit. He wanted her to submit to him. She hated the word, but her vagina was once again loudly stating its opinion. It wanted to submit and, when she really thought about it, it was just another choice to make. Henry hadn’t done anything to her that hadn’t been pleasurable, so why not “play” with him?
“Yes. I want to play.”
He pulled lightly on her hair, forcing her to look up at him. “Do you have any idea what you do to me?”
She couldn’t help but smile. She could feel what she was doing to him. His cock was hard and poking at her belly. She let her legs drift around his muscled hips. She would really like to watch him work out. “I’m trying very hard not to turn you into a sexual object, Henry, but you make it hard for me.”
A low chuckle rumbled from his chest. She loved that she could make him laugh. She rather thought he didn’t laugh often. “Don’t try too hard. I want to be your sexual object. Don’t turn this into an intellectual thing. This has nothing to do with your brain. This is chemistry, baby. This doesn’t come along very often.”
“Doesn’t it?” She was curious. She had almost no experience. “It’s not this way with your other lovers?”
He shook his head as he rubbed their noses together. “I’ll be honest with you. I would have told you this differently before I met you, but now I am pretty sure I’ve never had a lover before. I had women. Plenty of women, but they weren’t meaningful. You’re meaningful, Nell. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea, I have to leave, but I don’t think I’ll ever forget you.”
It was all she could ask for at the moment. He had to get back to his job, and she had to take care of her mother. One day she would look him up. If he wasn’t in a relationship, maybe they could try again. But she had today and a couple of tomorrows.
“I won’t forget you either.”
A look of sadness crossed his face. “You will and that’s all right. The most I want is to be a distant memory. I want you to be happy, Nell. I don’t think I ever wanted anything as much as I want that.”
He seemed to be struggling with something. She wanted to ask, but this wasn’t something she could push for. He had to be ready to talk to her. Maybe Henry needed to forget his troubles, too. They could give each other that much. She brushed her lips to his. “Did you bring the condoms?”
She wanted to feel him moving inside her. For those brief moments, there was no aloneness, no singularity. They were together without question when he was making love to her.
He calmed a bit and a hard look came into his eyes. She was starting to associate that look with sex and pleasure. “I brought them, but I won’t use them until I’m ready.”