That really only left him one option.
Rinsing the conditioner from his hair, Dolf shut off the water. He briefly shook himself out, a habit, and then grabbed the folded towel from the closed lid of his toilet. Dolf scrubbed the towel over his short hair and then his skin, blotting away the worst of the water before he wrapped the towel around his waist.
Then he listened hard, straining his ears to determine where Helena was. Unfortunately, she was being quieter than a mouse.
Well, just go for it then, thought Dolf, as he closed his hand around the doorknob.
If Helena was in the kitchen or his office, then she wouldn’t see a thing. If she was in the living room or his bedroom, however, she might get an eyeful. It was a fifty-fifty shot, same as the flip of a coin. Under the circumstances, those weren’t bad odds.
Dolf yanked the door open, exiting the bathroom amid a plume of humid air.
From across the hallway – in the living room – he heard a soft gasp, and his steps faltered. Dolf briefly closed his eyes, feeling equal parts annoyed and embarrassed at having been caught out. The coin flip hadn’t come up in his favor then.
Taking a deep, steadying breath, Dolf opened his eyes and turned to face his guest. She looked stunned.
At least she doesn’t look offended? Dolf thought hopefully. Half raising his hands between them, he said “Sorry about this. I forgot to bring a change of clothes into the bathroom with me, and –”
“No, no, it’s no problem at all,” interrupted Helena.
Her surprise had seemingly melted away. Now, she was looking at him intently, her blue eyes tracing over the lines of his body in a way that made Dolf’s skin flush with heat and his stomach tightened. He willed his dick not to twitch, not with that towel wrapped tight around his waist.
She ought to be more careful, thought Dolf. A man could get the wrong idea with her looking at him like this.
He certainly had.
Pushing that thought away – as well as the sight of her flushed cheeks, her blue eyes darkened and her slim fingers twitching in her lap. At that moment, she was as sharp and beautiful as a secret want – Dolf willed his body to stop reacting to her.
His body, unruly thing that it was, ignored him completely.
“Excuse me,” said Dolf with as much dignity as he could muster, which wasn’t very much. “I’ll just –”
Helena bit her lip, her oddly sharp looking teeth sinking into her plush lower lip, and words temporarily failed Dolf. All he could think was how it might feel to have her nibble his lower lip like that.
Dolf shivered.
Clearing his throat, Dolf tried again.
“I need to get dressed. Then I’ll clean up the bathroom. Okay?”
Without waiting for an answer, Dolf turned and beat feet to his bedroom, retreating from Helena and her hungry looks as if he was fifteen instead of thirty-five. But he was supposed to be looking out for her and protecting her from harm, not trying to bone her. More than that, she was Declan’s cousin.
Sleeping with a teammate’s cousin – even if she was of the long lost variety – was a no go, not unless they were both entirely serious about this thing.
He’d known her all of six hours. There was no way it was serious, save in the sense that it was a seriously bad idea to even entertain the idea that Declan’s cousin, who was sometimes beautiful, might want him. Sexually.
But this is a favor between teammates, nothing more, thought Dolf. And it too will pass.
Hopefully, before he or she did anything to screw up his friendship with Declan.
Chapter 09 – Helena
Friday night, as she was getting ready for bed, Helena made a dreadful discovery.
She had forgotten to pack pajamas or even a robe! Dismayed, she stared down at the jumbled contents of her trunk, wondering how she could have been so stupid.
Well, there’s no hope for it, Helena eventually decided. She was going to have to borrow something off of Rudolf. And, whether he said yes or no to her, it was going to be extraordinarily awkward between them for awhile.
Squaring her shoulders, Helena marched out of her closet, a woman on a mission.
It was surprisingly easy to part her host from one of his lovely, worn t-shirts. Helena only hoped that she looked half as good in it as Rudolf no doubt had.
Crisis averted, Helena returned to her closet and her usual bedtime routine.
Saturday morning, Helena nearly died. And in someone else’s shirt, no less!
Someone had knocked at her door, and then, when she didn’t immediately answer, had kept knocking. Annoyed, Helena had shifted in bed, wondering, Why is my bed so uncomfortable? At the same time, she had croaked, “Not right now, Pia. ‘M sleeping. Come back later?”
“Pia?” asked a voice – a man’s voice – and Helena had jolted up and out of bed.
Except, it wasn’t her bed; the height and side were all wrong, making her stagger. In the darkness, her foot caught in something, something on the floor, and she tripped.
There was a heart stopping moment of horror, and then Helena careened forward, banging her knee painfully on a rounded metal corner before slamming chest-first into the nearest wall with an audible thump. It knocked all the breath out of her.
It might have knocked some sense into her though – or maybe she was just more awake – because when the man cried, “Hey! What’s going on in there? Are you okay?” Helena actually remembered who he was: Rudolf Shaw.
And this was his apartment. Well, his closet.
Oh, how the mighty had fallen.
“Helena!” snapped the man – Rudolf. “Answer me! Are you okay?”
“Fine,” managed Helena, even though her head was beginning to hurt. Her knee was already throbbing with a furious anger that promised future bruising. Belatedly, she added, “I tripped.”
There was the sound of the doorknob turning, and Helena expected to hear the door creak open, maybe see a growing slice of light from the corner of her eye. Instead, Rudolf asked “Are you decent?”
“Yes,” said Helena, her voice muffled because half of her face was still mashed against the wall.
She just barely managed not to demand how many guests slept naked in their host’s closet. It wouldn’t have been helpful. Plus, he was only trying to be courteous. And if the number was greater than zero, she honestly didn’t want to know.
The door did open then, just as Helena was pushing herself off of the wall. With it came light and the hulking form of a man who gently wrapped his arm around her waist and helped her out of the closet.
Surprised, Helena stiffened, and about a heartbeat later, so did the man beside her. She relaxed, leaning into Rudolf’s strong frame at just about the same time that he began to withdraw his arm from around her. The upshot of which meant that, lacking his expected support, Helena stumbled and nearly fell on her face a second time in as many minutes. On the swift return of Rudolf’s arm to her waist saved her from such an inglorious fate.
His arm now firmly anchored around her, Rudolf helped Helena limp to his bed. He sat Helena among his mussed blankets, which were still warm from his body, and said sternly “Just – just don’t move. Stay here, and I’ll go get you an ice pack” before he left.
Left to her own devices, Helena looked back the way that she had come. It was easy to see what she had tripped on.
Lying on the floor were yesterday’s clothes, now twisted and wrinkled. In the perfect dark of an unfamiliar and windowless room, they had been a perfectly deadly obstacle.
She’d nearly broken her neck.
Pia, thought Helena, feeling a surge of anger at her careless maid – no, her absent maid. There was no Pia to pick up after her any more.
She was the one who had left her clothes on the floor, as she had always done. And, in the dark, she was the one that had nearly broken her neck on them.
Lesson learned, thought Helena grimly. From now on, I’m going to have to try to remember to pick up after myself.
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Rudolf reappeared then, bearing not only an ice pack wrapped in a dishcloth but also water and a couple of aspirin. Gratefully, Helena took all three from him.
“I’m sorry,” said Helena, after she had finished thanking him. “I distracted you from whatever you had planned when you knocked on my door.”
For a moment, Dolf looked surprised. Helena could almost see the moment that he remembered what he had wanted on his expressive face.
“Oh, that,” he said, sounding embarrassed. “I just wanted to know if you like scrambled eggs.”
There, Helena hesitated, uncertain. In truth, she loathed eggs, but a decade of boarding school had taught her to eat what was put in front of her and pretend to like it. But he had asked what she liked, and Helena preferred not to lie, at least not directly. She had never been very good at direct lies.
“I have a toaster,” added Rudolf. “There’s toast, if you’d prefer it.”
“Yes, please,” said Helena, relieved. “I would very much like toast – and butter or jam, if you have it.”
“I have both,” said Rudolf warmly. “You just rest there. Try not to trip on anything else.”
There, Helena felt her cheeks warm, betraying her surge of embarrassment.
“I’ll try,” she said with as much dignity as she could muster, which was actually quite a lot. Life as her grandparents’ most disappointing granddaughter had prepared Helena to save face in a great many situations.
Rudolf stared at her a moment longer, an indecipherable look on his face. For a moment, Helena thought that he might want to say something else to her. Then the moment passed. Turning on his heel, Rudolf abruptly left the room.
At breakfast, which Helena attended with her icepack pressed firmly to her injured knee, Rudolf suggested that they spend the day at the Orlando Science Center.
“If you don’t have any other plans,” he quickly amended, and Helena shook her head.
“I like science,” she added, almost as quickly as he had, and Rudolf nearly smiled.
After breakfast, they both loitered a bit at the table. Helena didn’t know what Rudolf was waiting for, but for herself, she wanted him to hurry up and take his turn in the bathroom.
“Were you… planning to shower?” asked Dolf eventually, and Helena flushed.
Is he trying to tell me that I stink? Helena wondered, feeling both mortified and indignant in near equal measure.
“Yes,” she said coolly.
“Then you should go first,” decided Rudolf.
“Oh! No, I couldn’t –”
“Because you’re my guest,” added Rudolf firmly.
Reluctantly, Helena nodded.
In the bathroom, she turned the water to cool before stepping into the spray, sighing with pleasure at the feel of it sluicing over her skin.
Helena had always loved bathing. Swimming too.
After her shower, Helena dressed, taking particular care with her appearance. Rudolf Shaw was her still unknown cousin’s friend and, in a sense, her landlord for the time being, but he was still a man, and a ridiculously good looking one to boot.
Helena wanted him to think she was pretty too.
He’d better think I’m pretty! Helena decided, trying to psych herself up.
When she stepped out of the bathroom, the scalloped hem of her sundress swishing around her thighs, she watched with satisfaction as Rudolf Shaw’s eyes widened.
Saying “What do you think?” Helena did a little twirl for him, enjoying the way that Rudolf’s eyes followed her.
“You look,” Rudolf swallowed hard “nice.”
Helena blinked, bemused. That was… it?
Then Rudolf’s eyes slid past her, and he nearly frowned. Half turning, Helena looked to see what he was looking at so disapprovingly.
“You’re not going to leave it like that, are you?” he asked, while nodding towards the bathroom.
No, Helena realized, towards the bathroom counter.
It was a bit messy. No, she had left it a bit messy.
Helena flushed, feeling deeply embarrassed that he had called her out on her personal habit and disappointed with herself for needing to be called out on them. She had just nearly killed herself on a dirty shirt! It had been that very morning even!
Did I learn nothing from my mistake? Helena wondered, briefly despairing.
Well, she was going to learn something this time.
“Sorry!” she exclaimed, now turning back to Rudolf. “I’m just used to – Never mind. I’ll clean it up, and then we can go!”
“Thanks,” said Rudolf, almost uncertainly.
Helena pretended not to notice. It was the best – and easiest – way that she knew to get past an awkward situation.
Returning to the bathroom, Helena quickly tidied up, doing all the things that she had seen Pia do from time to time while tidying up after her. She even wiped down the mirror and countertop with a wet wipe.
When she was done, Helena looked to Rudolf enquiringly. He looked back at her, seemingly bewildered as to what she expected from him.
“Good enough?” prompted Helena.
“Yeah, thanks. It looks great.”
She had only looked good. Helena tried not to resent it.
“It’s no problem!” said Helena quickly. “I don’t mind. I just don’t always remember either.”
Rudolf nodded, as if that made any sense to him.
He’s a good egg, decided Helena, and then flushed again when he passed too near her on his way to the bathroom, some fabric draped over his arm.
Living here is going to be hard on my blood pressure, Helena hypothesized.
The testing phase of that hypothesis, however, would be so much fun.
Half turning, Helena watched Rudolf disappear into the bathroom, silently sighing when he quietly closed the door behind himself.
It was silly to be disappointed that Rudolf had remembered to bring clothes with him this time. And yet, she was. Helena had been hoping that he might forget to bring a change of clothes with him into the bathroom today too; and tomorrow and all the days after that as well. In fact, not so deep down (and to her secret embarrassment), Helena had been pulling for Rudolf to forget to bring changes of clothes to all his showers for the foreseeable future. It would have really improved the décor around his place.
Even knowing that he definitely had clothes this time, when Helena heard click of someone turning the bathroom’s doorknob, she still found a reason to be in the hallway. Just in case.
Her first disappointed thought when Rudolf emerged amidst plumes of steam was: Not naked!
Her second was: But this is good too.
Water darkened his hair, dripping down his face and leaving trails of moisture over the swells of his muscles. Her eyes followed one droplet down, over his chest to his trim stomach, where it dissolved against the short, coarse hairs of his treasure trail.
Helena was halfway down that before she remembered that she probably wasn’t supposed to follow that trail to its treasure, not without an express invitation at least.
Biting the inside of her cheek, Helena wrenched her gaze up to Dolf’s face. But he was blotting at it with his towel, seemingly oblivious to her appreciation of his gorgeous body.
Well, I mean, if he’s busy… Helena thought, her gaze sliding south again.
“Give me a minute, and I’ll be ready,” said Rudolf, interrupting Helena’s dip into shamelessness.
Embarrassed, she wrenched her eyes back up to his face.
“Sure! Yes, of course! Take your time! I don’t mind!”
There, that didn’t sound suspicious at all.
Rudolf certainly seemed to buy it. He nodded his head and everything.
I am a master of deception, thought Helena, as she watched Rudolf amble off down the hall, towards his bedroom.
It wasn’t so bad to watch him walk away.
Helena was sitting on the floor and considering the books on the lower shelves of Rudolf’s library, when Rudolf
finally reappeared, dressed in actual clothes and ready to go.
It turned out that Rudolf Shaw looked good in all his states of dress.
They were on a suspension bridge and driving over a very big lake, when Helena thought to ask “Are there supposed to be alligators in Florida?”
“Sure there are,” said Rudolf from his place beside her. “They’re in every body of water bigger than a bathtub, although they’d probably try to get in the tub too, if they had access to it.”
“Well, I don’t see any. Do they only come out at night?”
“No, they’re there. They’re just hard to see from this angle. It’s easier to see them, if you’re riding in a bus.”
“Oh,” said Helena, feeling slightly disappointed. There was no reason to be. She’d seen lots of giant, scaly lizards in her time, most of them much bigger than any alligator or crocodile could ever get. She could live without seeing one more.
Rudolf slanted a look her way, but he didn’t say anything until they had parked his car in a lot shaded by several very old trees, all of which were festooned with some sort of symbiotic, or possibly parasitic, secondary form of plant life. Then he said “How about we hop a bus before we go see science?”
“Really? Why?”
“You wanted to see the ‘gators, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Helena, excitement unfurling in her chest. It felt a lot like the beginning of a blush. “I did. I do!”
So they caught a bus and rode it around its route, which just so happened to take it over another of those high bridges. From her seat next to the window, Helena could now see dozens of little alligator heads bobbing in the water. Sometimes, she could even see their flat, predatory eyes, something that never failed to make her sigh.
They were just so cute!
When they got back to their stop, they started to head in the direction of the Science Center again, but there was an ice cream stand and then a poster for a Nancy Drew play. Excited, she clutched at Rudolf’s forearm.
“Rudolf! I love Nancy Drew!” exclaimed Helena. Then, remembering herself, she quickly added “Well, I mean, I did as a kid.”
The Wyvern's Defender Dire Wolf Page 8