Page 51 of Uncharted

“Shorts? Since it was so hot,” I reminded him as he picked his hips up so I could tug them off. I bent over to yank them off his knees, doing my best not to look at his almost naked body. Even from the corner of my eyes, I could see the noticeable bulge in his underwear, and it was causing my stomach to twist and turn in a way that was distressing and from arousal.

“Everyone complains when I wear shorts,” he said with a snort. “It’s why Xander does.”

My head snapped up. “What?”

“Ugh, there was a time when I was first startin’ that his shower wasn’t workin’. He grumbled, but just ’cause he didn’t want to have to make the walk to take a shower and then go back to his cabin to sleep. So, ya know⁠—”

“You…eyeballed our boss’s dick?”

“No!” Jake said, sounding abnormally scandalized at the very idea. “But ya know, it was there, and I noticed. Trust me, you’d notice.”

I suppose I had noticed Jake’s the first time too, of course, that was before I had to avoid looking at his junk. Then again, maybe…the thing had always been there waiting, so maybe that’s why I noticed. Or maybe not. I didn’t know, I still couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Couldn’t even figure out how I felt about the whole thing, so I guess I shouldn’t expect to understand if it went far enough back.

“I guess I never noticed you don’t wear shorts much,” I said, dropping the jean shorts in with the clothes. “But no offense, maybe you should switch to khakis or regular shorts. Let everyone grumble that you’re making them jealous.”

“I think it’s envy.”

“Huh?”

“Jealousy is for when ya don’t wanna lose somethin’ ya already have,” he said, his eyes staring into mine. “Envy is when ya want somethin’ someone else has and ya don’t.”

“Okay, Mr. Pedantic,” I chuckled, but I remembered the ugly feeling I’d had when Colin had casually talked about looking at Jake’s dick. Or the same feeling when I had imagined some woman…doing things to Jake and swallowed. “Dunno if I’ve ever felt jealous before.”

But maybe I had?

Clearing my throat, I got up and grabbed the shower cap and slapped it on his head as I grabbed the plastic wrap and turned back around. “Oh, okay.”

A naked Jake, that was…right, well, it was going to end up there anyway.

He dropped his underwear into the basket. “Hmm?”

“Hold still, that’s what,” I said as I held up the wrap.

He held his arm out dutifully, and I was careful to get the plastic around the entire cast to keep it out of the water. There was some tape as well that I used to seal each end of the cast, and then we went to the bathroom where I started the water. He stepped in, and I waited as he soaked himself, holding his arm out to the side diligently.

I wondered if that was what Colin had experienced, save for the smaller space in the stand-up shower compared to the communal ones in the main house, and the cast and wounds, of course. But there was Jake, completely naked, looking a little silly in his dainty shower cap, but covered in water and…glistening. I had never realized how much water made someone’s body look more defined, but between the light and the water, he looked…bigger.

Hotter.

I cleared my throat. “As much as I know you love to play in the shower⁠—”

He flashed me a grin that made my stomach tighten. “Sorry.”

“Just hold still while I clean you,” I told him with a roll of my eyes.

It was supposed to be a completely unsexy moment as I washed him because relying on him would result in more damage. That was true of most people in his condition, but it was even more likely, if not guaranteed, with it being Jake. Loved him to pieces, but he wasn’t the most alert of people, and he definitely wasn’t the best at taking care of himself, even when it was important.

I tried to focus on that as I let him wash the parts he could reach before it was my turn. His part was his upper body, and thank God he could reach his dick and ass because I wasn’t sure I was going to be neutral if I had to go there. With that done, I had to take my turn washing his arm for him, which was the easy part.

He turned around so I could scrub his back, and even with a washcloth, I could feel the lines and curves. I could feel the strength of his muscles, the way they shifted and moved under his skin. I wondered what it might be like to see him from behind as he thrust down into someone, or maybe hell, what it would be like to see him driving someone else down into himself, his back to them as his back arched and he⁠—

Legs were next, and that was where I had to be careful. Apparently his legs had caught every rock and stray branch on the way downriver from the way they had been scraped and scratched to hell. It meant I had to be careful as I wiped him down, grateful that most of the mud hadn’t had time to dry so I needed only to wipe around the more delicate wounds.

I started at the back, which was fine, but it meant he wasn’t able to watch me as I cleaned him. Unsupervised meant that part of my mind was more than happy to let my eyes drift to his ass. It wasn’t the world’s biggest ass, but it still jiggled healthily when he turned around. And I wondered if it was as dense as it looked, and if I grabbed a handful, if it would be like kissing him, hard and somehow soft at the same time. I also wondered what it would be like if I actually took him up on his offer, and what it would look and feel like to slide my dick deep into him.

“Other way,” I said hoping to make my thoughts a little more PG, but that was immediately outed as a mistake because now his front was facing me and while his ass had bounced a little, his dick had far more obvious physics and against my will it felt like, my attention was locked onto it. Worse, I thought I saw it twitch, as if he’d noticed my attention and it had excited him.

“This is great for my knees,” I grumbled as I got down further, trying to play off the moment and wipe his body down. “Next time, we’re getting you a chair or something so I don’t have to get down here. And if you make a joke about me on my knees⁠—”