This chapter has adult content.


Chapter 2

With the security lights on, most of the garden could be seen. It was well-established with a number of mature shrubs, a few of which were in need of pruning. Ruth wondered if Harry looked after it himself and happily lost herself in a fantasy of spending a warm, summer Sunday afternoon with him, tending to the plants. Her thoughts of quiet domesticity were interrupted by the dog, who had clearly had enough fresh air and was keen to get indoors again.

As she locked the back door, Ruth could hear the floorboards above her creaking. She paced round the kitchen wondering if it was acceptable for her to go and check on Harry. Finally, pushing aside her indecision, she headed upstairs.

She hesitated for a moment and then knocked on the bathroom door. "Harry? Are you alright?"

"Not really, no."

"Do you want me to come in?"

"Yes but hang on a minute."

When he eventually called her in, she found him standing in the middle of the floor with a towel wrapped round him.

"You'll have to help me get in. I can't quite…" he gestured to the bath.

She looked at him, noting the scratches on his chest and the beginnings of a large bruise on his left shin. The fear she had felt earlier began to resurface.

"Ruth?"

"Sorry." She moved towards him. "Sit on the edge of the bath and swing your legs over. Then lower yourself into the water."

"You think that'll work?" The doubtfulness in his voice was reflected in his face.

"Yes. Just take your time. I'll help you."

As he made to sit on the side of the bath she stopped him. "You need to take the towel off."

"But I'm…I haven't got any…"

"For God's sake Harry, I have seen a naked man before."

There was an awkward silence that Ruth finally broke. "Come on," she said, quietly, "it's only me."

Harry decided it was less embarrassing to go along with her suggestion than try to explain it was her presence that was making him feel uncomfortable.

Once he was settled into the water, Ruth stepped back a little way from the bath. "Will you be able to manage now?"

"I think so."

He began to wash some oily marks off his forearms but was clearly in some pain.

"Let me." She took the sponge out of his hand and leant over him. "There's nothing wrong with asking for help from a friend, Harry." She worked methodically as she spoke, tenderly cleansing his skin.

"Isn't this more than friendship?"

Her hand stilled and his unanswered question hung in the air.

"Ruth?"

"This isn't going to work."

He caught hold of her arm as she started to turn away from him. "Don't go, please."

She smiled at him. "I'm not going anywhere."

He watched as she moved away again, her actions seeming to contradict her words. His confusion increased as she tugged her top over her head and hung it on the hook on the back of the door.

"What are you doing?"

"I'll get in with you. It'll be a lot easier."

As her hands moved to the clasp of her bra, some sense of propriety kicked in and he looked away from her. "No, I can-"

"Stop arguing," she said, firmly, cutting through his protest.

His gaze remained focused on the tiled wall as she removed the rest of her clothes and then climbed into the bath, settling herself behind him.

He was hunched forward, muscles tensed, but she felt him begin to relax as she started to gently wash his back. "Is this a souvenir from Northern Ireland too?" Her finger traced over a long silvery scar that ran from below his right shoulder blade to just above his waist.

"No. It's from my student days."

"Tell me."

"One evening, me and my friends went down to the river with some girls we'd met. We'd spent the day drinking and were daring each other to do more outrageous things. Somehow, I ended up naked and dancing on the riverbank. I lost my footing and fell in the water. I got out but one of my pals thought it would be funny to push me back in. I cut my back open on a metal post that was sticking up from the riverbed."

Her hands had stopped moving. "You're lucky you didn't drown or bleed to death."

"I know. Instead I got twenty-five stitches, a sore arse from a tetanus shot and a bollocking from a bad-tempered copper."

She softly kissed the back of his neck. "What about the girls?"

"None of them stayed around to give me the kind of care and attention I'm getting from you."

She slid her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulder. "More fool them."

"Not really. I was a bastard where women were concerned. I spent too much time planning how to get the next one into bed and not enough time appreciating the one I was with."

He wondered how it had suddenly become so easy to be with her like this. It wasn't just the intimacy of being naked with her or letting her wash him. He was telling her about a part of his life he wasn't proud of and hadn't discussed with anyone for a long time.

She moved and he thought she was going to get out of the bath; she didn't. Instead, she knelt behind him and reached round to soap his chest. When she told him to lean back against her, he did so. He closed his eyes, overwhelmed by the gentle motion of her hands and the sensation of skin against skin. His own hands moved to his lap in a slightly off-kilter show of good manners as he tried to hide the evidence of his reaction to her touch.

"Don't." Her lips brushed his ear as she spoke.

He moved his hands in response to her instruction and gasped when her fingers closed round him.

"Ruth, you don't have to…"

"Sssh, don't say anything."

He was surprised at the confidence of her actions, not that he thought she was inexperienced; no, it was the lack of inhibition. She didn't hesitate.

Somewhere, in the hazy recesses of his mind, he registered the thought that there was no going back from this. This tender, intimate, loving act changed everything between them.

He tensed. She gave him a final, firm stroke and felt the warmth of his release in her palm. Nothing was said. Instead, she shifted so she was sitting behind him again, her legs stretched out either side of his. She waited until his breathing slowed and then leant back against the end of the bath.

"Lie back, I want to feel you against me."

"I'll squash you," he murmured.

"No you won't. Come here."

He obeyed.

For once, Ruth decided, she wouldn't analyse her actions or worry about the consequences. Instead, she would just enjoy holding Harry in her arms and listening to his soft, steady breaths.


TBC