Her eyes went wide. "Well, I was ..."
"I guess I should ask if you mind company. Because I need a shower too, and you know ..." He leaned in, smiling, to kiss her shoulder. "It's more time-efficient."
"Oh, is that your main concern here," she murmured.
"Absolutely. I'm all about maximizing efficiency."
He stepped out of his boxers. Jess gave a sigh, a little "aaahhh," and then dropped the quilt from her shoulders. Beneath it, she was only wearing panties. Her body was exquisite, long and smooth, her stomach a perfect soft curve above the pink triangle of her satin panties. She had naturally wide shoulders and medium-sized, gorgeously defined breasts with puckered brown nipples surrounded by a few softly curling hairs.
"Uh, yeah, so," Jess said, looking down at herself, "first of all, I have boob hair, which I used to pluck out but I kinda stopped because that is not the nicest feeling in the world and nobody's gotten up close and personal with my boobs in a while. Also, the rest of my body hasn't seen a razor in a while either, so—"
"Jess." It came out on a breath. "Your breasts are perfect. You're perfect."
He stepped closer, into the circle of her arms. Again he was frustrated by the lack of two good arms, but it just meant he had to be a little more creative.
Small scratches and bruises, already partly healed, marked the freckled perfection of her skin. It was clear that gargoyles healed as fast as other shifters.
Reive kissed gently around each bruise. He just wanted to touch every inch of her. He cupped her amazing breasts one at a time, kissed them, and lightly tongued over her nipples, making her gasp softly.
A trail of kisses down her belly led to the pink satin panties. Reive hooked a finger in the waistband and tugged them down, revealing a tangle of curls a few shades lighter brown than her hair. Reive buried his face in them briefly, inhaling her scent, and then pulled her panties down the rest of the way, with kisses to her inner thigh and her knee.
She rested her hands lightly on his shoulders, and lifted one foot at a time to step out of her underwear. "About that shower ..." There was a slight catch in her voice. "Is showering all you wanted to do?"
Reive grinned up at her. "Let's find out, why don't we?"
The shower enclosure was big enough for two, with some crowding—but neither of them minded crowding right now. As gloriously hot water sluiced down over them, they lathered each other from the bottles of guest shampoo and body wash. Jess whispered apologies when the soap stung the healing gashes across Reive's ribs, but he shook his head, wet hair falling in his eyes. He welcomed the sting; it was good for the wound to get clean.
Working one-handed, he scrubbed handfuls of shampoo and conditioner into Jess's thick mass of hair, scrubbing at her scalp while she closed her eyes and sagged against him in bliss. Then they shuffled around so she could return the favor, running her fingers through his hair until he all but melted in her hands, glorying in the blissful pain relief.
Under the cascade of hot water, they kissed and kissed, with shower water running down around their joined lips. He mouthed her wet skin, her taste diluted by the water but still enough to drive him and his dragon half mad. Her lips tickled his skin, and her teeth nipped lightly at her neck and shoulders.
By the time he moved to enter her, she was wet and welcoming. She twisted around, pressing the curve of her buttocks eagerly against him, and he spread her and slid into her wet, waiting heat. She pressed her hands against the shower wall and panted with each stroke, head bowed, struggling for quiet. The rush of the water covered his grunts and her gasps. Reive wrapped his good arm around her front. Her nipples were erect against his skin, and she shuddered as his arm pressed into the sensitive nubs every time he drove himself home.
"Do we need," he gasped, dragging himself down to earth, "to worry about—"
Jess shook her head, her wet hair slapping his chest. "Implant," she gasped. "'m good ... don't stop ..."
There was little danger of that. He had never felt anything like this before. It was beyond ordinary sex, beyond anything he'd ever known, a perfect unity of heart and body and soul. Her body moved in sync with his, the water sluicing down over both of them. They were one being, one soul. When he started to turn her so he could see her face and feel her arms around him when she came, she was already moving, squirming around in the shower so he could thrust into her from the front.
"Reive," she gasped out. Her eyes were half closed, her lips parted. Water dripped off her hair and beaded on her long freckled neck and her collarbones.
"Jess—" and as her name left his lips, she threw her head back and her arms tightened convulsively around him as her body bucked.
The spasms of pleasure rippling through her were enough to send him over the edge. Pleasure whited out his brain, and he came back down slowly through the shuddering aftershocks.
For a short yet endless while, they just held each other under the shower's hot cascade, wrapped up in each other. Finally Jess ran a slow hand down his wet back. "Feel like getting out of here, getting dressed, and seeing if we can find something to eat?"
"That sounds amazing."
At least the shower made cleaning up easy. They washed each other down one more time, and then stepped out onto the fluffy rug and toweled off. Or at least, Jess did. Reive watched her, unexpectedly captivated by the simplest things that she did. Then he began struggling with his towel. It was easier said than done, getting dry with only one working arm and the other frozen into place by his side, elbow slightly bent and fingers gently curled in a position he could never change.
"Can I help?" Jess asked.
With anyone else, he would have said no. With her, it was only the matter of a moment's struggle to bend his pride enough to nod.
Jess took the towel and began working on him, ruffling his wet hair and rubbing down his back, careful of his bruises and the aching joins where stone met flesh. The pain had begun to return as soon as they broke apart, but now it receded again, and his knees wobbled slightly with relief.
He couldn't just go through his life with Jess's warm body wrapped around him ... but right now he really wished he could.
"How are you feeling?" Jess asked as she carefully dried his stone arm. "I don't think it looks like it's spread any more. Maybe it's slowing down."
"Maybe," he said, but he could tell that it wasn't. The shortness of breath was less noticeable now that he was learning to cope with the tightness around his ribs by breathing shallowly, but it was still there. And, if his earlier experience was anything to go by, the advance of the petrification would only accelerate if he was staying in the home of a gargoyle. He wondered if Jess had thought of this yet.
As if brought on by the thought, burning pain shivered up his nerve endings, and he flinched.
"What is it?" Jess asked, pulling back. "Did I hurt you?"
"It's not you. There are gargoyles around. Other ones, I mean, besides you." He twisted awkwardly to put himself between her and the bathroom door.
There was a knock on the outer door of the bedroom, and the distant sound of the door opening. "Anyone hungry?" Mace's voice asked.
Reive tensed. Jess looked less worried than aggravated. "No!" she yelled through the bathroom door. "I mean, yes! Please come back in five minutes!"