Shade followed her lead, breathing in short, pained bursts laced with muttered curses.
“Swearing your head off won’t make the water warm,” she said tartly.
“I’m going to punish you for this,” he told her through gritted teeth. His lust had died a cold death, and it was all he could do just to move.
“Switch!” Tess yelled out.
They waltzed in a circle, and she gasped when the water hit her head. She got the shampoo out of her hair, scrubbed her face with her hands, and then jumped back out and grabbed the soap.
Shade rinsed his hair and quickly exited the stream of death while Tess rinsed off, shivering, her nipples hard peaks, and her teeth chattering audibly. He soaped up like a madman, she got out of the way, and he started to rinse off just as the countdown began, a tinny electronic voice announcing that the tank would run out in five, four, three, two, one…
The water stopped.
Shade stood there, dripping wet, covered in goose bumps, his shoulders hunched in, and his cock the smallest it had ever been. Tess was in so much trouble right now.
He growled. “You are—”
He stopped talking when she grinned. Her reddish-brown hair was slicked back, and her freckles stood out in her pale face. She looked at him through dark lashes spiked with moisture, her brilliant-blue eyes glittering like the brightest of stars and blinding him to everything but her light.
“—fucking adorable,” he finished, smiling back.
Tess jumped into his arms, all naked, cold, and wet.
He swept them both out of the cubicle of doom and then reached for the towel he saw hanging on the wall. He rubbed Tess dry, quickly swiping the cold drops off her skin and then making a mess of her hair as he scrubbed her head extra hard in payback for the torture he’d just endured. She laughed, batting his hands away.
“Detail your water situation for me, Captain,” he demanded, turning the damp towel on himself.
Fuck, that was cold.
She answered as she ran her fingers through her hair, shaking it out. “One four-minute and ten-second tank for showers. It takes two days for the water to recycle and clean itself. Another slightly smaller tank for sinks and laundry.”
Shade gaped at her. “That’s it?”
Tess nodded. “Water’s expensive. So are tanks.”
“And none of it heats?”
She shook her head.
He’d been taking care of the minimums of personal hygiene on his cruiser—with water that quickly and easily heated up. It wasn’t equipped for showers, though.
“Clothes get cleaner with warm water,” he said, glancing at their discarded apparel.
“Cold gets rid of blood,” she answered with a shrug.
She said it so matter-of-factly, like such is the rebel’s life.
Shade frowned. He wasn’t sure how much blood he could stand to see her lose. None already seemed like enough.
“Does this fold sell tanks and water?” he asked, herding her into the bedroom.
“The Fold,” she corrected over her shoulder. “And yes.”
“Permission to make a few changes to the system?” He grabbed a big sweater off the foot of Tess’s bed and dropped it over her head.
She wiggled into it, getting her arms through the sleeves and pulling her hair free from the neck. “Permission granted.”
“Permission to get on your bed?” He gently tugged her right over to the edge of it.
Her cheeks flushed a gorgeous pink. “Permission granted,” she said again, her eyes dipping over his naked body as she reached for him, her fingers feathering against his waist.
Shade captured her hand, his skin jumping at her cold touch. “Oh, no you don’t.” He pulled back the covers on what was really a one-person bed, making a curled-up Bonk lift his head. Still freezing, Shade got in and guided Tess down next to him. When they were curved together like spoons, he covered them both up.
She went still in his arms. “Shade?”
He gripped her tighter and then threw his leg over hers, embracing his inner caveman when it came to pinning her down. That would suffice for now. Later, he’d use other methods to get her underneath him and keep her there.
“I need to recover from that ordeal you call a shower,” he grumbled. “And you’re tired. I’ll still be here when you wake up.”
It wasn’t something he could see from behind her, but he thought she smiled. There was a change in her body language that gave it away, even though she didn’t say anything or turn around.
Settling in, Shade nuzzled the back of her neck, inhaling the scent of her damp hair and clean skin. Tess