I turned around to tell him I knew what his little plan was, but the words froze in my mouth.

Bodo had turned to face me without me hearing him do it. He stood there with his t-shirt mostly off, the rest of him completely naked. He pulled the shirt from his right side with his left, wincing with the pain and dropping it on the ground, now giving me an eyeful of the closest thing to male perfection that I was probably ever going to see.

“I promise, I will be a goodt boy. Just help me. One time. I will be better tomorrow.” He didn’t make any funny faces or sound any different. He was completely comfortable in his own skin and not one bit shy about letting me see every inch of it.

I closed my eyes, trying to think straight. But I couldn’t do it when he was standing there in all his glory, looking at me. His image was burned into my mind, and even with my eyes shut, it was all I could see. Every time I tried to form a coherent thought in my head, it scattered around into pieces and the words stopped making sense.

“Fine. Just this one time and that’s it.” I opened my eyes. “And keep your hands to yourself.”

“Okay, dat’s fine. I will do dat. It’s not a problem.”

I walked past him, keeping my eyes on the ground, searching for the soap bottles. I located them under the hoses and reached up to loosen the clips that held the water back.

He took a couple steps over to stand next to me.

“Wait!” he said.

“What?”

“You’re gonna get wet.”

“So?”

“So, you didn’t bring any clothes. You can get sick walking aroundt in wet clothes all da time.”

“Are you making up some lame excuse of me catching a cold so that I’ll take off my clothes? Because that is so not going to happen here.”

“No, dat’s not my reason. I’m chust trying to help you. I think maybe you can be naked and den haff dry clothes. Dat’s a good idea for me.” He shrugged. “But if you are afraid for me to see your body, I understand. Lots of American girlss are afraid of dare naked bodies.”

I put my hands on my hips. “I’m not afraid of my naked body, stupid. I have a nice body, for your information. I just don’t plan on sharing it with you, is all.”

“Well, I guess I will have to take your word for dat. About the nice body part. I wass thinking dat you were worried about your big butt, but maybe not.”

“Big … ? Did you just say I have a big butt?” I sputtered.

“No. I don’t think I said dat. I think you said dat when we were riding da bikes. Remember? You choosed da big butt seat all dose times. So you haff a big butt, according to you.”

“I do not have a big butt, Bodo. I have a butt that is in proportion to the rest of me.”

“Okay, if you say so. I will not be able to agree since I can’t see it, really.”

My anger at him was starting to melt away, being replaced by something else entirely. I couldn’t figure out how it was that he was able to turn a conversation about my fat ass around into something that was getting me all butterfly-ey inside.

“Shut up, Bodo. I’m turning on the water now.”

“You are turning me on right now, and dat’s a fact.” He chuckled at his own joke, looking down towards his waist.

My heart felt like it had jumped into my throat and my stomach burned with excitement. I said the first thing that jumped into my head.

“You’re turned on by girls with big butts?”

“Probably. I think maybe you must haff da perfect body, of all da girls in the whole world. But I cannot be sure until I see it.”

I snorted. “As if.” I refused to look down at what I knew was there in front of me. I focused on his shoulder instead.

“Please,” he nearly begged, all joking suddenly gone from his voice. “Let me see, Bryn.”

I shouldn’t have looked at him, but I couldn’t help it. He was staring at me, his whole body right there on display. Just a quick glance down confirmed he was seriously and very obviously turned on.

“Oh, shit,” I said, softly. I hadn’t actually had sex with anyone before, but looking at his parts now and comparing them to my parts, I realized that I had no idea how the mechanics could possibly work. All I could think about was how painful it would probably be to actually be with him. For some reason, though, that thought didn’t make me want to run. It made me want to stay.

“Please?” He walked closer.

I just stood there, with my hand frozen on the clip affixed to the hose, unable to speak.

He was close now, reaching out with his good hand, touching the edge of my pants. He tugged on them gently.

“Take dese off.”

“No,” I whispered. There was absolutely no disagreement to my refusal, though, and he knew it.

His fingers undid the button at my waist and then the zipper.

“Stop,” I said weakly.

“Make me.” He said in a dangerously low voice. “You know dat you can.”

I did nothing. I couldn’t. I didn’t want to.

He put his hand under my shirt, pushing the edge of it up slowly. I could feel his cool fingers on my flushed skin. They tickled and burned at the same time.

I got so freaked out as his fingers went higher and higher, that my hand accidentally squeezed the clip, sending a shower of cold water down on our heads.

“Aahhh!” I squealed, jumping back and severing our connection, automatically releasing the clip and putting it back in place to stop the water flow. “Holy crap, that’s cold!”

Bodo just stood there, his face dripping, a smile dawning across his face. “You are a very funny girl dare, Bryn. Always with da tricks.” He blew the water from his mouth, sending a spray out in front of him. He couldn’t have looked more adorable with the moisture dripping down off his face and flying from his hair as he shook his head like a dog.

I smiled, feeling incredibly embarrassed about what we had almost just done and grateful that some part of my brain had stopped me from going too far. “It wasn’t a trick, I swear. It was more of a … spasm.”

“Ah,” he said, smiling broader. “So you like da idea of being naked with Bodo. Come on, den. Don’t play any more gamess. Take off dose clothes and make a shower with me.”

“Shut up, perv.” The mood was broken so I was back on safer ground, able to joke with him again. “I’m not making a shower with you. Here … ” I stepped forward and turned the hose towards him, squeezing the clip again. “Cool yourself off.”

The water poured out and doused him again. I let it go, cutting off the stream and picking up the soap before he could protest. “Soapy time!” I said cheerily, dumping some in my hand and stepping closer, all business-like. I scrubbed him all over as fast as I could, pushing him around roughly so I could get his back, making quick work of his awesome rear end. No way was I doing any deep cleaning either, hurt arm or no hurt arm.

I brushed some soap down his legs and then stood on my tiptoes, quickly squeezing a blob onto his head, not even bothering with getting the shampoo. “Scrub your hair,” I instructed, as I reached over to take the clip in hand again.

Bodo surprised me by turning around and grabbing me around the waist with his good arm, pulling me up against him. “You do it,” he said, before leaning down and kissing me firmly on the mouth.

I tried to shove him away, but stopped after a few seconds of mostly feeble attempts. His kiss was warming me up, making the cold sensation of his wet skin a complete contradiction to the heat he was generating in my body. It made me shiver.

I let go of the hose clip and wrapped my arms around his neck, slowly reaching up while we moved our lips and tangled our tongues together to run my fingers through his hair and soap it up. I massaged his scalp at first, but soon found myself just grabbing handfuls of his hair and rubbing up and down from to top of his head to his neck, reveling in the slipperiness of it.

His erection pressed into my stomach, and I tried to ignore it. But his kisses became more urgent and the reality of my situation intruded on my bliss as I realized how bad of an idea this could be. We were out here in plain sight, standing in a public shower that everyone used, and we had no way of keeping the side effects of unprotected sex from becoming a very big issue in our lives.

As badly as I wanted to keep going and just follow the sexy feelings that promised to take me temporarily from this world, I pulled away from him, looking the other way so I wouldn’t be tempted by his gorgeousness.

“Stop. We can’t.”

He let out a moan of frustration. “Bryn, you are making me crazy with diss stuff, really. I think I’m gonna have a heart attack in da shower. Feel my heart running inside.” He grabbed my hand and put it on his chest, but I quickly pulled it away and put some distance between us.

I walked back to the entrance of the shower enclosure, taking a couple deep breaths and trying to straighten my hair. “You’re going to be fine. Neither of us is going to die from sexual frustration.”

“It’s pretty badt. I could die. It will be much more fun for da both of us if you just let me touch you and make you feel good.”

“Oh yeah, right. This is all for me. You’re so generous.” He was starting to sound like a groping prom date with his not-so-smooth talking, which was about as effective as the cold shower had been in cooling my ardor. I was feeling less turned on by the second. This is good. This is what I want. And maybe if I say that to myself enough times, I’ll start to feel like I don’t want it too.

“No dat’s not what I mean. Just wait for me. I haff to get out of diss soap.”

I heard the shower water start to come down again behind me and then Bodo’s voice as he talked to himself.

“Ooh, dat’s cold. Yes, dat’s good. Cool down da hot stuff. I’m not gonna sleep tonight, dat’s for sure. But dat’s okay, dat’s not a problem. I can lose all da sleep for da most beautiful girl in da world with da big butt.”

I left him alone in the shower, making my way back to the hut without responding.

“I’m chust kidding!” I heard him yell. “Your butt iss only a little bit big!”

I couldn’t help but smile as I entered the trees again, wondering what the heck I was going to do with his gorgeous, willing body lying next to me, night after night. This not sleeping with Bodo was going to be one of the hardest things I had ever done. Why does mind power have to be so much harder to manage than physical power?

***

I got back to the hut and stood at the entrance, taking advantage of the slight breeze to try and dry myself off. Peter joined me, coming out of the darkness from the direction of the ceremonial hut. We sat down together on the mattresses.

“So what happened with you and Trip?” I raised my eyebrows suggestively.

“Nothing. We just talked.”

“About what?”

Peter sighed. “Well, I want to tell you, but you have to promise to keep it confidential. He didn’t say it was a secret, but it kinda seemed private. Like, I don’t think he shares it with everyone.”

“Sure, I’ll keep it a secret. Who am I going to tell?”

“Bodo?”

“Pfft. He’s a jerk. I’m not telling him anything.”

“Yeah, right.” Peter’s tone made it obvious he didn’t believe me, but I wasn’t going to argue about it. Then it would seem like I was trying to convince myself of it. And I wasn’t. Not really.

“We just talked about his brother. He had a little brother who was only seven when the virus came. He died after their parents did. I guess he was hoping his brother would survive, but then he didn’t.”

“They were close?”

“Not at first. That’s what part of the problem is for Trip, I think. When they had their parents and their lives before, he blew his little brother off all the time. Trip was always too busy with his friends and school. His brother would ask him to play catch or soccer or whatever, and Trip always told him to get lost. By the time he figured out he was going to lose him, it was too late. He’d let all those chances to be together go by.”