“Hey, Y/N!” you heard the familiar voice of Grady call your name as you started walking away from the tank. You tried to keep moving, hoping maybe he would give up and talk to you about whatever it was he wanted to talk about when you got back. You weren’t so lucky, however. “Y/N!” he called again. “Where are you going?”
Stopping in your tracks, you spun around, the mud beneath your boots squishing as you did so. Holding up your shower bag and change of clothes, you narrowed your eyes at him. “Take a wild fucking guess.”
“Oh.” he nodded, just his head sticking out from the tank. “Okay, it can wait.”
You were surprised that Grady was actually going to let you go without even a little bit of a fight, but then it just sparked your curiosity. Huffing, you placed a hand on your side. “What can wait?”
“I was just hoping you could come to take a look at this damn panel in here,” he answered. “I’ve been at it for hours now and I can’t figure out how to fix it.”
You shook your head slightly and chuckled at his determination even though he had been trying for the past two days to fix the circuit panel inside of the tank with no progress at all. “Well then, it’ll still be fucked up when I get back,” you assured him. “I’ll take a look later.”
“Thanks.”
“Wow, you’re being so nice today.” you chuckled as you turned to leave. “But I know this tactic, and whatever you want from me, the answer is no.”
You heard a slightly defeated huff as you turned again and continued to head toward the showers. With belongings in hand, you slipped past the final few male stragglers as they exited the showering facilities and made your way into the small, dinky building.
It took you a long time before you had your showering situation figured out, but after you worked hard and earned the respect of your male counterparts, you made a collective deal that between six and six-thirty in both the morning and evening, the shower was to be empty so you could use it. Every once in a while there was a new guy or someone just finishing up when you arrived, but for the most part, the rule was followed by all.
Setting your stuff down on the damp counter — because no matter how hard you tried, you could never teach a man (especially an army man) how to clean up after themselves — you dug through the small bad for your soap and began to undress.
Like usual, your eyes kept darting toward the door, but once you were situated in a shower stall and had the warm water running over your body, all worry about being walked in on was rinsed away along with the dirt, sweat, and just general grime on your skin.
Lathering the soap between your hands, you gathered up as much foam as you could before beginning to work over your body quickly but efficiently. As much as you wished you could just stand under the water for hours on end and get away from the stress of the war for a little while, you were well aware that once your allotted half-hour was up, there would be angry men banging on the door if you were still inside.
However, there were still times when your mind began to wander while you were showering, and although you would deny it to anyone who asked, they were often of the same thing. It had been years since you had gotten anything even remotely close to sex and in those few minutes, while you were naked and had your hands running all over your body, the thoughts just came naturally.
Eventually, though, you had to pull your mind out of the gutter and finish up. Rinsing your body off, you lathered up your bar of soap once more and used the suds to wash your tangled, dirty hair.
Stepping directly under the stream, you closed your eyes and let the water wash away the dirt and soap from your hair, some of the runoff running down your face in the process.
While your eyes were closed and your head was under the water, you had missed the sound of the door opening, followed by footsteps that were otherwise pretty noticeable on the wet floor.
You were none the wiser to your visitor until you felt two large, calloused hands on your sides. With a shriek, you jumped forward, your eyes opening as you did so and letting soap into them, which made you hiss with pain. With eyes forced shut, you felt around blindly for your towel before wrapping it tightly around your dripping body. “What the hell?!” you began to use the towel to wipe your eyes. “Who the fuck is that?”
“It’s just me.” you didn’t even need to see the man to know who it was; the voice gave it all away.
Opening your eyes and attempting to ignore the stinging pain from the soap, you glared at him, your arms holding the towel firmly around your otherwise completely nude body. “Grady, what are you doing in here?” you snapped. “You know better than anyone that this is my time to shower! Why can’t I just shower in peace? Half an hour, that’s all I ask.”
“I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay.” his stance and words didn’t falter for even a second as he stood confidently in front of you, his arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against the side of the shower stall. “You know, after what happened last week.”
“Oh, Grady, for the last time, he was a new guy, he didn’t know any better!” you felt the pain increase again and wiped them with the corner of the towel once more. “I promise you, I can shower on my own. I’m a big girl.”
“Yeah, well, what if I don’t want you to shower on your own?” he posed the question that confused you to no end.
From the other side of the still-running water stream, you cocked an eyebrow and scrunched up your face with a puzzled look. “What are you talking about?” you frankly weren’t in the mood to play these sorts of games with him. “Like, you wanna stand watch while I shower?”
“Sort of.” he shrugged, his broad shoulders rising ever-so-slightly. “Except, I don’t want to stand out there.” he gestured to the door as he took a single step toward you. “I want to stand in here. With you.”
You attempted to make sense of what he was saying, but after a few seconds of trying, you gave up. “Grady, I have no idea what you’re trying to say to me right now, but if it has anything to do with what I think it does, you already know that the answer is no.”
“The answer with you is always no.” Grady huffed, taking yet another step closer, the only thing separating the two of you being the shower stream now. “Come on, it’ll be fun.”
“Fun isn’t what I’m looking for.”
“Fun is what everyone is looking for.” he gripped the hem of his dirty, grease-stained shirt before pulling it over his head. Then, with a lazy flick of his wrist, he tossed it away. You wanted to tell him to stop, but there were no words as you stood, frozen, watching him. Next, he unbuckled the belt of his pants and let them fall down his legs before stepping out of them.
Your breathing hitched as your eyes drifted down to his final item of clothing, but instead of removing his underwear, Grady simply left them on and stepped under the water.
“What are you doing?” the anger came back for a moment.
Grady cupped his hands before splashing the collected water onto his face. “Showering, what does it look like?”
“Well, yeah, no shit, but it’s still my turn.” you reached out with a single hand and pushed him back. “I still have soap in my hair, so will you please put your clothes back on and get lost so I can finish up here?”
Moving back a few inches, Grady ushered you toward the water. “Go ahead. I’m not stopping you.”
“Grady, please.” you were beginning to feel the undeniable heat and familiar ache between your legs grow. “Please, just let me shower alone. I don’t have much time left.”
“Like I said, I’m not stopping you.” he folded his arms over his chest, his skin slick and wet and very irresistible.
Rolling your eyes, you finally gave in to his stupid games and decided to just rinse your hair and then get the hell out of there. You had no idea what had gotten into Grady. While it wasn’t uncommon for him to try and get you to sleep with him, and it wasn’t unusual for the two of you to jokingly flirt with each other here and there, he had never actually tried this hard before.
Letting out an annoyed sigh, you looked him dead in the eyes. “Fine.” you removed the towel and slung it over the stall partition. “But you stay over there.”
“I can’t make any promises.” his eyes traveled up and down your body as you turned your back to him and continued rinsing the remaining soap out of your hair.
You weren’t surprised when you felt his hands on your waist again, but you did gasp a little when he dipped his head down and pressed a kiss to your shoulder. “I can be very persuasive when I want to,” he whispered into your ear, sending chills down your spine.
“I can tell.” you breathed out, your mind focusing solely on how his hands and mouth were moving on your body. “If this is just yet another tactic to get whatever it is that you want from me, it’s working.”
“Good.” he spun you around and hooked his hands under your ass before picking you up. “But this isn’t about that.”
You furrowed your brows at him. “It isn’t? Then what is it about?” you asked as he pressed your back against the partition and continued pressing kisses to and nipping at the skin on your neck.
“It’s about us.” he began to maneuver his way out of his boxers. “You want sex, I want sex, we’re both here. It just makes sense.”
“Okay.” you wrapped your arms around his neck and let your eyes flutter shut, waiting for whatever pleasure was about to come. “Just be quick.”
“I’ll try my-”
Grady’s words were cut off by banging on the door and shouting. Obviously, your time was up. “No.” you almost whimpered.
A sly smirk spread across Grady’s face as he put you back down and stepped away. “If only you hadn’t fought me so hard.” he started pulling his clothes back on. “Meet me back here tonight at six. We can finish what we started.”
Grabbing for your towel once more, you looked up at him. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” he snaked his hand up and under your towel and ran a finger over your folds. “See you then.”
Your knees wobbled at his actions and words. “Okay, see you then.”
