Ch. 10: Preview #5

Wait.  What was a ‘butterfly stretch’, again?  And ‘downward dog’?  He hadn’t been paying as much attention as he should have.

If she came down and found him doing the wrong thing, she might take it as belligerence, or disrespect, or who even knows.  Something told him that their fragile truce might shatter with even a small perceived slight.  Better just to go up and ask clarification, he decided.

“W… Wonder Jen?”  Addled and distracted, his voice came out excessively polite.  “…Mighty?”

She wasn’t in the living room.  Nor her bedroom, nor the hallway bathroom.  Wait—he heard water running.  In his master bathroom.

She’d always hated her bathroom’s shower.  It was cramped and terrible lighting.  Fair complaints.  But she’d never used his shower before; he’d never allowed it.

Apparently that was moot now.  She was in there, showering away, and—

He froze and gasped.  The bathroom door was ajar.

That doorknob was impossible to click shut.  He’d been meaning to fix it; it always crept slightly open on its own.  Well, either she hadn’t noticed or didn’t care.  He was supposed to be downstairs, after all.  No reason to think he’d come up here.  No chance that he would peek in and see her.

Stark, bare naked.

Still feet from the doorway, his heart throbbed.  Faster.  Faster. 

Right on cue, he heard the shower turn off.  Jen’s voice, humming a tune.  And the metallic scrape of the curtain pulling back.

A strangled noise eked from his lips.  He… He couldn’t be here!!  He had to go – right now.  He HAD to!

Oh dear lord have mercy on his soul, he could not bring himself to walk away.  He’d been around her too long this week, and today.  Her constant presence had put too many thoughts in his mind for him to simply ignore this chance.

But imagine the fury she would unleash if she caught just a glimpse of him or heard the slightest sound!  It … It …

It didn’t make a difference.  Her contented humming continued, drawing him to the edge of the doorway like a siren’s call.  His whole body quivered as he stood just around the corner, summoning the courage to come just a little closer.  A little more.

Her humming resolved into gentle singing.  He never knew she could sing so well; so entrancingly.  And then her low, sweet voice muttering to herself: “God dammmmn.  Look at thatttt.”

It was a sign, as if the universe were commanding him.  He told himself that as he took the ultimate risk and crept his eyes into the doorway…

He saw her.  Her.  Naked.  Sublime.  Flawless.

The shape of her backside, the perfection of proportions, the aching abundance of her breasts cupped in long hands as she smugly, delightedly examined their heft.  Who could blame her?  Her body was more glorious than he could have ever—

Oh dear god.  Oh Christ!  Her hands withdrew to reveal her bare-chested magnificence.  Large areolas; firm, pert nipples.  Perfection.  His mind began to overload, his breaths turning ragged, his forearm ever-so-lightly scuffing the door…

Her auburn hair twitched; her head turned.  All he remembered next was panic, terror, a loud crashing stumble that she must have heard, before scrambling to his feet and sprinting across the house and huddling onto the exercise mat downstairs.  He shuddered nonstop like someone who’d just been pulled from a freezing river, knees clutched to his chest, his mind unable to fully grasp what he’d just done.  What he’d just seen.

That image still burned bright hot in his mind when, some minutes later: footsteps, heavy and deliberate, thumping above him.  Reaching the stairs.  He felt his face go pale.  Jen’s prodigious wrath was about to descend on him in full.  She—

Oh jesus, even amidst his fear, she was beautiful.  Her loose-fitting nighttime clothes left far too little to the imagination, his mind undressing her to the bare nudity he’d just witnessed.  Seeing her nipples poking out against the fabric, bouncing with each step, broke his remaining nerve.  He whirled around on the mat, throwing his shaky arms up in a weak approximation of the last stretch he’d been doing.

Her barefooted steps came right up to him.  He glimpsed her physique in the side mirror and pinched his eyes shut as hard as he could as another tremor ran through him.

And just when he braced for Jen’s unholy rage and fury to set loose … She laughed.

Jen watched her teammate’s body language become even more spastic as he whipped back around and gaped up at her like a comical buffoon.  Her strangled snorting only got worse as his jaw fell off its hinge.  “M-M … Mighty?” he stammered.

She couldn’t resist teasing him a bit.  “Looks like somebody went upstairs and regretted it, didn’t he?”

“I don’t know what you’re, uh …”

Jen scoffed at this blatant denial.  “I saw you trip all over yourself as you left.  Real smooth, ex lax.  Lemme guess: you came up to ask me something, and weren’t sure where to find me, so you bumbled right into the open doorway and … yeah, I bet you regretted that!”

He seemed shocked by her direct approach.  “I… I didn’t--”  He floundered like a fish out of water.  “I didn’t see anything!”

“Yes you did.  You clearly saw me naked; just be up front and admit it.”

He gaped.  “I-I-I—”

“Jesus, dude, calm down.  Seriously!  We live under the same roof and accidents are bound to happen.”

Jen watched as he continued to wayyyy overreact.  Like a teenager who’d just seen his mom naked for the first time.  Same as yesterday morning, when the script was flipped and she’d accidentally seen him naked in bed.  It was insane how much maturer she was about this kind of stuff than he was.

She sat down cross-legged in front of him and patiently explained, “Would I rather you not have seen me?  Yeah, obviously.  But it happened, so I’m not gonna make a big pout or let it make things awkward.”  She rolled her eyes at his continued distress.  “Are you gonna be grown up about this too and put it past us?”  She saw no other way to say it.

“I-I will,” he said – but even as he said it, his eyes shot straight to her boobs and he got squirmier than ever.

For Pete’s sake.  “Will you?”

She didn’t care that her top was shifted low, leaving most of her cleavage exposed, or that her nipples were obvious against the fabric in this cool basement air.  She refused to cover up in the slightest, because Team Wonder Jen needed to be beyond getting grossed out by such inconsequential things.  It was not optional.

“Y…Yeah, of … of course!”  He tried to sound reassuring – but then why had it taken so long for him to reply?

She stood up and saw his eyes track her bust the whole way.  This had to stop real soon.  He needed to grow up.

“Keep stretching.  Don’t stop until you’ve done ‘em all.  Then come find me for your next assignment.”  She heard a low groan as she strode away.  Griping about chores, no doubt.  Or maybe wanting to ask her to change clothes.  The nerve!

Once more, that devil on her shoulder reminded her how easily she could get him back on track.  Just a few quick spanks would wipe all his extraneous, unhelpful thoughts away.

But she still had cold feet about it.  Was there no other way?