Smokescreen: A Collection of Vignettes

Chapter 5

Sakura sighed as she scrubbed her husband's bloody clothes. They had been married for a year now and she still felt a little shy around him. Though she knew he had a dangerous profession, he was a very kind and loving man. There was really nothing derogatory she could say about him. He was a good husband. He helped her around the house when he could and they did things together as a couple. Oh, heck. He was a perfect man in her eyes. There was just one thing she couldn't get past and, admittedly, it was really juvenile.

She just could not allow herself to see his bare body.

The young woman was in her early twenties and she had taken sex education classes when she went to school. It was perfectly normal. So, why couldn't she get past THAT part? By the gods, Tomas Vrbada was a gorgeous man. She had seen him walking around the house without a shirt and, well, she could appreciate that...quite a bit, actually. She sighed again. She was simply being immature. That was it. That had to be it. It also didn't help that they hadn't had relations yet.

"Cherry Blossom?" Her husband called out.

"Oh, uh, yes?" She responded.

"Could you bring me a towel? I seem to have forgotten to take one."

"Okay."

Sakura went to the hall closet to grab a large towel for him. She had no idea that her husband had a mischievous reason behind that request.

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The young woman entered the bathroom. There was a divider between the bathtub and the bathroom door. The toilet was just beyond the divider. Normally, if one of them had forgotten to grab a towel, the other would just reach out and leave it on the toilet. In this case, Sakura was reaching out before she realized that there was already a towel on there. Confusion covered her face. Did Tomas not realize that he had a towel already?

"Wha...?"

A pair of muscular arms wrapped themselves around her slim figure. Oh, sweet Elder Gods. His wet body was making her clothes wet. Her heart was going a million miles a minute. If she couldn't get it to calm down, it was going to jump out of her chest. The blush on Sakura's face made her look like a tomato. A cherry tomato, her husband would say.

"You're so cute when you're embarrassed, Cherry Blossom. Wash my back?" Tomas asked, amused.

He knew his wife was shy when it came to intimacy. It was the reason why he didn't touch her for a year. He didn't want to force it on her. Relations should always come naturally and with consent. He was a firm believer in that. He respected her boundaries. However, he knew his wife was getting a bit curious as of late. He knew because she, inadvertently, would voice her thoughts about the subject out loud, not realizing that he was close by. He decided that he would dip his toe in, so to speak. He would back off if she didn't want it.

"I know you've been curious about me." He whispered. "Do you want to explore?"

Sakura thought the bathroom got a few degrees hotter, but he was right. She really wanted to explore...and especially those broad shoulders of his.