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the old lady’s bravery. The raw wind shear on the stairs made it feel like it was below zero. It was so cold it stung my face and hands, and I felt my nose go numb. Not necessarily a bad thing considering the state it was in.
    I fumbled the key with my frozen fingers but managed to open the door and stumble inside while trying to hide how badly I was shaking. Henry pushed past me and opened one of two doors on the right. My exhausted mind went momentarily blank while my face grew hot at seeing Henry arrange the blankets over the bed. He carried the towels through the other door that opened to reveal a small bathroom. I stood next to a chintz couch that divided the living room in two: TV to my right, kitchen to my left, dining nook underneath the only window straight ahead. In the bathroom, Henry turned on the faucets.
    “You have a hot shower,” he ordered, not at all fooled by my weak attempt at hiding how cold I was. “The water’s heating. I know it looks like you’ve gone back in time by two hundred years when you walk in here, but the bathroom was recently redone. I’ll go get your things. Do you have your insurance card?”
    I tried to talk, but my teeth were clattering, so I just pulled my wallet out of my coat. My fingers wouldn’t cooperate, and Henry took the wallet from me. There was enough cash in there to pay for the medication.
    “I got it,” he said gently. “Go.”
     
     
    T ANTALIZING STEAM curled through the bathroom door, and I hugged myself in relief when I stepped into the moist heat of the room. I stripped and looked at my reflection. My ribs weren’t taped, and my flank had started to bloom interesting colors.
    As for my face, that was really beginning to bruise. Still, it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. Dr. Donalds was probably right about the cold having helped. Apart from the bridge of my nose, the swelling wasn’t too pronounced, and I didn’t have any trouble breathing. It looked like the bruising was going to be the worst underneath my left eye, where the skin looked black. But my right eye was just vaguely green on the brow bone and blue around the inside of my eye. From the faint coloring on my left cheekbone, it looked like that had gotten hit too, and it was tender to the touch. Mrs. Mitchell must have been joking when she told Henry I was handsome. I’d always been rather proud of my body, tall and lean as I was with wiry muscles that were nicely defined, but the last few months of working ten or twelve hours a day while planning for the second bakery had taken their toll. I was too thin.
    The water was scalding by the time I stepped into the shower. I adjusted the temperature, although I realized the water wasn’t actually piping hot, it was me who was so cold. Hopefully Mrs. Mitchell had her own water heater, because I stood under that spray until I was warm all over, which took a very long time. Apparently, I started to feel better, because when I grabbed the available shower gel—oh God, lavender—and began to wash, I noticed I was half-hard.
    It wouldn’t take long since I’d been too busy either working or being unconscious to take care of things for a while. A few hard strokes already had my balls tightening, so I steadied myself against the tiles with one hand and set an even pace, water pouring over my back like warm rain. My mind drifted toward Daniel, my only “regular” casual hookup, if such a thing existed. He was gorgeous, blond, and muscular, and unable to keep my interest right then. Henry’s beautiful face came to mind instead. I thought of his soft, luscious mouth—Jesus, how those lips would feel on my skin. I imagined his strong arms holding me down. It didn’t happen very often that a guy was taller than my six-two, but Henry had at least three inches on me, and it turned me on like crazy. Fantasizing about a straight guy wasn’t my usual fare, but just this once, I allowed my imagination to stray. Quick and hard, I orgasmed with the