Taming the Beast World with a Frying Pan-Chapter 160: Lather, Rinse, Slap, Repeat

It was too much.

Too much heat. Too much steam. Too much of this perverted fox.

Ren’s body, already running on a feverish overdrive, finally hit its limit. Her brain felt like a computer trying to run a high-end graphics game on a floppy disk operating system.

She slammed her hands against Vex’s solid, muscular chest, shoving him with all the strength her noodle-arms could muster.

"No!" Ren squeaked.

Vex allowed her to push him back, putting a frantic two feet of distance between them. Her face was a brilliant shade of crimson that rivaled a ripe tomato.

"You... you..." Ren stammered, aggressively scrubbing her wet cheek with the back of her hand. "You did not taste that! You tasted the flu! That is mucus and bacteria you just licked, you weirdo!"

She scrambled toward the opposite end of the small pool.

"You can’t just go around licking people!" she shouted, her voice echoing off the cavern walls.

She backed herself into the furthest corner, hugging her chest.

"New rules!" Ren declared, pointing a shaking finger at him. "You stay on your side. Face the wall. Bathe there. And I will bathe here."

She took a breath, her eyes darting around the intimate space.

"We will bathe in complete silence," she ordered. "We will bathe... together... but separately."

She paused, realizing that sounded stupid.

"I mean, we are separate," she corrected quickly. "But in the pool... together. But distinctly apart. Like... solitary confinement. But communal."

Ren stopped. She was word-vomiting. The steam was cooking her brain.

"Oh my god," she muttered. "Just... stay over there."

Vex chuckled, the sound rumbling deep in his chest. He held up his hands in surrender.

"I get it, Little Rose," he said, cutting off her rambling. "You bathe in your corner. I bathe in mine. No touching. No more licking."

Ren let out a long, ragged sigh of relief.

’Thank god,’ she thought, her heart rate slowly coming down from ’cardiac arrest’ to merely ’panic attack’. ’He’s actually going to listen.’

Vex didn’t move to his corner immediately. He stood in the center of the pool, holding the purple bar of soap.

"But Little Rose," Vex asked innocently, tilting his head. "Won’t we need to share the soap?"

He held out the lavender bar. "Do you want to use it first? Or shall I?"

Ren didn’t answer.

In fact, she didn’t even hear him.

Her eyes had glazed over. She was staring at the bar of soap in his hand, but her mind had betrayed her. It had taken a detour down a dark, steamy alleyway.

The Fantasy:

In her mind, Vex didn’t hand her the soap.

In her mind, Vex took the soap and began to lather it over his own body. She watched as the white suds coated his broad, muscular chest, sliding over his defined abs and slicking down his biceps.

Then, with a predatory grin, he waded toward her.

He didn’t hand her the bar. Instead, he pulled her flush against him.

Ren’s imagination went into 4K ultra-definition. She felt his soapy, slippery chest sliding against her naked back. She felt his strong arms wrap around her waist, his hands coated in thick, fragrant lather, gliding over her stomach and up to her breasts. He was using his own body as the sponge, rubbing the lavender suds onto her skin with slow, friction-heavy movements.

"Let me get that spot for you," Fantasy-Vex whispered, his voice dripping with sin as he slid his hand between her thighs.

End Fantasy.

Ren stood there in the pool, staring into space, her mouth slightly open, completely catatonic.

"Hello?" Vex called out.

No answer.

"Little Rose?"

Still nothing. She looked like she was witnessing a holy revelation.

Vex frowned. He waded over to her. She was staring right through him, her pupils blown wide.

Concerned that she might have actually passed out from the heat with her eyes open, Vex reached out and gently placed his hand on her bare shoulder.

"Hey, are you—"

SLAP!

The sound was as crisp as a whip crack.

Ren’s hand flew out on pure instinct. Her palm connected with Vex’s cheek with a force that surprised them both.

Vex’s head snapped to the side.

Silence descended on the cavern. Even the dripping stalactites seemed to pause.

Vex slowly turned his head back. He brought a hand up to his stinging cheek, his orange eyes wide with genuine confusion.

"What..." Vex blinked. "Why? I didn’t even do anything this time!"

Ren stood there, panting, her hand still raised. Her face was burning so hot she felt like she might boil the lagoon.

Realization crashed down on her.

She had slapped him for a crime he committed in her head.

’Oh no,’ Ren thought, horrified. ’I am the pervert. I am the one with the dirty mind.’

She looked at Vex’s bewildered face. He looked like a kicked puppy who didn’t know which rug he had peed on.

[System: Analysis Complete. Host appears to be suffering from ’Guilt-Induced Aggression’. Recommended Course of Action: Host should bend over and allow the subject to spank her. It is the only reasonable apology for such an unprovoked assault.]

’SHUT UP!’ Ren screamed internally. ’This is your fault! Your perversions are starting to seep into my brain!’

[System: My fault? You had those perverted thoughts all on your own.]

Ren gritted her teeth. She couldn’t admit the truth. She would rather drown in the muck pit than admit she slapped him because she was fantasizing about him.

"You..." Ren pointed a trembling finger at him. "You deserved it!"

"For what?!" Vex asked, exasperated. "For asking about the soap?"

"For... for licking my face earlier!" Ren yelled, grasping at straws. "It was a delayed reaction! My reflexes are slow because of the flu!"

Vex stared at her.

He lowered his hand from his cheek. His eyes narrowed as he took a deep breath through his nose. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Underneath the sulfur and lavender... he smelled something.

It was faint, masked by the minerals, but it was there. Sweet. Heavy.

Arousal.

Vex looked at her furious, flushed face.

’She is angry. She is embarrassed. And yet... she is turned on?’

He was baffled.

"Females," Vex muttered under his breath. "Riddles wrapped in enigmas wrapped in lunacy."

He sighed and held out the purple bar of soap again.

"Fine. Delayed reaction. Whatever," Vex said, rubbing his jaw. "Do you want to use the soap first, or—"

"I have more!" Ren quipped, cutting him off.

She held out her hand.

Pop.

Another identical bar of lavender soap appeared from thin air in her hand.

Ren waded aggressively past him to the corner he had previously occupied.

She turned her back to him instantly, facing the rock wall. She began scrubbing her arms with a fervor that suggested she was trying to wash away her own thoughts.

Vex stood alone in the middle of the pool, holding his own bar of soap.

He looked at the angry, scrubbing woman in the corner. He looked at the soap in his hand. He touched his stinging cheek.

"Strange," Vex mumbled to himself, shaking his head. "Females are so strange and complicated."