Not the first time you’ve imagined Rafferty on his knees though.
The shower started to billow steam behind us, and he gently helped me into the shallow tub, leaving the curtain half-open. I cursed as my frozen toes hit the gathering water.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured as he adjusted the temperature and positioned the sprayer over me. “This is probably gonna sting like a sonofabitch.”
No shit.
Gasping, I choked on my own spit as the hot water rained down on me like a million tiny needles.I swayed, then grabbed his arm to steady myself, cursing through the painful thaw as he continued to aggressively rub the goddamn skin off my very bones.
Within minutes, I began to pink up, and just as quickly, the water went from torture to fucking paradise. Christ, the relief was damn near orgasmic. I moaned under the perfect water pressure, and Rafferty stepped back, his shirt half-soaked.
“Better?”
“Fuckyeah.”
He grinned for just the briefest moment before getting serious again. “Probably gonna have some bruises from your seat belt,” he said, assessing me. “But you may just be the luckiest guy I know.”
“Oh, I feel lucky,” I snarked.
He was right though. The bone-jarring cold had been the source of most of my pain, and aside from the gash on my head and a few raw spots on my feet, I was…actually kind of okay. The real luck was that his cabin hadn’t been farther from the accident. I wasn’t sure I’d have made it much longer.
Rafferty reached in and carefully wiped the blood from my face and neck. “Bleeding’s mostly stopped,” he said, examining the cut.
“Thank fuck.”
He cupped my face. “When did you last eat?”
“We had lunch in Junction, I think.”
“Gimme a sec.”
He stepped out of the room and came back in seconds later with a handful of Hershey Kisses. “They’re a little old,” he said, peeling off the foil on one, then another, “but they’ll help until we can get some real food into you.”
With the hot shower pounding on my neck and shoulders, I opened my mouth, and he placed the first one on my tongue with a smirk.
He knew what I was doing.
I chewed it a little, then opened my mouth for the other. Rolling his eyes, he obliged, pushing it between my lips, his fingers an all-too-brief but welcome invasion. I closed my mouth and let the chocolate melt on my tongue as I mushed it against the roof of my mouth.
I had always been a little picky about sweets, but flirtations aside, these stale Hershey Kisses were a magic elixir. The best thing I’d ever tasted in my life. I felt steady on my feet for the first time since the SUV went into the water.
I swallowed the melty chocolate, then moaned into a smile as he unpeeled another.
He held it up, and I leaned in, taking it from his waiting fingers with my teeth.
He shook his head as I grabbed the last two from his hand, unwrapping them. I gave him the foil and popped the kisses into my mouth, vulgar as I chewed, enjoyed, and swallowed.
He pressed the tiny foils into a ball and tossed it into the garbage can by the toilet, ignoring my antics. I pushed my bottom lip out in a ridiculous pout, hand on my hip as he returned to my side. His expression sharpened,and…fuck. The bastard who’d calmly dismantled my entire life stepped forward.
I could make out the shape of his questions before he even opened his mouth.
“You wanna tell me how you ended up at my place?”
I lifted a shoulder, entirely unconcerned. “The safe house was right by the dam.”
“Good to know.” He raised a brow. “But that’s not the question I asked.”
Vying for time, I closed my eyes and angled my head under the water to run my fingers through my hair, scrubbing away the remaining dirt and blood. When I opened my eyes, he was still there, still unimpressed.
