Chapter 6
Samantha laidher hand on his thigh and Cord flinched as if he’d been struck. “What are youdoing?”
“Helping.” She began to gently yet firmly massage the top of histhigh.
Cord grabbed her hand and tried to pry it off his leg. “Stop.”
He felt weak, completely offkilter.
“Listen, I’m not done. You’ve been rubbing your leg ever since you laid down on this bed. You limped in here. You said you have a muscle cramp. Let me help you massage it out.” She freed her hand, placed his on the mattress and then began to slowly rub his thigh once more. Her touch, even through the fabric of his pants, felt likeheaven.
She began to work her way down, kneading the knot as she went. He’d never felt anything so good. Unwilling to give up the feel of her hands on him just yet, Cord let his head drop back between his shoulders. He did stop her before she got below his knee, not ready for her to learn the truth about who he wasnow.
“So tell me about something,” Samanthasaid.
Her fingers pushed back up his thigh before reversing and gently working her way down again, pushing and pulling the intricate tissues of muscle that had contracted so severely. Cord groaned. The massage was both painful and pleasurable. So much better than the rough and tough forceful massages he’d gotten from his PT therapist. Her ministrations were soothing him on the inside and the out. “Anything.”
“How long have you been working for FurySecurity?”
“About a week,” hesaid.
Her fingers splayed wide, her palms flattened, she dug the heels of her hands in and pushed upward, her arms moving in small, tight circles as she worked his flesh. Cord stopped worrying about her discovering his missing leg, getting lost in the pleasure of her masterfultouch.
“Wow, so I’m your firstjob?”
Samantha Bishop, a job? He wouldn’t call her that. A gift. A sweet treasure he’d stumbled upon. Butwork?
“I guess so,” he said, his voicegruff.
“I remember when you joined the military out of high school. I figured I’d never see youagain.”
Cord opened his eyes, his lids heavy as he gazed at her, watching as her small hands worked his leg. The knot was still there, the pain was too, but she’d somehow managed to take the edge off his agony. And he couldn’t tear his gaze off of her. “Yeah, figured you’d end up working in the city as a doctor or something. You were the smartest one in ourclass.”
A small smile played on her lips. Those sexy, full kiss-me lips. “We only had about fifty people in our class, so that’s not sayingmuch.”
She did something unexpected then, pushing her thumbs straight into the center of the knot and rubbing. Cord hissed in a breath, the muscles down his spine tensing, and dug his fingers into themattress.
“Just breathe through it,” she said softly, “if I can break up the worst part in the center, I think it’ll loosen everythingelse.”
Cord nodded, keeping his eyes locked on her small hands working his thigh. Right now, he was willing to let her do just about anything she wanted so long as she didn’t stop touching him. “Itissaying a lot. You’re the smartest girl I’ve evermet.”
A pink blush stole up her cheeks and she ducked her chin, concentrating on her task. “Then you must not have met very manywomen.”
He’d met more than enough, but none of them were as refreshingly honest as her. Not that he’d tell her that right now, she’d go screaming for the hills. Especially when she discovered he wasn’t even a wholeman.
Her hands drifted down, edging closer and closer to what was left of his knee. Cord tensed and sucked in a breath. That air hissed out of him in relief as she worked her way back up. He didn’t know why he was so damn nervous about her finding out the truth, but there was no denyingit.
And he needed to distract them both before she found out more than he was willing to share. “Why don’t you fill me in on what’s been going on at the ranch. Clint gave me a few details, but not enough to goon.”
Her massage slowed and she glanced up, her long black hair falling around her shoulders. “What did he tellyou?”
“That a couple of your cattle were killed. And someone left you a threatening message,” hesaid.
“Yeah, I left behind a pretty bad relationship back in Atlanta. I’m kind of worried it might have followed mehere.”
She started to massage his leg again, but Cord stopped her, using his elbows to push into a sitting position. “Explain.”
She shrugged, but her gaze skated away from his, and worse than that, her hands left his legs and took shelter in her lap. “I only dated Brad for a couple of months. He was nice, seemed very intelligent. He comes from a wealthyfamily.”
