“Tell me where it hurts, Miss Elizabeth,” he said as he put on his doctor’s voice.
“Doc, I’m?—”
“Tell me where,” he commanded.
My eyebrows hiked up. “Lower back.”
“Stand.”
I sure as fuck did as he asked.
I shivered a bit as the cool of the evening lapped at my steaming skin. I wanted to plunge back into the hot water and stay there until I fell asleep. Maybe I could take a nice, hot shower after all this. Wash all of the chlorine?—”
“Mmph,” I grunted when his hand pressed against the small of my back.
“The bruising here is getting worse, not better,” Doc muttered, almost to himself.
“I did back into a doorknob the other day,” I said.
His hand froze against my skin. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
I shrugged. “It didn’t hurt for very long. Just a sting before it dissipated. I just didn’t think to, I guess.”
His voice was clipped as his fingers palpated. “What started the pain just now?”
“I think it was the jet,” I said, trying to take a stab in the dark. “But it could’ve just been the way I was sitting.”
“Come here,” he said simply.
I moved with him until we were near one of the jets. He had it pounding at my side before he settled behind me, his hands massaging around the aching spot on my back. I was familiar with this particular form of treatment. Doc had these movements that he did to get blood moving from just beneath the skin. It didn’t feel the best in the process, but I knew I’d wake up feeling a thousand times better.
“Thanks,” I said through a strained voice.
“Don’t thank me yet,” he muttered.
I grunted and groaned a bit, wincing whenever he pressed down particularly hard. But eventually, his hands moved away. Well, not so much moved as ‘smoothed.’ He smoothed them up my back and massaged my shoulders. I practically melted back into him. At some point in time, he settled down, and my body tucked right in his lap.
“Sorry,” I whispered as I went to move.
But his arm banded around my waist. “My body will block the jets. Just sit.”
I eased my body back down into his lap before his hand eased my head back. He petted my forehead, down across my hair, as I gazed up at the moonlit sky. The moon hung heavily above us with stars twinkling in what felt like the thousands. I’d never seen it so dark with so many stars out.
I shivered at the way his stubble brushed my shoulder.
His hands continued their massages, though instead of against my back, it was up and down my thighs. His thumb, tracing faceless patterns that made the heat pool in my gut. I swallowed thickly, trying not to pay attention to his mindless, wandering hands until his hot breath pulsed against my skin as he whispered into my ear.
“You should relax,” he whispered.
Goosebumps skittered across my shoulders. “I thought I was relaxed.”
He reached down and locked my toes behind his calves before he slowly opened my legs with his own. My eyes widened, but I didn’t dare protest.
I didn’t dare stop the train that I hoped was chugging.
God, I wanted to not be alone for a moment.
“Relax,” he whispered, holding out the ‘x’ just a bit too long in my ear before his fingertips brushed up the insides of my thighs.
