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.She blinkedblearily in the faint sunlight that filteredinto the room and allowed the memoriesto return.She remembered the timeduring the night when Cole woke her andforced her to take a pain pill.He told herthat she was making noises in her sleep.Then she remembered trying to getcomfortable.She hadn t been able to doso until she was on her left side, herright arm thrown over Cole s waist.That didn t explain the leg she d alsothrown over him, she thought now.Since he was also on his side, shefaced his back and felt free to bite herbottom lip as she fully realized she wasin Cole Parker s bed.Her hand layagainst his muscular abdomen.Her leftleg pressed against his backside whileher right leg was over his thigh.When she moved her right hand, shequickly found her fingers entangled inhis. Where do you think you re going?he asked in a sleepy voice.She grinned.Pressing her foreheadagainst his back, she replied,  I have thisphysical therapy gig.It pays well, so& He slowly turned so he was on hisback and she was nestled in the crook ofhis arm.His fingers ran idly through herhair, caressing her neck and the side ofher jaw.Goosebumps sprang up on herarms.She traced a mindless pattern onhis chest that mimicked his touch. How much would I have to pay youto get you to stay here with me instead?he asked.She pretended to think about it. Maybe& a million dollars? Done.She laughed. Nice try.You re notgetting out of your exercises today. You re such a hardass.His fingers brushed against herearlobe, making her shiver.She foundherself wishing he d use his lips andteeth instead. Sorry, she said. I have a lot ofinterest in getting this particular client tofull health. Hmm.She noted that when she reachedcertain areas of his upper body, hetensed and held his breath.Curious, sheallowed her hand to drift to those areasmore often.After a minute, his handreached up and stilled hers.Interesting. I might be convinced to dawdle abit if you kissed me, she said in a softvoice.Since she wasn t looking at his face,she was unprepared for his suddenmovement.Before she realized it, shewas on her back and he held himselfabove her on his elbows.Pain twingedin her side, but it paled in comparison tothe feelings generated by the look in hiseyes. You re playing with fire, Ms.Wallace, he murmured, looking at hermouth. I know. The words were abreathless whisper.Then he kissed her.It wasn t a quick,gentle encounter.He started it withpurpose, parting her lips and rubbing histongue roughly against hers.She met himstroke for stroke, not in the mood todance around how she felt any more thanhe was.His hands moved along her body,caressing her skin as he waged hisassault on her mouth.She allowedherself to get lost in the sensation of histouch, barely realizing when his handsslipped beneath the shirt she wore.Allshe knew was she would die if hestopped touching her.Nothing else in theworld compared to it.Then he tore himself away from hermouth and rolled out of the bed.Hestood and braced himself on the edge ofthe mattress with his fists, his head bentas he tried to catch his breath. God, he panted. Sweet Jesus.Confused, she tugged the shirt backinto place. Why did you stop? sheasked.He looked up.Then he glanced at thedoor. Margaret s right out there, hesaid. She d probably kill me if sheheard&  He trailed off.Then he caughther gaze. Everly, I promise you, if youdecide later that you want to give thisanother go, I m all for it. And believe me when I say that Iwon t stop.Chapter 37Cole realized he shouldn t havemade his promise to Everly almostimmediately after he did so.A lookcame into her eyes after he spoke thewords.He didn t recognize it at first, buthe soon came to realize it was a look offeminine challenge.He got dressed and left the bedroomfirst to explain things to Margaret.WhenEverly came out in her own clothes,Margaret did a fair share of tongueclucking over the bruising and bandagesshe saw, then made them a breakfast ofbiscuits and gravy.While it wasn t quiteas good as his mother s, it was a closesecond.While Margaret handled the fewtasks she had on her agenda, Cole put onSportsCenter, grabbed his iPad, andonce again sat beside Everly on thecouch.Since she didn t have an armrest,she rested her hand on his leg while hewent through the process of checking hisstocks.He didn t think anything of thatuntil her hand slowly got higher on histhigh.Did she realize what she was doing?he wondered.He looked at her in-between reading e-mails, but sheappeared focused on the television.Not wanting to hurt her injured arm,he didn t bother trying to move it.Hell,it felt fantastic.Why would hecomplain?He saw that he had e-mails fromCaroline and Wayne.He d spoken toeach of them several times throughoutthe day yesterday.They both assured himthat they would handle the press.So far,he d only seen a couple of small blurbsabout the incident with Everly among thesports sites.He figured the pair haddone a lot of damage control and down-playing.Just as he started responding to theirmessages, he felt Everly s hand risehigher.He had to find a new position onthe couch to get comfortable.When heglanced at her this time, he found hergrinning at the television. Really? he said.She let out a snicker. Well, he whispered into her ear, two can play at this game.He allowed his lips to linger nearher ear as he spoke.Then he teased her,nibbling on her ear and progressingdown the side of her neck.It was onlywhen she tilted her head to the side togive him better access that he realizedher hand had climbed even higher.There was no way he was going towin this match.Defeated, he ended up putting somespace between them so he could respondto the e-mails.She laughed, giving him alook that warned him what lay ahead.Once Margaret left, it was time forPT.Everly was far from easy on him.He d thought he was making progress,but she made him feel as weak as aninfant.He tried to give himself somecredit.They d only been workingtogether for a little less than a month.Still, he hated that he wasn t a hundredpercent.He had to give it to her.Even thoughshe d been beaten with a baseball bat,she didn t let up or take it easy on him.She clearly wanted him to get better.She also apparently wanted to drivehim out of his mind.He should have known somethingwas up when she told him she wanted tooversee his PT exercises without himwearing a shirt.She rattled off someexcuse about wanting to see how hissubscapularis and infraspinatus musclesfunctioned during his exercises.His eyesglazed over mid-explanation, so he justpulled his shirt over his head and toldher to do her thing.She used her plastic goniometer tomeasure his range of motion so shecould record it in the spiral notebookshe kept at his house.Unlike the last timeshe d done the measurements, her handstouched his chest and bicep morefrequently and strayed down to brushagainst his abdomen.The light touchinghad him clamping his back teeth togetherto keep from reacting.He couldn t tellwhether or not she was doing itdeliberately at first, as her expressionwas a mix between intense andthoughtful.Only as their work continued did hefigure it out [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]