CHAPTER 15
Nick
To his relief, Nick was able to return sooner than he expected, thanks to pushing the speed limit and lighter-than-normal traffic. He swung open the front door and kicked off his shoes, trying to move quietly in case Jannie was asleep.
Rolf’s thumping tail gave him away, and she turned her head. “Hey.”
“Hey,” he said softly. “Are you OK?”
Her smile looked more like a grimace. “Depends on your definition of OK. The Advil did help a little.”
He sat on the bed, careful not to jostle her, and ran a soothing hand along her arm. “I brought your stuff.” The paper bag rustled as he placed it on the floor.
She eyed it. “That’s a huge bag for just a box of tampons.”
“I got three.”
“Three?”
“Yeah. Super, regular, and junior.”
Her lips twitched. “Are you serious?”
“You didn’t tell me which absorbency, so I looked it up. According to Dr. Google, you need to use the right one.” He picked up the bag. “I also got …”
He held up three large chocolate bars.
“Let me guess. Milk, dark, and—” She studied the yellow label. “What is that?”
He couldn’t stifle a sheepish grin. “That one’s my favorite.”
“Mr. Goodbar? What are you, a boomer?”
He chuckled. “It’s a classic.” A thought occurred to him. “You’re not allergic to peanuts, are you?”
“No.” She eyed the bag. “There’s something else in there.”
He reached inside and pulled out the black-and-tan stuffed dog, a terrible version of a German Shepherd.
She laughed, and it was music to his ears. “What the heck is that?”
“A German Shepherd, maybe.” He held it out to her.
She studied the too-small ears and overly long snout. “Oh my God … It’s so ugly that it’s cute.” She pressed it to her cheek, looking up at him with a soft expression that made things happen in his chest.
He pulled the last item out of the bag. “And I found this little heating pad.”
“Also recommended by Dr. Google?”
“Yeah.”
“Thank you. Really. You didn’t have to do all this.”
“I wanted to.”
What he wanted to do now was to take her in his arms and kiss her. Hold her. Make it better.
A thought struck him. “Would a massage help?”
He expected a refusal, but her eyes lit up, and she nodded, unwrapping the Mr. Goodbar and snapping off a piece. “Yes, please.”
“OK. I’ll go wash my hands.”
He moved to stand, only to have her bring the piece of chocolate to his lips.
“Bite.”
Why did that one word out of her pretty mouth turn him on?
He took a bite of milk chocolate with crunchy peanuts, the flavor spreading across his tongue, transporting him straight back to childhood. “I used to stash these under my mattress and eat them after I went to bed. Drove my mom nuts.”
“Tell me that wasn’t a pun.”
He shook his head and grinned. “She said I would destroy my teeth.”
Her gaze dipped to his lips. “I guess she was wrong.” She smiled and slipped the rest into her mouth, sucking instead of chewing, giving a little moan that reminded him of their morning kiss. “I haven’t had this in years.”
“Can’t go wrong with a classic.” He surged to his feet, glancing down at Rolf, who hadn’t moved a muscle.
Jannie, too, looked at the dog. “Nurse Rolf needs to go pee.”
“On it.” He regarded the normally pointy-eared Shepherd. “What’s with the airplane ears? He knows, doesn’t he?”
“Oh, yes. Every time I’m under the weather, he does this. Doesn’t even ask to play or go out, just guards me.”
“Good boy,” Nick said.
“He is.” She snapped off another piece of chocolate. “You’re going to have to put a leash on him. He won’t move otherwise.”
“Oh?” He strode to the door and whistled between his teeth, not even bothering to look back.
Ears standing upright, Rolf jumped up so quickly that his hind legs slipped as he scrambled to his feet and bounded toward Nick.
Jannie’s eyes widened, and Nick couldn’t suppress a smirk at her shocked expression.
“Stinker,” she muttered.
“Get ready for that massage.” He reached down to rub the dog’s big head. “I’ll take him out and be right back. Take off everything you’re comfortable removing.”
·
He found her lounging on the bed, reading her Kindle.
Nick swallowed hard, his fingers tightening around the handle of the saucepan filled halfway with hot water, warming the bottle of grape-seed oil he’d found in the kitchen.
Thank God she’d decided to wear workout clothes. Part of him was disappointed—the part he could never seem to control around her—that hardened with each step he took toward the bed where she lay.
Fuck.
She shouldn’t look so hot in a sports bra and leggings. The white bottoms hid nothing, hugging her heart-shaped behind in a way that made him want to lean down and take a bite.
She turned her head to look at him, a little smile on her face. “There you are. Took you long enough.”
Carefully, he set the saucepan down on the glass-topped nightstand. “I fed your dog.”
“You did?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“He’s turning into your dog,” she said dryly.
“I always wanted one.”
“What did you feed him?”
Nick grinned. “He chose the beef.”
“He chose?” Her voice was laced with amusement.
“Yeah. He went to the fridge and sat there. I opened it, and he put his paw on one of the containers. I grabbed it, and he ran to his crate, so I got a bowl and fed him. One container, right?”
“Right.” She looked at him, her expression unreadable. “Thank you. Again.”
“No need to thank me.”
“Did you crate him?”
He knew she always fed him in his crate and left him there for an hour after he ate. “Yeah.”
“Good.”
He rubbed his hands together. “OK, face down.”
One delicate eyebrow shot up.
Oh.
He hadn’t meant to make it sound like an order. “Please,” he added, gentling his voice.
She hesitated for a moment before rolling over and settling on her stomach.
He stepped up to the bed.
Unscrewing the bottle, he poured a little oil into his palm and rubbed his hands together. His hands seemed to tingle in anticipation as he placed his fingers on either side of her neck.
Her scent filled his nostrils, that unique smell that he found so appealing and that drove him to distraction. Unable to stop himself, he leaned close to speak directly in her ear. “Let me know if I go too deep.”
She shuddered. Nick smiled a little and began massaging, pressing his thumbs into her trapezius.
He found her muscles tight. Progressing downward slowly, he worked methodically, finding each knot and insisting there, paying attention to every square inch of her back.
This was standard aftercare, and he usually performed it mechanically and mindlessly.
Not so this time. Then again, nothing was ever normal for him around Jannie.
After a while, he switched to long strokes, flattening his palms.
“That’s nice,” she said.
But instead of feeling her relax, she was tensing up more and more under his hands.
He paused to oil his palms again. Returning to stroke her now-heated, slick skin, he leaned close. “How are you feeling?”
“Good.” Her voice was low.
He flicked the hook-and-eye closure of her crisscross-back sports bra. “You would feel even better if I didn’t have to work around this.”
Jannie was silent.
Nick ran his fingertips over the straps, which converged at the closure. “May I undo it?”
Requesting permission, for fuck’s sake. He no longer recognized himself.
“Yes.”
That one word went straight to his groin.
It was going to be hell to continue this, but if it eased her pain, he would endure his own.
He unhooked the bra, parting the fabric to give him access to the middle of her back. Her skin was rosy now under his palms, and he ran them up, then down again, his heart rate increasing with every long, slow stroke.
The urge to grip her gorgeous ass was overwhelming. Yet Nick gritted his teeth, keeping it nonsexual as he moved on to her lower back.
With his thumbs, he pressed and circled gently, careful not to apply too much pressure in case she had pain there. Drawing patience from a place he didn’t know he possessed, he worked her, clenching his teeth against the temptation to succumb to his urges.
Back and forth his fingers glided, right above the elastic at the top of her leggings.
He sensed a change then. Subtle at first, but then she started shifting her hips in rhythm to his hands, until she was clenching and unclenching her glutes, and he had to pause a moment to regroup.
“Don’t stop.” Her voice was husky.
He exhaled, then resumed the exercise in self-torture; the sight of her thrusting into the mattress nearly broke his resolve. He visualized hooking his fingers into the tops of those leggings, yanking them down, hauling her up by the hips, and burying his face in her.
He forced himself to go back up, away from her obliques, using the heels of his hands to push into her lats.
She shook her head. “Lower.”
He stopped. Flattened his palms on either side of her spine.
She moaned, clearly frustrated.
His gut clenched at the sound, an electric current racing straight to his aching groin.
What was she asking of him?
“Tell me what you want, Jannie,” he said, his voice unrecognizably raspy.
“I already did. Go lower.”
He let a few seconds pass before he tentatively ran his hands over her hips.
She huffed another frustrated sigh.
And then, to his disbelief, she reached back, shoved his hands away, and yanked the leggings down, uncovering a peach lace thong that disappeared into the most perfect ass he’d ever seen.
Nick went slack-jawed. He licked his lips, his hands hovering over her, not trusting himself to touch what would surely be his undoing.
“Get to work, Sebastian,” she said in a tone that struck a chord deep inside him.
“Sebastian?”
“Always liked your middle name,” she muttered into the pillow. “I also like your hands. I want them back on me.”
“Yes, ma’am,” came out of his mouth.
She pointed with her thumbs to the tops of her glorious glutes. “Right here is where it hurts.”
“I’ll do my best to make it better.”
Swallowing the bit of saliva left in his dry mouth, he pressed his fingertips into her round, firm flesh, closing his eyes at the exquisite feel of it.