Chapter Sixteen #2
“And do you always get what you want?” she asked lightly. Heath was here for something. She would bet her next chocolate milkshake on it.
“Most of the time.”
“Even if you have to kill to get it?” she asked.
Distraction in the midst of attraction. It was something she had never done before.
Most of the time, when she had to distract a target, it had been during an operation, or she was being polite to unwanted interest, or she had to be creative to get out of trouble.
This time, she was doing it to distract herself.
“Sometimes.” His tone of voice didn’t change. “You had a long day and then some, even by COS standards. Why aren’t you in bed, Helen?”
“You know, men have been asking me about that all night,” she quipped.
“The last time I saw you, you’d been tranqued. And your leg was injured. The serum should be about out of your system by now, yet you don’t act like you’re in real pain. Either you have miraculous healing powers or you’re on some kind of drugs.”
“I took some painkillers,” Helen admitted, “and it could be why I can’t sleep just yet. And what’s your excuse for not being in bed?”
“You should have come to me. I’m very good at taking pain away,” he said, then gave her that sexy smile again. “I’m trained in pressure points.”
Pressure points. And he avoided giving an answer to her question very nicely. “Do you use that in your job a lot, this talent with pressure points?” she asked.
“When I have to.”
“Like tonight?” she asked. “I saw you from the observation room.”
“I know.”
“Do you use it during interrogation?” She searched his expression. That smile was gone and his eyes had the same flat look she had seen previously. “It’s not just for taking away pain, is it? You can give pain by pressing on the right pressure points. I’ve seen it done before.”
He was silent as he continued watching her.
He raised one hand and pressed the button on the side of the tub.
The rushing jets stopped and the noise fizzled into a tense silence as the water around their bodies slowed its movement.
The bubbles were slowly disappearing and it wouldn’t be long before he could see through the water.
“Coward,” she mocked softly. “You don’t like my question so you’re now trying to punish me by embarrassing me.”
Heath leaned forward, his gaze hooded. “Affirmative,” he said.
He moved a little closer toward her and she felt his hand on her leg. “Heath,” she warned, not sure where this was leading to. An image of a hand slipping into her pants floated in her head…Helen pushed the thought firmly away.
“Relax,” Heath murmured. “I’m just going to check your leg. Trust me, if I were planning to do more, I would have come in here naked.”
His hands lifted her leg above the water. He touched the bruise that ran down the side of her thigh to her calf and gave a soft whistle. “Are you sure you don’t feel more than a little pain?”
Helen closed her eyes. There was pain when she had to move the leg. But the moment things were still around her, like now, no noisy water, no jets massaging her legs, no movement…She shivered as his fingers trailed the side of her leg. It was starting again.
“Are you cold?” he asked.
She shook her head, not opening her eyes. She bit her lower lip as he applied some pressure with his forefingers under her knee. He moved closer, bending her leg higher as he pressed harder.
“It’s beginning to hurt,” she told him, opening her eyes.
He was watching her face. “There are many pressure points by the sciatic nerve that runs down your leg. There’s one, high up your thigh.
If you apply pressure on it, your limb will go numb a while, long enough for someone to give your leg a deep massage.
The whirlpool jets did an okay job, but it’s not going deep enough. ”
“Okay,” she said.
“Then maybe you can go to sleep,” he said, matter-of-factly, like a doctor to a patient. “You shouldn’t let pain take away your sleep.”
“Okay,” she said again. If he thought it was the pain, let him. “As long as it’s not more drugs. I’m getting a little tired of drugs right now.”
“Understandable,” he said. “Tell Dr. Kirkland you need a physical therapist who knows more than regular shiatsu.”
“At this hour? We’re not living in a five-star hotel, you know,” Helen said wryly. She regarded him for a second. His appearance here was too coincidental. Had he sought her out or had someone sent him? “We’re being watched, is that it? That’s why you aren’t doing it yourself.”
Heath looked at her coolly. “This is COMCEN. There’s always a possibility that someone’s watching,” he said, with a shrug. “But that’s not it. You don’t want me to touch you right now, Helen. I can feel your tension in your leg. I can’t fix it if your muscles fight me.”
She wasn’t fighting him; she was fighting herself. A part of her felt dangerously close to coming apart, and she wasn’t sure what it was yet, only that it made her feel vulnerable and that she didn’t like the feeling.
It was as if a curtain was in front of her and if she peered behind it, all she would find was impenetrable darkness. It made her edgy, unsure of herself. All she could think of was Hades. She wanted his touch. The memory of how he’d pleasured her tightened her body even more.