Page 41 of The Player

Grabbing her by the arm, I stop her from leaving. “We aren’t through, Julie.” Her pupils get large as she looks at me.

“You lied to me,” she whispers. “Left me pregnant and to raise a child on my own.”

Regret seeps through me, and I huff out a laugh. “I had to have you. So I took you. You have to know by now, even after all this time, this thing between us isn’t going away.”

“We can…” I run a hand through her messy hair. “We can discuss this at home. For now, you need to get dressed so we can do therapy.”

She leaves me to my thoughts, and all I can think about is that I finally feel free.

I don’t take long. There’s this gut feeling that she will run if I do. In record time, I’m limping back toward the tables and see her talking to my sister and brother. Maybe I’m a selfish prick for wanting her to work with me and not Bryson, but I don’t give a damn.

Another therapist comes up, and it’s a guy. He puts his hand on Julie’s shoulder, and I clear my throat. This causes Julie to look away and at me.

“Are you ready?” Julie walks over to me and smiles. “We’ll need to massage both legs and get you ready for water therapy. Once we finish water therapy, we will do stretches.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I grunt as I get on the massage table. The jerkface that had his hand on my woman comes over.

“Do you want me to run him through the paces?” he asks, all too happy to be around Julie.

“Thanks, Eric, but no. I’ve got Aaron. Ms. Cindy should be in to get her massage in about ten minutes.”

Even as Julie dismisses the prick, he gawks at her ass when she turns around. Luckily, he moves on, so I don’t have to get up and beat his ass.

“Lie facing upward for now. We will get the backside of the leg next.”

“Honestly, bro, it’s the best part of therapy.” Bryson laughs as Kaylee takes him over to a machine that helps stretch out the arm muscles.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

James is Aaron. Aaron is James. My mind laughs at me. How stupid could I have been to not know he was James? Or put two and two together? Well, Kaylee was right all along. She’s going to be so excited to know that Lennox is her nephew. But I’ll never get to live down the fact she was right. She’s going to rub it in my face. I just know it.

I’m distracted though, by Aaron’s legs. As I move along Aaron’s right leg, I can’t feel the stiffness he complains about. It should be here, right behind the knee. There’s not even a knot to let me know there’s something wrong. I can feel the muscle and how it needs to be worked out. It feels semi-flabby.

“You haven’t been doing your stretches or exercises, have you?”

“Nope.”

That’s all he says. It’s like he’s shut down again. Why? We just had the most amazing sex. You’d think he’d be open to talking to me. Insecurity settles in the back of my mind, but I push forward.

“Why?”

“I didn’t like the stretches. It seemed like they were pulling on my knee, and I couldn’t walk for an hour after I did them.”

Confusion makes me scowl. This kind of reaction shouldn’t be happening. The exercises and stretches are meant to stretch but not hurt.

Hmm. Could it just be Aaron not believing he’s getting better? “Alright, can we try something? It’s going to require you to trust me.”

“I trust you.” His words are immediate, and they make my self-doubts go away. “I always have.”

“Bend your knee and place your foot on the table.” His reaction is slow. He’s thinking about the movements. I can see the concentration causing worry lines across his forehead.

“Focus on me.” He turns his head toward me and I smile. Bending down, I whisper in his ear. “What would you like to eat for lunch?”

“You,” he says in that rumbly voice of his, and it sends pleasure down my body.

As I suspected. If Aaron doesn’t focus on his knee, he can move it. “Look at your knee, Aaron.”

“I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing. Holy crap, it’s bent,” Aaron whispers in awe.

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