Page 55 of The Woman

“We have an appointment,” I state, walking closer to the desk.

The guy offers me a brief glance up from the desk and then returns to what he was doing. “I’m just finishing up with the design you wanted. Take a look.”

Once we’re close enough, he lifts his sketch pad and faces it toward us. I feel Avery’s reaction. A barely noticeable tightening of her hand, and shift in her stance. I’m so finely attuned to her every movement that I even hear the slightest hitch in her breath, though I’m sure it wasn’t even audible.

“It’s perfect.”

“Alright, well, follow me, and we’ll get started. You can call me Drae,” he says over his shoulder as he starts walking.

We follow behind him through another doorway into a smaller room with a special chair and equipment covering a little table with a stool next to it. There’s another seat placed on the other side of it.

“Who’s going first,” Drae asks, rounding the chair to sit on the stool by the table.

With a soft tug, I urge Avery further into the room. “She is.”

She takes small steps, smaller than usual. Probably still wondering why. Why, of all things, am I doing this instead of what I’m supposed to do?

I can’t answer that.

“You’re a little younger than my usual clients. You get her early?”

“I did,” I reply, taking a seat in the regular chair.

“Nice. She can sit up here. I just need access to her arms. You said you want it on both forearms, is that right?”

Another squeeze on my hand from Avery. Maybe a thank you this time. I know it means more pain, but I also know she would have hated having it on only one arm.

“Yes.”

“Can’t say I’ve seen that too often,” he says while setting up and putting on gloves. “Or at all. I’m going to put some numbing cream on first, and we’ll have to wait a few minutes for it to take effect.”

Finally turning his attention to Avery for the first time, his eyes linger a little too long on her face for my liking, and then they run down her body, blatantly checking her out before actually focusing on her forearms. Then he pats the special chair for her to sit on.

My jaw clenches.

It’s normal, I try to tell myself. Men like looking.

Even so, when she starts to get onto the chair, I pull her to sit on my lap instead and place her arms out on the seat between us. Drae eyes me momentarily.

I’m not sure if this is normal, but I don’t care at the moment, and I ignore him as I thread my fingers through Avery’s, holding her arms down with her inner forearms face up.

He slathers on the cream and then excuses himself, leaving us in the room alone. Avery angles her head to look at me over her shoulder.

“I didn’t think you’d want to do this. Not with me.”

“It appears you were wrong.”

“And what if I didn’t want this?” she asks, tilting her chin ever so slightly.

My grip on her tightens. Maybe that is exactly why I didn’t tell her, so she couldn’t say no before we arrived. And now that we’re here, she can’t either. “You keep forgetting that you are my chosen woman.”

“I haven’t forgotten.” Facing forward again, she wiggles her fingers, which are still gripped tightly between mine. “I love what you chose.”

“It seemed fitting.”

Unable to stop myself, I lean in a little closer, grazing my nose along her neck and jaw, pulling one of my favorite reactions from her: a shiver followed by goosebumps.

“Will this hurt much with the cream?”

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