Page 29 of Unspoken Promises

My dad’s instructions come through the phone. “Just be gentle if the hives are raised. They can be really sensitive, but equally it might feel good for you to rub them carefully. Gabriel used to like that.”

I scrub my hand down my face. She’s on my land, under my duty of care. “I gotta go, Dad. Thanks.”

A soft groan hits my ears when I return to the living room and kneel at her side. She’s still belly down, midriff exposed, womanly… enticing, even with the red blistery bumps.

She pushes herself up slightly to face me, securing her shirt to her breasts, but so much skin hangs out of the sidemy mouth goes dry. Her hair cascades down around her shoulders, wild and coppery and I’m close enough to get a whiff of her cedarwood scent. Jesus, she’s beautiful.

“Here.” I hand her a pill. “Take this.”

She gazes at the pill hesitantly.

“It’s for allergies. An antihistamine.”

She nods and barely manages that nipple not falling out when she takes a tiny sip of water along with the pill.

I tip the cream toward her. “You can put this on, too, for more immediate relief.”

“I can’t reach.”

My heart flatlines as her honey gaze dives deep into mine.

“Will you do it?”

I swallow thickly. “Sure. Of course…”

She lies back down, silky mane everywhere, freckles teasing me from her shoulders, lithe shoulder blades so vulnerable right here, laid out in front of me. I shouldn’t be thinking like this. I really shouldn’t.

I snatch a blanket off the back of an armchair and head for the couch again.

I unfold the blanket and cover her long, bare legs, as if somehow putting some of her skin away makes this more professional.

How could a woman be her age and not know if she has a food allergy? She said her uncle did all the cooking. Still, surely he would have told her to be careful when she went off with friends or went to a sleepover or went off on her own even to a restaurant or something? Gabriel can’t have peanuts, and I think my mom reminded him of that twenty times a day until it was drilled into his head and everyone else he came into contact with.

I put a little cream on my index finger and start on the edges of one of the three big hives.

She inhales sharply.

“Sorry…” I barely make contact with her skin, trying hard to have a featherlight touch, to offer relief instead of a new pain.

“Thank you, Enzo…”

Her words are so sweet they touch me somewhere deep. I run another circle of cream around a second hive, and she writhes a bit, her torso undulating underneath my touch. Try as I might, it comes off seductive, especially with the mound of flesh bursting out from under her rib cage and her low-cut pajama shorts giving me a view of the top of her curvy ass.

I’m worried about the heat around my collar and what it means. I haven’t touched a woman in a long time. I know she’s unwell and I’m caring for her but I can’t help but want to draw my finger down her spine until it reaches the darkness under the blanket. The shape of her is sexy. The smell of her is sexy. The way she moans with relief is really goddamn sexy.

These thoughts shouldn’t be crossing my mind with an employee. My neighbor. A much younger woman who’s trusting me. And definitely not one who I need a distance from in order to have perspective.

I still think Ava’s keeping secrets.

“That’s really starting to feel better. It’s not burning so much.”

This is medical treatment to her. Nothing else. Same for me. I’m just doing the right thing.

But as my fingers draw circles on her soft, warm flesh, sparks fly up my arm. “This is helping?”

“Mmm.”

Her back is really smooth, and my touch easily glides over the surface.

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