Page 129 of Hat Trick

“Oh, god. Yes. Please. Take off whatever you want,” she hurries to say.

“When I do, I’m not going to be able to get you anything else unless I put it back on. I use my crutches at home to get around at night, and I don’t have that capability here. Is that okay?”

“I can get things for myself. And I can get things for you, if you need them.”

“Just a pillow to rest my weary head.” I yawn, hit with a sudden burst of exhaustion. “All those hours of worrying about you are catching up to me.”

She swats me playfully with her hand. “You didn’t have to worry about me.”

“Yes, I did.” I sigh and give her a long look. “We’re friends. Friends worry about each other.”

I take off my joggers and press the button on my socket, waiting for the air to release. When it’s ready, I let go of the button and the leg pops right off my residual limb. Working the gel liner down and off, I reach forward and rest all the pieces against Lexi’s dresser.

“Sorry. It’s a whole process,” I say.

“Don’t apologize. I’ve seen you take it off at our sessions, but it…” She trails off, and I look back at her. She’s watching me like she’s taking mental notes, and I wonder what she’s thinking. “It feels different when you’re doing it in my room.”

She’s right. It feels intimate, heavy. Something she would see if we got ready for bed together and fell asleep next to each other every night, andfuckdo I wish that could be a reality.

“It’s not nice to stare, Lex,” I tease, and she smooths her hand over the sheets next to her.

“I see you and touch you on the treatment table, but I’ve never gotten to have you like this.” Lexi swallows, a bob of her throat that has me moving closer so we’re side by side. “Can I touch you?”

“Please,” I murmur, eyes closing when she traces the scars on the right side of my body. “I know it’s ugly and?—”

“You’re beautiful.”

She guides me onto the pillows. The rest of the blankets she’s been using fall from her shoulders. She kisses my cheek then my neck, mouth moving down the front of my shirt and over my briefs. When she gets to the top of my right leg, just at the apex where my body starts to change from Before to After, she kisses there too. A breath rattles out of me and I start to pant as her hands work over my flappy skin where I had a hundred stitches.

Lexi massages my residual limb, and the pain I’ve been holding on to seeps away with every press and push of her touch along the shape of my new body. I groan, not because I’m turned on, but because evenIhaven’t explored myself this personally. It’s different from the donning and doffing I do when I prep the limb, more thorough with her gentle grazes and the heat of her mouth right on the spot where I lost the leg.

“Thank you for letting me have you like this,” she whispers, and I can’t imagine anyone else having me like this.

Would there be the same care and consideration? The same grace she’s showing me when she fixes my briefs and draws what feels like a heart on my upper thigh?

I doubt it.

“You can have me however you want,” I whisper back to her.

Take my whole fucking heart while you’re at it.

With a final press of her lips, Lexi climbs back up my body. She takes my hands in hers and sighs.

“Thank you for all your help today, Riley. For not only taking care of me, but also making me feel like I could do it by myself if I wanted to.”

“Of course you could.” I cup her face, thumb stroking her cheek. “But thank you for letting me in.”

“This sleeping we’re about to do is an addendum to our agreement.” She yawns and lies next to me. I’m quick to mirror her pose and wrap her in my arms. “A one-time thing.”

“I’ve heard that before.”

“I’m serious. It’s a nap. That’s it.”

“Mhm. Just leave a fucking toothbrush at my place next time, Lex.”

“We’ll see,” she says, and knowing it’s not a flat-out no makes it impossible for me to fall asleep.

THIRTY-SIX

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