Page 7 of Silent Threat
The birdsong fell silent for a moment, as if nature were asking,Did she sayeasy peasyto a murderous-looking Navy SEAL?
Yep, she did. And the look on his face said she’d be super smart not to say it again. But she’d gone too far now to go back, so she forged ahead.
“Also, walking around barefoot on an uneven surface massages the pressure points in your soles. I can tell you more about it, if you’d like, or you can ask Libby, our reflexologist.”
His angry-bear grunt stopped her.
He stepped forward and then around her. “The sooner we start, the sooner we finish. How about we walk in silence?”
She reached after him to touch his elbow so he’d turn back to her. “Actually, this session requires removal of footwear.”
He looked at her as if he’d seen smarter dandelions. “Military people protect their feet. A sliver can become an infection. Slow soldiers are dead soldiers.”
“You’re not in the military. You’re at Hope Hill. We are not heading into combat. Take off your boots, please.”
He set his feet apart and brought his hands to his hips. He let his gaze slide over her with deliberate slowness, not assessing this time, but going for a blatantly male vibe. He clearly couldn’t believe he hadn’t shut her up yet, and he was now switching to a different tactic.
“What else do you want me to take off?” His voice turned richer, smoother, suggestive. “Are we going to run through the woods naked?”
“No.” If he thought he was going to rattle her withthat, he had another think coming. “But if you’d like to do it privately, on your own time, it might be beneficial. You have twenty acres at your disposal. The property is posted, so there should be no trespassers.”
He blinked. “Have you ever run naked through the woods?”
“Certainly.” She allowed a moment to enjoy the way his eyes flared.
“Why?” His voice roughened, deepened, back to that just-awakened grizzly-bear tone.
“To be one with nature, without barriers. To feel the wind and the moonlight on my skin.”
Several seconds passed before he responded. “You can’t feel moonlight.”
She smiled at him mysteriously. He’d come here with a set of expectations about how this session would go—with him firmly in charge. Anything that knocked him off that rail and made him think was good.
“Is this a progression kind of thing?” His energy grew more intense with every word. “Today no shoes, tomorrow no shirt.” His gaze slid to her chest. “Then the next session, no pants, and we’ll be running through the woods naked by Friday?”
“We are not going to run through the woods naked together at any time. What we have here is a therapist-patient relationship.”
When his gaze dipped back to her chest, she added, “Which also means that you should stop checking me out, and you should probably stop flirting with me.”
He frowned. “I don’t flirt.”
At least he didn’t deny checking her out. She shoved her thumbs through the belt loops of her cargo shorts. “I’m pretty sure you talking about us getting naked together is flirting.”
A lot of the guys Annie had sessions with flirted. She often went along with it as long as they didn’t cross any lines. They were here because they were injured; some were missing limbs or had other disabilities. For these alpha-male warriors, the need to reassert their masculinity was pretty strong.
Annie didn’t take it personally. She redirected their focus, exactly the way she was going to do right now.
She pointed at a verdant young pine on the side of the path. “Over millions of years, humans evolved in nature. For most of our human history, we lived in harmony with nature. We were made for nature, both our bodies and psyches.” She looked at Cole. “What would happen if we dug this tree up right now, put it in a pot, and took it inside a house? How would it grow?”
The word she was looking for wasstunted, orsickly, or any version of the concept. But Cole said nothing, unimpressed with her teaching skills.
“A lot of people are reluctant and wary of new experiences,” she said. “Let’s just do this.”
His mouth tightened. “Cut the BS. Don’t manipulate me by telling me not to be scared. I’m not going to jump when you tell me, just to prove I’m not scared.”
Definitely not going to be an easy case.
Yet she would make the session work. She had to succeed with this patient and all the others. She needed to be upgraded to a full-time employee. She needed those paychecks for the small animal sanctuary she was running out of her home. She needed to fix her house. She was at the sink-or-swim point in her life, so she was going to swim like a salmon on steroids, and she wasn’t going to let anyone block her way.
