Page 74 of Guilty as Sin
“My… I don’t…” Her head was still fuzzy, but that wasn’t why her brain had stopped working.
“What, you didn’t know? Yeah. Over to one side of the chicken coop. Those three stacked boxes in the different colors. We practically barged into it the other night, I reckon, there in the dark. That would’ve given us another nasty surprise.” He shook her thigh gently. “You’re tensing up. Breathe in and out. Let this go.”
“I thought that was an… incubator or something. Storage. But there aren’tbeesin it.”
He looked at her quizzically. “Yeah, there are. Why? Honeybees, not hornets. I wondered why you didn’t make cheese with all that milk, by the way, and why you left all those eggs sitting in the fridge. I’m guessing Lily bakes. Cooks. And bottles her own honey.”
“Honey,” Paige repeated faintly. “I take it back about how sweet my sister is. I’llkillher.”
Jace had started to laugh. “Sorry.” He tried to compose himself, and failed. “Your face.”
He was laughing harder, and Paige started to, too. It hurt, though, and she gasped, “Ow. Ow. I can’t laugh. Stop it.”
It took him a while. “So if Rocky Mountain Apiaries is looking for a security guard, you’re not available?” He was still smiling, but he’d started to work on her thigh again, digging the fingers of both hands into the hamstrings now, separating the muscles and working out the knots, and she had to sigh.
“No,”she finally said, as severely as a woman could who was being given that much physical relief. “Hey, everybody gets a phobia. Bees want to sting my eyeballs.”
“No,” he said patiently, “they want to bring nectar back to the hive and make honey. Very focused, bees. Wasps, now…”
“Says you. They’re after my eyeballs. And don’t talk about wasps.”
He was smiling again. She said, “I’m only this relaxed about it because—oxycodone. Otherwise, I’d be running for the door.”
“Nah. You wouldn’t. I’ve got your leg. No running for you. How’s that feel?”
He’d moved up higher, and she sighed again and said, “That’s not my leg. I should be embarrassed, but it feels too good.”
“Got to get my hands on this gorgeous arse of yours some way. A bit pervy, taking advantage of a woman in pain, but there you are, we take what we can get.”
“So what’s your phobia?” His fingers dug in harder, and she relaxed around his hands and felt the relief all the way to her toes as the muscles let go. “Tell me you have one. And that feels so good, I may orgasm. You could politely not notice, if it happens.”
“Mm. I’ll notice. Really?”
“Yeah.” She wriggled a little under his hands. He had both of them under there now, had pushed her thighs apart. “It’s not sexual, it just feels that way. It shouldn’t. But… wow. Make me even happier. Tell me your phobia.”
One of his hands stayed where it was, and the other one went to her adductor muscle and began to work on that. Which was a nice way of saying that he had his hand on her inner thigh, way up high, and that it felt great. “Giant worms,” he said.
She should have opened her eyes. She should have smiled. But he was making her feel too good. “Giant…”
“Another Australian wonder.” His right hand was still rubbing deep, hitting that release-spot, the left one digging deeper now, too. “A meter long, and thick as a garden hose.”
“Like a… snake.”
“No. Like a worm. No eyes. Huge. Rubbery. I stepped on one once, barefoot. Screamed like a little girl. Rafe laughed, the bastard. Put one in my bed once, too. I didn’t sleep in there for a week. I reckon sisters are kinder.”
Another time, she might have answered. But his hand had gone just that tiny bit higher, was stroking gently over her, still exploring. “Feel good?” he asked. “Or stop?”
“Don’t… stop.” She hurt, and she was boneless. Liquid. Lying back against the pillows, her eyes closed, and his right hand was on the front of her thigh, working her quadriceps now, and it was strong enough to get all the way to the deepest knots. “Hurts sogood.Hurts… so…” Her back arched, her good leg tightened, and he… didn’t rush. He kept going, nice and slow, until she said, “Now. Please. Now.”
She could hear him swearing, long and low, and she knew she was turning him on so much. That he was watching this, that it felt wrong to him, and that it was so hot.
She said, “Tell me. I want to know. Tell me.”
His voice was dark, and it was deep. “I want to fuck you. I shouldn’t, and I do. I want to fuck you hard.”
She was rising off the bed, calling out, and his other hand went behind her back to support her, to hold her there for endless shuddering seconds, while she shook and gasped and moaned. While she came undone.
“Bloody hell,” Jace said. He was throbbing. He was aching. “I reckon I won’t do your back.”
