Page 21 of Safe
I watched her try for about two minutes, wincing every time she dug her fingers into the new muscle in her leg. From the other bed, I could tell she was going easy on herself. The doctor told her it should hurt, and I already knew her well enough to know she was faking how much pain she was actually in, hoping it’d convince me she was getting in there like she should be.
“You know you’re not doing it right.” I laughed, trying to coax her into letting me do it. “You’re gonna be recovering longer if you don’t really get in there.”
She slammed her hands down on the bed beside her and shot daggers at me before she let out a dramatic sigh. “Just get it over with, Casanova.”
I settled beside her, careful not to jostle the bed. With both hands, I arranged the pillows and lifted her leg, propping it up on the stack of pillows.
Suddenly, I was nervous, more than I wanted to admit. I hadn’t touched a woman like this since Riley. This wasn’t supposed to be intimate—it was just part of her rehab—but I couldn’t stop thinking that I was crossing a line. I don’t know if Ithought I was crossing hers, or Alex’s, or the invisible line that I had made for Riley, but something about it felt wrong.
But God, her skin was smooth. The warmth of it under my fingertips was almost too much. Why did she have to break something that required me to touch her thigh? A forearm wouldn’t be doing this to me. But this, this was going to drive me mad, and I hadn’t even massaged anything yet. She lay there scrolling on her phone, not even giving me a second thought. Meanwhile, I was trying to keep the feel of her silky skin from undoing me completely. No, on second thought, I was, without a shadow of a doubt, crossing Alex’s line.
“How long am I supposed to do this for?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Fifteen minutes, maybe?” she replied, not bothering to look away from the phone. Whatever she was doing had her full attention, leaving me as more of a background presence.
My fingers hovered for a moment before inching the fabric of her shorts upward, just enough to make space. I let my hands settle around her thigh, careful not to rush it. Almost immediately, a sensation went through me that I wasn’t expecting, and I tried my best to hide as I started massaging around her healing leg with gentle pressure. Her skin was smooth except for a long, jagged scar running down the front. As my fingers followed the raised line, I could feel the thick and uneven scar tissue underneath.
“Feel that?” I asked her as I pressed down on it.
“Fuck. Yeah.” She made a face that made me well aware I was hurting her, so I backed off, lessening the pressure.
“That’s what you gotta be massaging out. I know it hurts, but you don’t want it there permanently. If you want to do it on your own, you’re gonna have to put pressure on it like this.” I squeezed a little harder, putting more pressure on the scar as she clenched the bed sheets in both fists, trying to hide her pain.
“Yeah, maybe…maybe you should just be the one to do it.” She was finally leaning into the idea of more help, and I was desperately wanting to lean out of it.
From where I sat, her perfume drifted toward me—enticing, distracting, and entirely too inviting. My nerves tensed. I reminded myself that this was just part of her recovery, nothing more. She was my best friend’s sister for fuck’s sake, and I wasn’t someone she needed. But what I needed was something to pull my focus away, or the next fifteen minutes would feel like a lifetime. She had shifted her attention to the TV, so I decided to do the same.
“So, what are you watching?” I asked.
“A show called Forged in Fire. It’s a blacksmithing competition,” she replied, still without looking at me.
I was baffled by this girl. “You’re not normal.”
That got her to look at me. Unfortunately, not the way I wanted her to. I looked back down at her leg.
“Excuse me? How so?”
“I didn’t mean anything bad by it. It’s just that most girls like you don’t sit around watching the History Channel all day.”
“Girls like me?” Now I had done it; she was annoyed. She was staring me down and I could see the creases on her brow and nose form as she contemplated what I had said, half confused and half pissed off.
“I didn’t mean it in a bad way. I just meant girls that are…”
She cut me off. “Pretty?”
“Beautiful.” The word slipped out before I could stop it.
Fuck.
My eyes widened, and I felt my face turn hot with embarrassment. I shouldn’t have said that. If Alex had heard, he probably would’ve killed me right then and there, my arms still wrapped around his sister’s thigh. Judging by the look Daniellegave me, she might beat him to it. I braced myself for her reaction, but she stayed silent, her eyes unreadable.
“Danielle, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.” I stammered, struggling to recover.
“God, no wonder you’re here.” Now her frustration was visible, and who could blame her? In her mind, I was looking at her like a piece of meat. I mean, I can’t say that I necessarily wasn’t, but I was in no way acting on it. And besides, I wasn’t that type of guy. Not that she knew that, but I guess it was time to come clean.
“That’s not why I offered to help,”
“Then why did you?” Her voice was laced with suspicion; she didn’t sound convinced in the slightest.
