Page 47 of Only Once

He kept walking toward the middle of the room, bypassing the two chairs facing a large, flat-screen TV. He had this wicked smirk gracing his lips, and those gray sweats were just grossly pornographic. I needed a glass of water, maybe something stronger.

“Yeah, it’s been nice,” Ryan finally replied, moving further into the room, past the foot bench—a perfectly acceptable place to rub feet—on toward the end table at the head of the massive king-sized bed. “You okay with this lotion?” He held up a brown glass bottle with a white label.

I squinted to try to see it better but realized I was going to need to get closer.

“It’s jasmine and mint or something like that.” He lifted his shoulder, like he had no clue.

I nodded my agreement because saying I didn’t want to use his ex-girlfriend’s—ex-fuck-buddy’s?—lotion would make me sound petty and jealous, two things I absolutely was but refused to let him in on.

“Come on then, I won’t bite.” He smiled earnestly while crawling toward the end of the bed.

He was a liar; the man I used to love absolutely did bite and did it in the most satisfying ways. My heart had given up on warning me against this with its solid thuds; now it was my head pounding in caution. I’d been intimate with this man before. It wasn’t a big deal, and yet… I couldn’t mentally adjust to the idea of being in the same bed as him.

How many beds had he shared over the years? How many women had he been with?

It doesn’t matter.

“You okay?” He pulled the covers back, making everything a billion times worse.

“Yeah, good…just…” I blinked, shook my head to clear my thoughts, and climbed into the bed. Holy softness, it was so plushy and perfect. Henna must have loved this bed.

“Here, give me your leg.” Ryan reached for me.

I was so thankful I had pulled on his boxers, because his shirt lifted when he pulled me closer to him, and the sweats would have slid right off.

“Do you need me to come over there and adjust those pillows for you, or can you handle it?” He grinned.

Shit, he was so handsome. Even after all these years, those full lips that ended in a dimple on each side of his face. His eyes still lit up when he was trying to be funny, and that dip between his brows and the dimples that only appeared when he smiled still made my stomach flip.

“I got it.” I pulled the cloudlike down pillows closer so they were wedged behind me, propping me up.

The second the cool lotion touched my skin and those hands started rubbing, I let out a moan. I couldn’t help it; I couldn’t stand how good it felt to have the aching pain rubbed out of my tired feet.

“Damn, I’ve never brought a woman to orgasm so fast.” That full smile slung to the side of his face, forcing a dimple to pop.

I didn’t even care that he’d said it because ithadsounded like I’d just come.

“Sorry, my feet were hurting pretty bad.” I tipped my head back and just let him have his way with my feet. His thumb pressed into the arch of my foot, slowly moving up in a circular motion, eliciting another moan from me.

Ryan cleared his throat. “So, why was today so hard?”

I stared at the ceiling, letting out a sigh as I explained.

“A kid pooped in the women’s locker room. Like, on the floor, the toilet, on part of the wall…I don’t know how or why this happened, but I had to clean it.”

“No, Bex, you hate…” Ryan started laughing, tipping forward, wedging my foot against his stomach…his crotch? I mean, I had no idea what I was touching, but it was warm and firm.

“I know. I tried to get out of it, but I’m the rookie, so I had to deal with it.”

“Why didn’t the mom clean it?” Ryan recovered, sitting up right, returning to rubbing my feet with deliciously strong strokes.

“I don’t know. I mean, she just kind of came and told us and then bought her kid an ice cream sandwich because she felt bad for him.”

“Him?” Ryan moved those strong fingers up my leg, to my calf, rubbing as he maintained eye contact with me.

“Yeah, her kid was like eight or nine—total brat. He even messed with a ton of our brochures and touched literally everything in the store before he finally left.”

“Shit, Bex…no pun intended,” he said with a snort.

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