Page 12 of Trust and Obey

My customer service training kicked in. “I can get it—”

He stopped me with a warm hand on my shoulder. “Stay right here,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”

While he was away, I turned and glanced in the mirror. I was lucky. I had pretty much clipped my head as I was falling. The angry red mark was mostly hidden by my hairline. I let out a sigh of relief. Yes, it was vain, but I didn’t want to walk around the resort with a shiner for the next few weeks.

Deacon returned lickety-split with ice-cubes wrapped in a paper towel. Again, I reached for it and again he pushed my hand away.

“Here,” he said, “tilt your head. There we go.” He eased the ice to my skin and when I flinched away briefly, he clucked his tongue.

One hand slid to the back of my neck, holding my head in place while he pressed the ice with kind, but firm pressure.

The heat on the nape of my neck made for a sizzling counterpoint to the ice on my forehead. His thumb moved up and down in a smooth, comforting motion, and my eyes slipped shut.

“This is nice…,” I murmured

“Oh? It’s feeling better?”

I was a total coward because I didn’t have the courage to tell him that the pain had mostly receded even before he got the ice. “Just… this.” I lifted and let my hand fall again. “No one has taken care of me much. I left home when I was seventeen. Pretty much raised myself after that.”

He was silent for a second. “I’m sorry. But you must have had… relationships? Since then?”

There was a strained oddness in his voice, and even in my weird state I knew he was probing gently. I snorted and yow, that caused a little pain. “My boyfriends are mostly jerks, or one-night stands. Or… quarter nightstands. Is that a thing?” I wondered and then realized I had really let my mouth get away from me. To a guest of all people. “Sorry,” I muttered and knew my cheeks were flaming in embarrassment.

“Nothing to be sorry for.”

His voice was a bit too even. I cracked open my eyes to see and realized I couldn’t read the expression on his face, it was so closed off.

“I just meant… thank you. For being so kind.”

I was really digging myself a hole here. His expression if anything, went even more blank.

“It’s fine. It’s nothing,” he repeated, and then took the ice away to look at the wound. “I think the cold has helped. It doesn’t seem to be swelling too badly. Do you think you can handle it from here?”

I was both relieved and a little disappointed. He’s a guest at the resort, I reminded myself for maybe the hundredth time that day. “Yes.” I closed my lips over another thank you because this was getting into embarrassing territory.

With a nod, Deacon quickly stepped away, and I didn’t think it was my imagination. He looked as vaguely relieved and upset as I did.

6

DEACON

What did I almost do?

I walked away from the bathroom as quickly as I could without making it look like a full-on retreat.

It was absolutely a full-on retreat.

I had been on the verge of kissing Kendall.

I don’t know what had come over me. He was there, so close and looking both vulnerable and so stubbornly handsome and—

This is no time to jump into a relationship or a fling or something, and… And you are getting divorced from a woman. I thought fiercely to myself and ran a slightly shaking hand back through my hair.

But with that reminder came the realization that if Kendall had been a woman, I would have gone in for that kiss. Pending divorce be damned.

My erection during the massage hadn’t been a fluke. No, I was feeling honest-to-god attraction.

I had never felt this way about another man before. Not this raw attraction. Should I have been surprised? I had been intrigued by Kendall since the moment I’d set eyes upon him. And yeah, he had been fantasy fodder earlier, but it was a huge leap between beating off to a pretty face in my head and actually kissing him…

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