Page 56 of The Wrong Side of the Law

“Nothing,” he says, cheeks reddening.

Gabriel turns his head carefully, slowly, first to the left and then to the right, then snaps it to the left again, hard and fast. The cracking sound is audible, and so loud that I cringe.

“Doesn’t that hurt?”

“Less, now.” He sighs, rubbing at his temples again. “You wouldn’t happen to have some aspirin or anything in your purse, would you? I keep meaning to bring some to keep here, and never quite get around to it.”

“No. I actually don’t think I do,” I say, though I still dig through the bag in a pointless search. “Although…” I hesitate. I don’t know if I really want to go there. This has been good, tonight, and I don’t want to make it weird.

“Although… what?”

“Frank, he used to get migraines a lot. When he was younger, I mean. I used to…” I hold both hands out in front of me as if massaging an invisible neck.

“I don’t know,” he says, starting to shake his head but wincing. “That seems-”

“Oh, shut up already,” I interrupt, standing and walking around to his side of the desk. “Turn around.”

“You’re sure you want to do this?” he asks, but the small, contented noise he makes when I dig my thumbs into his neck tell me he’s hoping I don’t say no.

“Positive,” I laugh. “It’s no big deal. It used to help with Frank’s headaches. It can’t hurt to try against yours, right?”

His only answer is a much larger contented noise, lowering his head to give me better access to his neck.

The knots of tension release under hard pressure from my hands, and I move down to his shoulders. I lean in to get better leverage, driving my fingers and thumbs deep into the tense muscles there. More muscle than Frank had when he was ten or twelve. Much more. And the sounds that he made were just… sounds. They didn’t mean anything.

My boss probably doesn’t even realize he’s moaning, but I do, and Adventurous-Emily likes it. Far, far more than she should.

Feeling suddenly warm and short of breath, I take a step back, pull my hands away.

“How’s that?” I ask. “Better?”

“Very much so,” he answers, tentatively turning his head.

“Good,” I say, picking up my purse again, digging in it for my keys.

But is it? I’m not sure. Being in such close physical contact was… strange. Unnerving. And I liked it. And I’m not sure if that’s good.

“You’re right, though,” I say, yawning again. “It is time to call it a night.”

“I think so, too. Give me a minute, I’ll go down with you,” he says, picking up a pen and examining it carefully, then putting it down again and doing the same to a highlighter. “Just need to…”

I watch as he shuffles through a seemly random selection of papers, stacking them up with seemingly no plans. His movements are awkward, jerky, and he’s shifting around as if there’s something wrong with his chair. Something uncomfortable. That makes no sense. If it hurts to sit down then he should just stand up.

It takes me far to long to figure it out.

I wasn’t the only one who’d felt something when my hands were on his neck and shoulders.

When he finally stands up, my eyes dart to the front of his jeans to look for evidence, and I look away again as soon as I see it. My face burns with the blush coming on. I just know my face is as red as my hair.

This is bad. This isreallybad. This is, like, my-brother-winds-up-in-prison-and-I-have-no-access-at-all-to-help-him-bad.

But I still can’t help feeling pleased. He’s into me, on some level at least. Adventurous-Emily purrs in my head at the thought, and even Fearful-Emily is intrigued.

“All right,” he says, finally. “Let’s get out of here.”

The walk to the garage is silent, our second goodbye of the night full of awkward sideways glances.

The last thing I need right now is for this stupidity to any further. I have too much on my plate as it is, and the last thing I need is the complication of some sort of messy fling with my boss.

But still, when he stood up? He must have thought I wouldn’t see. I did that to him.Idid that. I know Ishouldn’tdo that, and I make all sorts of promises to myself that Iwon’tever do that again.

Still, I drive away with the biggest smile ever, because it feels good to know that Icando that.

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