Page 35 of The Bombshell and the Bodyguard
“Ow ow ow. I can’t believe how stupid I am.Whydid I do this to myself?” she whined.
“I don’t know.” I chuckled. “Why did you?”
Pushing up to her elbows, she handed me the aloe and took the water bottle and pills I offered. She swallowed all three at once with a noisy gulp. Then she flopped back down, her head turned to one side as she lay on her stomach.
“Apparently I’m a sun-worshipper.Wasa sun-worshipper,” she corrected.
And apparently, I was a Jessica-worshipper. Because even now with her wet hair and her neon-red skin and that forlorn expression she wore, she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
The towel was wrapped around her torso, covering her to her thighs, so I went to the foot of the bed where I could apply the aloe from her ankles up.
“This might feel a little cold at first,” I warned. “But it’ll help.”
“Okay.”
Very gently, I began to spread the aloe gel on the tender skin of her calves. Jessica flinched each time I touched a new part of her leg, but eventually she relaxed.
“That feels good,” she said in a slurry sounding voice. “It really is helping.”
“Good. We used to use gallons of this when we ran missions in the desert and had to stay out all day doing surveillance. Okay, I’m going to do the backs of your thighs now. Do you…”
I had to swallow hard before I could finish the question. “Did you happen to leave your swimsuit bottom on when you got into the tub?”
Please say yes.Pleasesay yes.
Not that the thing offered much coverage, but it would help me not to think of her as completely naked under this towel.
Jessica nodded against the sheets. “Mmmm hmmm. I was scared to pull it down over my legs. It’s really bugging me now, though.”
She squirmed and made a funny face. “Never wear a g-string—they arenotcomfortable.”
I laughed out loud. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Easing the bottom edge of the towel up, I carefully covered the backs of her thighs with the soothing gel.
“Okay, now the top half,” I announced, hiding her upper thighs and the gorgeous curve of her lower buttocks with the towel again.
Jessica rolled slightly to one side then the other, allowing me to loosen the towel until it was possible to fold it down and expose her back to the waist.
Now the breath hissed betweenmyteeth. “Poor girl. You’re going to be sleeping on your belly for days.”
She barely acknowledged my words, nodding gently with her eyes closed. “S’okay,” she whispered.
I thought she might have been falling asleep, but when I touched her again to smooth the gel on her upper back, she took a deep breath and let out a longmmmmmmsound.
“Feeling better?” I asked, fighting not to emit a pleasure sound of my own.
Nah, that wouldn’t be creepy, would it?
I wasn’t a creeper. And I would never take advantage of the situation. I was touching her for medicinal reasons only—at her request. But it was still a little bit of heaven.
Her skin was smooth and incredibly soft. And very very hot.
Right.First aid, not foreplay.
I blinked and literally shook my head back and forth, trying to dislodge the inappropriate thoughts that had begun to sneak back in.
“Much better,” she said. “That stuff is like magic.”
