Page 30 of Fool Me Twice

Stay there. He had no intention of going anywhere. It had taken every ounce of strength he had to get back to his room, and he was never leaving again.

Evie returned a few minutes later with several ice packs and some of his pain meds. She placed the ice packs around his swollen knee, then handed him a glass of water to take with the anti-inflammatory painkillers she’d brought. “I thought you might need two tonight,” she said, tutting at the size of his leg. “What the hell did she do to you?”

“We did some weights—“

“Weights?” Evie spluttered. “I thought she was supposed to be a professional. There’s no way someone in your condition should use weights.”

“Bex thought it would help speed up my recovery.” He reclined back against the pillows, waiting for the pain medication to work its magic.

“And has it?”

“I, er, I guess not.”

“That’s it. First thing tomorrow morning, I’m calling that agency to tell them exactly what I think of their so-called professionals.”

“But what about my exercises and recovery?” he said. What he’d really wanted to say was, ‘Thank God for that’, but he couldn’t let Evie think she’d been right all along about Bex. He’d never hear the end of it.

“You won’t be doing any exercises for a while, judging by the size of that knee, and when you’re ready, I’ll be taking over your physio.”

“You?”

“Yes, me.” Evie said, a little sheepishly as she stared at the floor. “I’m a qualified clinical Pilates instructor,”

“A what?” Peter tried to raise himself off his pillow to look at her, but gave up when the pain kicked in and lay back down.

“A clinical Pilates instructor. It’s someone who’s undertaken further training to use Pilates for rehabilitation and recovery after an injury or surgery,” she said matter-of-factly.

“I see... Hang on, so if you could have helped with my physio, why didn’t you say something instead of making me put up with that brainless airhead for the last few weeks?”

Evie shrugged. “I was busy.”

“Busy?”

“Anyway, you were the one who hired her. If you remember, I said we should discuss it.” She stared at him defiantly.

“Okay, I’ll give you that.” He looked away, remembering his bullish insistence on hiring Bex.

“And I didn’t tell you because I thought it might be a bit weird.”

“What do you mean, weird?”

“I just didn’t want to have to spend so much time with you, you know.” She shrugged, a pink flush spreading across her cheeks. “In such an intimate way, okay?”

“Why? In case you wouldn’t be able to resist me?” As soon as the words left his lips, he regretted them.

Evie’s face was like a giant thundercloud that was about to burst at any moment.

“If you were the last living thing on this planet, I still wouldn’t willingly want to spend time with you.” She glared at him from the open doorway. “Now keep off that leg for the rest of the evening.” She pulled the door firmly closed behind her.

Chapter seventeen

Evie barely saw Peter over the next few days, telling herself she was too busy with her classes and planning out a new recovery regimen for him.

Who was she kidding?

His words had disturbed her, and she couldn’t put her finger on the reason why. Her emotional pendulum swung wildly between anger and confusion.

Who did he think he was? Sitting down at the kitchen table to work on her plan, she tapped the pen repeatedly against her notepad. Did he really think she was so pathetic and desperate that she wouldn’t be able to control herself around him? The pen flew out of her grasp, spinning wildly on the floor. As if? She huffed, getting up to retrieve it.

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