Page 26 of Too Hot To Handle

„What in God’s name have you done to yourself now?“ Reever asked roughly.

Tory flinched, then slowly opened her eyes. She saw Reever’s face reflected in the dresser mirror and knew that he wasn’t going to go away this time if she ignored him.

„Nothing new,“ she said, closing her eyes again, still counting, hoping against hope that he would leave her alone. She was too vulnerable now, too shaken by the discovery that she was in love with him.

Reever crossed the room and knelt in front of Tory. Her eyes flew open as she felt his hands on her bare leg. He ignored her startled exclamation, just as he ignored her hands futilely trying to push him away. Very gently he peeled down the elastic brace. His breath hissed in when he saw the twin surgical scars bracketing her kneecap. As softly as a sigh, his fingertips tested the slight puffiness of her knee. Then he noticed the weights strapped to her right ankle.

„What the hell are you trying to do to yourself?“ Reever asked. His voice was hard, but the hands holding Tory’s knee were almost caressing.

„It’s called physical therapy,“ Tory said, trying to pull the elastic support back into place but running into the gentle, immovable barrier of Reev-er’s hands. „I do it every night.“

His eyes widened. He looked at the evidence of tears on her face. „Does it hurt like this every night?“

„Depends on how clumsy I’ve been during the day,“ Tory said curtly, not wanting to tell Reever that her tears had been as much from unhappiness at discovering herself in love with him as from any pain in her knee.

The lines of Reever’s face became more harsh when he heard Tory call herself clumsy, but all he said was, „Have you tried ice?“

„That comes after I finish the last exercise, which you’re making impossible.“

„I think you’ve done enough for tonight,“ Reever said, running his thumbs very delicately over the scars.

Tory shivered at the caress, but her eyes when she met his were unflinching. „No. There’s one more exercise I have to do.“

Reever looked at Tory, seeing the determination in her that most people overlooked because they noticed only her youth and her lovely, gentle smile. But she wasn’t smiling now. Her eyes were older, unwavering. Bleak. He wondered what had happened to make her accept pain without complaint, how she had injured her knee in the first place and what her life had been like before she had arrived on the Sundance and turned his own life upside down.

„What happened?“ Reever asked, pulling the brace back into place on Tory’s knee.

She wanted to laugh wildly, to release the bitterness of her discovery of a love that he would never return, but she knew she could not. He hadn’t asked why she was hurting now. He only wanted to know how she had hurt herself in the past.

„You should have read your cousin’s letter,“ she said.

With that Tory stood up and braced her hands against the bedroom wall. She brought her right heel up to her buttocks and then straightened the leg, repeating the motion in rhythmic sequence. Even though she was careful, she tended to bang her knee or her foot against the wall each time she bent and straightened her leg. Instead of a wall to brace her weight, she needed a fixed, overhead bar that would allow her full freedom to move her leg.

„Here,“ said Reever, picking Tory up and turning her sideways to him. He extended his long right arm across her breasts, bracing his hand against the wall. „Hold on to me.“

She gave him a startled look as she felt currents of awareness course through her from his nearness. Grimly she tore her thoughts away from what she could not have and did as he suggested, bracing herself on his arm.

It was like holding on to a sun-warmed tree branch. He didn’t move at all as she flexed her knee and swung her leg with a freedom that hadn’t been possible before.

„Better?“ he asked quietly, watching her.

„Yes.“ Tory stared straight ahead, not trusting herself to look at him without giving away everything she was feeling. „Thank you,“ she added politely.

„What happened, honey?“ asked Reever again, his voice as gentle as his hands had been. „I’ll call Payton if I have to, but I’d rather you tell me. All of it. Starting when you were a child.“

„Why?“ Tory asked flatly. „I’m leaving tomorrow so it doesn’t matter.“

Reever looked at Tory, all of her, his eyes going from the sun-streaked silk of her hair to her slender, naked feet.

„I have to know,“ he said simply.

Tory’s hands tightened on Reever’s arm. Despite his gentle tone, she knew that he was every bit as determined as she had been about finishing her exercises. Reever meant to have his answers one way or another.

„Why?“ she asked again, her voice soft, frightened.

„I don’t know,“ Reever admitted, running his left thumb delicately across the slim, tanned fingers holding on to his arm, watching the swift rise of gooseflesh up Tory’s arm as she responded helplessly to the caress. „Do you know why you come apart at my touch as though God had made you just for my hands, my mouth, my body?“

„Reever – “ Tory’s voice broke as he caressed her again. „Don’t!“