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“I am,” he agreed without missing a beat. There was no point denying it. “Does it bother you?”
Her lips parted, eyes flicking to his, surprised by the directness of his challenge. “I—,” she licked her lower lip, eyes drawn together as she considered that. “I could use your help, actually.”
He dropped his pen and stood in one fluid motion. “How?”
“Would you stretch me?”
A member of his anatomy jerked with enthusiasm at that very idea. “What does that entail?”
“I’ll talk you through it.”
There was no way in hell he was going to say ‘no’. Not if it meant being close to her, touching her, again.
“Okay, little thief,” he growled. “What do I do?”
“Help me onto my back.” She gestured to the yoga matt she’d laid onto the floor. “Just not how you did last night.”
“You sure? I remember that being kind of fun.”
The heat blooming in her cheeks showed she’d felt the same.
“It’s hard for me to get down on the floor—or up off it.”
“I’m at your disposal,” he said, lifting her easily so she made a noise of surprise, then pressed a hand to his chest, breathing a little rushed.
“You’re really strong.”
He pulled a wry face. “You’re hardly heavy.”
He laid her on the yoga matt, relinquishing the contact with her body unwillingly. “So? What do I do?”
“You have to be careful of my ankle, okay?”
“Promise.”
She smiled softly. “Great.” She lifted her arms above her head, pressing them to the ground. “So, can you take my right leg, bend it at the knee and fold it over my left, then sort of press down a little? I’ll tell you when it’s too hard.”
His arousal strained as he ran his fingers over her calf, then lifted, doing as she’d said and pressing her bent leg across her body. When he felt as though he’d gone far enough, she urged him to press harder, to stretch her more. Her range of motion was jaw-dropping.
“I have to be flexible,” she explained, as if reading his thoughts. “It helps with the moves.”
“I think you’ve accomplished that.” He held her leg where it was, his body angled over hers, for over a minute, then she expelled a soft breath.
“Next leg.”
He did the same maneuver in reverse, but this time, there was slightly more resistance. He could feel her tense up, and eased off, but she shook her head. “No, keep pushing.”
He didn’t want to hurt her, but did as she’d said, slowly, gently, his hands cupped around her flesh in a way that definitely went beyond a clinical touch. As he eased her out of that stretch, he let his hands linger on her calves then drift to her ankle, wrapped in tape.
“No cast?”
“Not anymore. Now it’s just about building up the strength, not doing any more damage.”
Mollified by the fact it wasn’t a completely fresh injury, he let his fingers trace her ankle slowly, pushing up the elasticized fabric of her exercise pants to reveal her slender limb. “So it was a bad break?”
“A fracture.”
“Painful?”
