“A spider I could handle.”
But not an itty-bitty needle. I didn’t say that, but I thought it. Once he was conscious and his blood pressure was fine, we left the facility and headed home. I’d made him lay down on the couch with a cold towel over his head while he napped and I worked on my computer, trying not to think about the looming possibility of permanently losing my channel.
Plopping down on the chaise right beside his knees, I cupped one. “You want some water? Need anything?”
He sniffed. “A back rub would be nice.”
A back rub?
He sniffed again.
Ah, shit. “All right. Come on, you spoiled ass. Did your grandma turn you into this monster? Because I don’t see your mom doing it.”
He chuckled as he scooted over a little on the chaise and patted the spot between him and the armrest, and I scooted back, wiggling in there. My hands went straight to his shoulders, taking in the heat of his skin through his shirt, and worked the muscles there.
He made it seem like he’d had surgery instead of just fainting a little. I was going to have to tell Boogie so he could laugh. He’d be the only one to understand.
“Is that all right?” I asked him after a couple minutes.
“Oh, that’s so good,” Zac moaned, slumping forward so that his T-shirt stretched tight across his muscular back.
I snorted as I dug my thumbs into his shoulders, kneading the muscles as hard as I could. “You sound like you haven’t gotten a massage this century, you perv.”
His reply was a groan, and it made me snort again. “It feels so good when you do it.”
“Don’t they pay people on the team to do this for you? They’re way better at it than I am.”
Zac shook his head as it dangled forward. “Yeah, but none of ’em do it with love like you do.” The moan he made went straight to my nipples. “Oh, that’s the spot right there.”
Oh God, this was a bad idea. Too late now. I dug in to the spot right at the base of his neck and moved one hand up to massage along the column of his spine, and I felt him turn into goo.
None of them do it with love like you do.
He had no idea.
But I did, and it was a tiny reminder that I’d only been here a couple of days and needed to figure out what I was doing so I could get out of here. I wasn’t Zac’s responsibility, and it would be a terrible idea to stay here too long.
To risk the chance of seeing something I absolutely, positively didn’t want to see.
Did I want to leave Houston? Did I really want to move to Killeen? Or even Austin?
I had no fucking idea, and that was the biggest problem.
Under me—well, my hands—I was pretty sure Zac purred as he curled his back even more. “I’d pay you to do this every day,” he murmured.
My hands were starting to tire out, and I let go of him before sliding my fingertips down the sides of his back and fluttering them against his ribs. His arms slammed down on top of my fingers, trapping them against his skin.
“You’re a bully.”
I laughed as I caught sight of CJ coming down the stairs and into the living room right as I tried to curl my fingers back into his side to tickle him. “Am I? Am I a bully?”
I must have gotten enough pressure in there because he sucked in a breath and said, “YES!”
“You picking on Zac again?” CJ asked as he walked by us, a small smile on his face.
“She sure is.” Zac leaned back, maybe hoping to push me out of the way so I’d let go as he said, “Do you see how she treats me? You see how she manhandles me, Ceej?”
The back of his head came to rest on my shoulder, pushing me just enough away so my fingers couldn’t reach his ribs anymore, but I set them on his shoulders and pecked him on the side of the head as I laughed again.
“Are you putting this down on your list of things to tell Mama about?” I teased him.
He turned his head to look at me, those eyes of his striking despite how pastel they were. “Yeah,” he claimed, but I could see part of his mouth going up into a smile.
“Tattletale.”
He snorted as he smiled, still staying in place as he leaned his weight against me. “What are you doin’ the rest of the evenin’?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Reply to some emails maybe. I did everything I wanted to do today. This working-from-home thing is pretty nice. You?”
I regretted asking the question the second it came out of my mouth.
But he shook his head. “Nothin’. Don’t feel up to much with my blood sugar levels bein’ all weird.” He slid me a look like he was waiting for me to contradict that’s what had made him faint.
I just pinched my lips together.
“Wanna watch a movie?”
“What are you going to watch?” CJ asked from the kitchen. From the sounds of it, he was pulling something out of the fridge and was going to heat it up.
“I don’t know what’s on. I haven’t checked, but there’s gotta be somethin’,” Zac answered before leaning back again to look at my face. “Unless you got a date or somethin’.”
“I’ll watch a movie,” I told him. “I could use a break.”
“I bet, Miss Popular.”
“I will crawl across the floor when you’re sleeping, take off your socks, and tickle your feet, don’t try me.”
He grinned. Then he tried to stick his finger into my ear.
Somehow he grabbed the remote without looking and started changing the channel. I didn’t
