Elsie nodded, and Ollie's phone continued to ring. She didn't want to keep his coach waiting any longer.
“See you soon,” she said, spinning around toward the door.
She left the house quickly, overwhelmed with embarrassment. He'd caught her checking him out and she'd never felt more flustered in her life because of it. Luckily, the air outside was frigid. It was good, because her face felt like it was practically on fire.
This is not how I'm supposed to feel about a patient, she thought, starting her car. What is it about him that has me feeling this way?
Elsie didn't understand. She'd seen hundreds of ripped, muscular men. She'd done thousands of massages and never once had anything like this happened to her. Never before had she found one of them so attractive, or had the desire to run her hands over them just to feel their strength underneath.
Makes me wonder what it would feel like to have him run his hands down me, she thought, as the naughty side of her mind chimed in.
“What am I thinking?” she whispered, backing down the driveway. “This is insane.”
I'm a professional. I shouldn't even have an inkling of anything other than medical effectiveness while touching him, she thought to herself.
“Maybe it's nothing,” she said. “Yeah, it's probably nothing.”
Elsie did her best to justify her feelings. She told herself that Ollie was a good looking man and it was only natural for her to feel some kind of attraction toward him. Just because she was a medical professional, didn't mean that she had
to be a robot.
She stepped on the gas as soon as she pulled onto the County Road, pointing her car in the direction of home. She decided to shake it off and let the feelings go for the time being.
It's just one day, she thought. One event. Besides, it's not like he feels the same way about me. He's rich and famous and can have any girl he wants. I'd be kidding myself if I thought a guy like him would be interested in a small town farm girl like me. Especially one who is supposed to be a professional.
She continued her drive home, hoping that these sexual feelings toward Oliver were just a phase that would soon pass.
I'll get past this, she thought. I'm sure by the time the next session comes around, I'll have forgotten all about the way he made me feel when he was shirtless.
She stepped a little harder on the gas as she remembered the way he'd felt under her fingers.
God, I hope so anyway.
Chapter 8
Ollie
Outside, the wind was howling with a spring blizzard. The single-pane glass windows in the old farmhouse were showing their age, rattling to the cadence of the blizzard and sending icy air into the room. Oliver laid under the covers of his bed, wrapping himself like a burrito to stay warm. The furnace was on, but hardly did anything to take the edge off of the cold. The wind just sucked any heat right out of the house. It wasn't just the wind, though, that made the house feel cold.
This place is just too empty, he thought. It needs some plants or pictures on the wall or something to make it feel like an actual home.
The place felt more like a doctor's office than a house to Oliver. Especially at night. The medical equipment that was everywhere only added to this. Looming in every corner was at least one item that reminded him of why he was there in the first place. It actually felt kind of creepy being there all alone. It was like something out of a bad dream.
His stomach rumbled, loud enough so that he could actually hear it over the whistling wind outside.
“And of course now I'm hungry,” he said, rubbing his belly and pouting.
He hadn't eaten much for lunch and now it was dinner time. But his knee was throbbing with the storm, and the pain medication hadn't kicked in yet. The last thing he felt like doing was getting up and trying to figure out something to cook in the kitchen. But he had to eat. Elsie had made that clear to him and he took her advice very seriously.
Elsie, he thought. Maybe I should call her up and see if she'd come over. She mentioned that Thai Chili Pizza. And just today, she talked about helping me bleach my hair.
Just the idea of seeing her again made him feel a little better. He was admittedly lonely and Elsie's company would have put his mind at ease. He reached over to the nightstand and grabbed his cell phone. He hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should really be calling her for anything that wasn't medical related.
My mental health has to be taken care of too, right? He thought. I think I can spin this as medically related. At least enough so that it fits into her contract.
With that, he opened up his contact list on his phone. He was about to hit Elsie's number, when Nikki called. The phone rang loudly and startled him, causing him to nearly drop it.
“Jesus,” he whispered, feeling his heart beat in his chest. “Scared the crap out of me.”