Instead, I crouched down in front of her and settled on my knees. Without thinking, I cupped the soft muscles of her calves and savored her quick intake of air. Her skin was so soft and she felt fragile against the rough calluses on my palms and fingers from playing guitar.
As if I summoned them out of thin air, both hands began to cramp in unison. I tried to hide the stiffness, but my fingers jutted outward and released her legs.
“Everything okay?” Addison’s voice washed over me from above, the soothing tone calming the “yips,” as my doctor had called them.
Shaking my hands to release any lingering taut muscles, I reached for the items I had set aside from the first-aid kit. “Yeah, I’m fine. Can you run a clean cloth under the hot water, please?” I could tell she didn’t quite believe me, but I hoped her wounds would be enough of a distraction, so she would leave it be for now. It was hard to forget someone cringing in pain as their fingers jerked in a spasm.
After Addison handed me the cloth, I quickly cleaned and dressed her wounds, hating that I had been the cause of her injuries. I didn’t usually have such a temper, but I was still worked up from the tour and had mistaken her for a fan. It wouldn’t have been the first time someone had broken into my place while I was there.
The room had grown quiet as I worked, only the sharp breaths of air whenever one of her wounds stung.
“I’m. . .um. . .sorry,” I said as I placed the last bandage on the deepest cut that ran the length of her shin. I’d already had to remove six splinters that I could see.
“Sorry for what?” she asked and I peered up at her noticing how ashen her face had become; her knuckles were almost solid white from where she gripped the edge of the counter.
“For yelling at you earlier. You startled me and I didn’t react well.”
“You don’t have to apologize for that.”
“Yes, I do. Because if I hadn’t overreacted, you wouldn’t be in this position right now.”
A beat of silence passed before Addison spoke up again.
“Well, it wasn’t completely uncalled for. I had been ogling you.”
“Why?” I whispered as I grabbed the ACE bandage and began unfurling it. I hadn’t been completely oblivious to the crush she’d tried her best to hide as a teenager, but surely she would have outgrown that by now. Right? It was nothing more than a crush.
“Because I could. You looked incredibly sexy standing there with the water dripping down you. The only thing I could do was stare.”
I began wrapping the bandage around her ankle, which was slightly swollen. It was most like just twisted and with a little ice would be fine in the morning.
“Sexy, huh?” I replied as I secured the wrap in place, my hand cupping the heel of her foot.
“You don’t need me to tell you that I want you, Asher.”
I glanced over my handiwork. All of her wounds were now cleaned and covered as if they’d never been there. There was no sign that I caused this turn of events for us. There was an impulse inside of me that I couldn’t push back. It was blossoming into an unfathomable force.
“Your father would kill me,” I murmured as I sat up onto my knees, bringing my lips inches away from her knees.
“Kill you for what?”
There was a sizzle in the air, an electric current running between the two of us, snapping and cracking with our breaths.
“For taking advantage of you.”
“It’s not taking advantage of me when I want it.”
My hands moved from behind her legs, gently trailing a path as they moved to the inside of her knees. “Are you sure?” I asked, my body no longer under my command. Addison now controlled every single movement with her words. This was a step we weren’t meant to take. Once we crossed that line, there was no going back. Our relationship wouldn’t be the same. My friendship with her father wouldn’t be the same.
But as the word yes passed from her lips, I knew there was no going back.
My hand slid up her thighs, my thumbs rubbing against the soft skin along the inside. Addison removed the hand towel that she’d been using to cover her panties at my request when my hands approached the material between her legs. I could already feel the heat coming from her in waves. It was intoxicating.
As I used a single finger to run along the material, the wetness growing with each pass, I told Addison, “I’m not a gentle man, Addison. I’m not hearts and flowers.”
She moaned as I slipped the digit beneath the cotton material, touching her silky skin beneath. Addison’s breaths turned into pants as I continued to tease her body. My hand on her thigh rubbed small circles with my thumb while the finger on my other hand moved up and down against her slit.
“For once in my life, Asher, I want to do something unexpected.”