Boden disappeared down the hall towards what I assumed were the bedrooms. It didn’t take a genius to realize he was a fixer. A person who saw someone hurting and instantly wanted to remedy it. I’d known people like that before. The thing was, they got really frustrated when they realized you weren’t fixable.
Boden appeared with a massive duffel bag slung over his shoulder. My brows rose. “If you think playing a game of hockey will help my pain, I’m worried about where you get your medical advice.”
He chuckled and set it down on the coffee table in front of me. “No hockey. Promise.” He pulled out what looked like thigh-high boots or black casts of some sort.
“What are they?”
“They work similarly to ice packs or an ice bath. I use them for recovery when I’m in training for something.”
I watched as he set to work setting up the device. “Are you in training for something now?”
“I’m supposed to be. Don’t tell my trainer I’ve been slacking.”
“The same one who makes you cry?”
“The one and only.”
Boden moved to the couch and sat. He lifted one leg into his lap. His fingers deftly untied the laces of my boot and tugged it free. He copied the move with my second foot. Grabbing one of the cast-like devices, Boden slid it up my leg. His knuckles grazed my jeans-clad flesh, and my breath hitched.
Boden’s eyes locked with mine, the gold in his hazel depths burning brighter. “Does this hurt?”
I shook my head. “No.” The single syllable came out as a whisper.
He tugged the second device up my other leg. The sensation of his fingers on my thigh was almost more than I could take. The urge to squirm—or worse, seek out more of that contact—was so strong.
Boden reached for a control and turned a couple of dials. “You’ll start to feel the cold pretty quickly.”
I already was. As the coldness seeped into my legs, the worst of the fiery pain began to ebb. There were times I spent hours in an ice bath to get the same effect. I’d be shaking like a leaf but still desperate for any bit of relief. This way, it was only my legs that were cold, not the rest of me.
I stared at the boots, my eyes burning. It was such a simple kindness. The desire to relieve some of my hurt. I forced my gaze to Boden’s. “It’s working.”
He beamed. “I’m glad.” He grabbed a remote from the coffee table. “Now, how about a movie? My only rule is no musicals.”
My lips twitched. “That’s all I like to watch.”
Boden’s head swung in my direction, panic lacing his expression.
I burst out laughing. “I can’t dance worth a damn, and if I sang, I’d probably make your ears bleed.”
“That wasn’t nice.”
“Someone has to keep you on your toes.”
His gaze tracked to my lips. “Somehow, I think you could do that in your sleep.”
15
Laiken
I woke to heat.So much heat pressed against my front, I’d dreamed I was lying on the sunbaked sand of a beautiful beach. But this surface was harder. My eyes fluttered.
It took me several moments to put the pieces together. The unfamiliar cabin. The male chest. The rhythmic breath.
Crap.The soft strains of the television played in the background as the first rays of sunlight poured in through the window. Sometime between the first and secondIron Manmovies, we must’ve fallen asleep. Only I’d taken it a step further, plastering myself to Boden’s front. It was mortifying.
Now, I had to figure out how to extricate myself from his grasp without him knowing. I took a deep breath and rolled to my side.
Boden’s arm tightened around me. “Don’t move. It’s cold, and you’re like my own electric blanket.”