Raw Deal (Larson Brothers #1)(65)
That only set her off again, which made her feel bad when he sent her a withering look. Suddenly, though, she had an idea to make it up to him. Leaning over to grab her favorite lotion off her nightstand, she smacked him on his thigh. “Roll over, sissy boy.”
The suspicious side-eye he sent her was legendary. “What the f*ck are you going to do to me now?”
“I guess I’ll have to go to work after all. It won’t help your mouth, but I bet you’ll like it anyway.”
Grumbling a little, he did as she asked, and she crawled over him to straddle his tight butt. He chuckled, and she relished the sight of his grin—what she could see of it. Only his profile was visible to her.
Savannah slicked her hands up and dropped them to his back, letting them sink into his muscles as the breath whooshed from him on a groan. She practically felt him relax as she explored, kneading, testing. Marveling at the gorgeous expanse of flesh, for some reason she thought about the ink on his chest: the grim reaper grinning with a bloody smile. “I’m kind of surprised you decided on your chest piece, after what happened with your mom,” she said softly as her hands worked.
“It’s not as if I need a reminder,” he said, his voice already a bit drowsy. “But I wanted it anyway. To always remember where I came from.”
“I guess I can see that.”
He was silent a moment. “Do you like the Rocky movies?”
“Who doesn’t?”
“Damn. A girl after my own heart. Anyway, you know how in Rocky III, Mick tells Rocky the worst thing happened to him that could happen to any fighter?”
“‘You got civilized,’” Savannah growled in her best Burgess Meredith . . . which wasn’t very good, but still it got a laugh from Mike.
“Yeah. If there’s one damn thing I’ve tried to do, even with the victories and the money and the recognition, it’s to stay as uncivilized as I can. I guess that ink was part of it. And I still own the house my brothers and I grew up in. I go there whenever I need a reality check.”
“Wow,” she said, pausing a minute in her task. “That surprises me.”
“My brothers don’t get it either. They’d like to strike a match to it, just to know it’s not in the world anymore.”
“That I could understand.”
“Just one of those things.”
“Hmm.” She rubbed at a spot of tightness in his left trapezius, uncovering a trigger point. “You have some trouble here, don’t you?”
“Yeah, a lot. Damn, Savannah. It’s like you have weights in your hands. It’s amazing.”
She grinned at the compliment to her skills. He was such a pleasure to touch. It wasn’t every day she had a body with this kind of definition to work on. “This isn’t even deep pressure. You want it deep, baby?”
“I’m not really sure.” The sound he made started as a laugh but shifted to a groan as she pressed deeper.
“Just to warn you, I’ll expect payment for services rendered.”
“Oh, yeah? I’ve got a tip for you.”
“I need more than a tip.”
“I’m sure I can manage that too. Your hands are magic. Best I’ve ever had.”
“You can determine that after just a couple of minutes?”
“These few minutes have been better than the whole sixty I usually get.”
“Well, thank you. I think maybe you’re a bit biased, though. And it’s not like you’d tell me if I sucked.” With both thumbs, she pushed a path along his levator scapulae, feeling the tension drain from him, tension he probably didn’t even realize he carried. It gave her a little glow of joy.
“You most definitely do not suck. Might need you around those mornings I can barely move.”
His fighting was going to take its toll on his body someday. It probably already had. She frowned at the thought, thinking she’d like to get him on her table sometime. He couldn’t get the full benefit without her being able to go in from different angles. For now, she concentrated on his tense spots, feeling the satisfaction of them giving under her practiced fingers. He fell silent, his breathing slow, deep, and hypnotic as she worked. After a while, she leaned down to look into his face, and found he was sound asleep.
Chapter Nineteen
A rumble of thunder woke him, and when he opened his eyes it was to gaze at a blurry, unfamiliar drywall ceiling. For a second, he couldn’t figure out where the hell he was, and then everything came back in a rush. The spontaneous overnight road trip, and Savannah. And Savannah, and Savannah.
Turning his head, he found her dozing beside him, one dainty hand curled under her delicate cheek. But damn, those dainty hands were deceptive, weren’t they? They’d worked kinks out of his muscles he hadn’t realized were there. Checking his watch, he saw it was after noon. He hadn’t meant to go out on her like that, but after the drive—and the sex, God the sex—he’d been zonked.
She looked too peaceful to disturb, her impossibly long eyelashes resting on her smooth cheeks, her sweet lips slightly parted with her slow, slumberous breath.
Funny, smart, caring, passionate . . . he couldn’t have dreamed up a more perfect woman, couldn’t believe she actually existed and that she wanted to have shit to do with him. She talked about deserving, but f*ck, she could do so much better. Someone who wouldn’t rip her family apart. Someone stable and without a career that would force her to live in fear. He told himself this all the time; it was like a loop in his head, but he still couldn’t seem to stay away.