A Cowboy in Manhattan(19)
She crooked her head to look up at him. “Is this a joke? Did Mandy put you up to this?”
“I’m completely serious.”
“I’m not a horse.”
His gaze flicked down for a split second. “In fact, you are not. But the principle’s the same.” He motioned for her to lift her foot.
She ignored the gesture. “I thought you were mad at me.”
“I am.”
“So, why do you want to help?”
“Because you need it.”
“And because Mandy asked you?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
Katrina considered his expression seriously. “Were you ever in love with my sister?”
“No.” He reached down and lifted her ankle, crouching and resting her leg across his denim-covered knee.
She didn’t fight him. “Are you lying to me?”
“No.”
“So, there’s nothing between you and Mandy?”
“She’s marrying my brother. That’s what’s between us.” He tugged at the bow and loosened the laces of Katrina’s sneaker.
“I don’t even know how to interpret that.” Did he mean Caleb had come between him and Mandy?
Reed gently removed Katrina’s shoe and set it on the worn, dusty floor. “There’s nothing to interpret.”
“You’re being deliberately oblique.”
Reed shook his head, slipping off her sock. “What makes you think I had a thing for Mandy?”
“Because you’re doing her a favor. By helping me. What other reason would there—”
His large warm hands wrapped around her ankle, and she jumped at the electric sensation.
“It’s not Mandy.” He rotated her ankle. “Does this hurt?”
Katrina sucked in a breath and tried to tug her foot out of his grasp.
“Hold still.”
“It hurts.”
“Sorry.” His thumb pressed on the inside of her foot below her ankle bone. “This?”
“Yes,” she hissed.
He tried the opposite side of her foot and glanced up.
She shook her head in an answer.
“Point your toe?”
She did.
“Other way.”
She flexed. “Ouch.”
“Yeah,” he commiserated, moving back toward the sorest spot. He made small circles with the pad of his thumb, massaging in a way that hurt, but the pain wasn’t too sharp.
She steeled herself to keep still.
“Relax,” he instructed. His attention moved farther up her calf.
Okay, that didn’t hurt at all. In fact, it felt very nice. Very, very nice. She closed her eyes.
His deep voice was low and soothing as it rumbled in the cavernous space. “I’m going to move you.”
“Hmm?”
“You lean over any farther and you’re going to fall off the bike seat.” His hands left her leg, and suddenly he was scooping her from the bicycle, lifting her, carrying her.
“What—”
“Over here.” He nodded to a small stack of hay bales against a half wall.
He set her down, and the stalks of hay prickled through her tights.
She shifted. “Ouch.”
“Ouch?”
“It prickles.”
Reed shook his head in disgust, coming to his feet, striding away, his boot heels clomping on the floor.
Katrina straightened. But just as she was debating whether to hop her way back to her discarded sock and sneaker or get her bare foot dirty, Reed returned with a dark green horse blanket over one arm.
He spread it across the hay bales, then unceremoniously lifted her to place her on the thick blanket.
“Better?” he asked, tone flat.
“I only have thin tights on,” she protested, gesturing to the contrast of his sturdy jeans. “The hay pokes right through them.”
“Did I say anything?”
“You think I’m a princess,” she huffed.
“You are a princess.” He crouched down in front of her, lifting her foot to his knee again.
“I have delicate skin and thin clothing.”
His strong thumb began to massage again, working its way in circles up the tight muscles of her calf. “Am I hurting you now?”
“No.”
“Good. Lean back. Try to relax. We’ll talk about your clothes later.”