ALL THE RAGE (writer: T.M. Frazier)(31)

Not her.

I might have been under water the first time I saw her, but even then, I knew right away that Rage most definitely wasn’t like any other girl.





CHAPTER THIRTEEN




Rage


One sink with a chipped Formica counter top, a yellow tub/shower combo, and a toilet hidden behind a half wall was all that made up the tiny bathroom. A narrow obscure window high up on the wall, muting the bright light of day. The Faded pink floral wallpaper took up every available inch of wall space with a matching border that ran through the center, dividing the wall in two.

“I think you’re perfectly capable of doing that on your own,” I said to Nolan’s reflection in the mirror as I stood in the doorway.

I’d just finished giving Murray a long overdue bath and I’d come to the realization that he was more grey than black, when Nolan had called to me from the bathroom. I’d found him soaking in the tub I’d scrubbed in order to be cleaner when you stepped out than you were when you stepped in. Nolan’s back was to me against the tile, but in the mirror I could see him clearly, his defined ab muscles disappearing below the water, which was thankfully too soapy to see anything through. Although my eyes still wandered that way.

“Maybe, but what fun would that be?” Nolan asked, wagging an eyebrow suggestively.

I turned to leave.

“No, wait,” he said, and for some reason, I actually listened and stopped. I seemed to be doing that a lot when it came to him. I didn’t like it. Not one bit. I got into all this to have my freedom and there I was taking orders from him, a target of all people.

I needed to remember where my f*cking balls were, and quick.

“All joking aside, my knee locked up on me and I could use your help,” Nolan said, his voice taking on a more serious tone. “Please,” he added, offering me a small sheepish smile.

“Fine,” I huffed. Walking over to the tub, I sat on the bath mat and leaned over the edge. Just because he affected me, didn’t mean he needed to know that. We locked eyes and I attempted to keep my gaze on his face. “What do you need me to do?”

Nolan pointed to his injured leg. His knee bent at an angle, rising up just above the water. “I need you to press down on my leg a little so I can unlock it from this position,” he said.

“And you can’t do that because…”

“Because it hurts when I try and do it and I’m not good at inflicting pain on myself.” He met my eyes. “But something tells me you’d be really good at it,” he joked.

Winner, winner.

“Well, there’s only one way you’re gonna find out,” I muttered. Nolan chuckled. “Where do you want me to push?

“Right here,” he said, positioning his hands above his kneecap on both sides of the jagged red scar. I brushed off his hands and placed mine where he’d showed me. In the corner of my eye, I got a glimpse of movement between Nolan’s legs under the water. I pushed down.

Hard.

“Fuck!” Nolan cried out as his knee gave under the pressure. I removed my hands. “I thought you were going to at least count to three or something.”

“Why did you think that?” I asked. “You didn’t say to do that.”

“ ’Cause it’s the humane thing to do,” he said through gritted teeth. The cords in his neck were tight. I shrugged. “Can you massage it, please? It’s so f*cking stiff, it hurts to even move it.” I looked at him skeptically, searching for the joke that always seemed to follow his requests. Instead, he surprised me by saying, “Please, Rage, I don’t want to have to take the pain shit they gave me. I really hate that crap. Guys on the hockey team popped those things like f*cking Tic Tacs. Made them sloppy and it hindered their recovery. I don’t want that.” His eyes softened. He covered my hand, which was resting on the side of the tub with his own. I pulled it back but he held on. “I’m still hoping for a miracle here.”

Reminding myself that no matter what my reaction was to Nolan, I was there under the false pretense of helping him. So helping I would have to do. Again, I placed my hands above his knee, just as he’d shown me and started to slowly massage the area around his scar. He hissed through his teeth at first, but as I felt the stiffness of his strained thigh muscle become softer and more pliable, he let out an approving moan that made my nipples hard. He closed his eyes and rested the back of his head against the tile wall.

“You know,” I said needing to talk. Needing to say something that would distract me from the stirring I saw yet again just under the water, and only a few inches from where my hands were working over Nolan’s leg. “I hurt my leg once too.”

Nolan opened his eyes. “Oh yeah? Doing what?”

“Scooter accident. I crashed my Vespa into a ditch,” I said, offering as much of the truth as I could. I really did crash my Vespa, but it was because of a rookie mistake and the result of being way too close to an explosion, which had been a lot more powerful than I’d anticipated. Blown into a ditch while on my scooter might have been a bit more accurate.

It was a mistake I never made again.

“You break it?”

I shook my head and sat back on my butt. “Nah, she needed a new gas tank and getting the dings out was a pain in the ass. The worst thing was that they don’t make that shade of blue anymore. It’s a classic scooter, so I had to get it matched and I had to have it done three times for them to get it right.”