Page 25 of Deking at Love
“Mmph.Yeah, I’m great.Never better.”
“Sit.”If she’d been strong enough, she probably would have lifted him off his feet and plunked his ass on the table, which made him bust a laugh.She peered at him, lips pursed, brows pulled together.“What’s so funny?”
With the help of his good foot, he sat back on the table.“Nothing’s funny right now.”
“You might have re-injured yourself.Let me take a look.”
“No.I’ve got this.In fact …” He slid back to the floor, his weight on his good foot, the toes of his injured one resting gingerly beside it.“I can walk now.I’ve been practicing at home.”
Her hands fell away, but her frown remained etched in her features as she stepped to the side and crossed her arms over her chest.
Her professional mask snapped back into place, and the rhythm of her breathing returned to its usual cool cadence—except her bra was still unhooked beneath her shirt, a sight that was both at odds with her posture and a thrill for him.Maybe I can take advantage of that later.Assuming he could talk her into a “later.”
She seemed to read his mind and snapped him back to reality when she turned away, untucking her shirt and refastening her bra.She was business as usual when she faced him again.“Aren’t you living a little dangerously, going without the boot?”
“I’ve been testing it.”Through his disappointment, he managed to flash her a grin.“Except for just now when I landed too hard, it feels pretty good.”
“Uh-huh.”She flicked her wrist at him.“Lie back.”
Lifting his legs onto the table, he leaned back on his elbows.Fortunately, the action in his pants had deflated, so the evidence of their tongue-twining session was no longer visible to the naked eye.“Is this so you can climb on top of me?”
The horror on her face clued him that he’d totally missed the mark with his attempt at flirting.
“Didn’t I just say we shouldn’t have done … what we did?”Though his torso was still angled upward, she went to work, pressing along the tendons above his ankle.Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t keep his jaw from flexing.She slid him a glance.“‘Feels pretty good’ usually doesn’t pull a wince from the average patient.”
Getting himself under control, he lay back and braced himself.This time her probing and prodding hurt like a son of a bitch, and he muttered under his breath, “Your hands are a tool for sadism.”
“Pain is data, Sam,” she replied blandly.“Don’t argue with science—or me.”
Why had he come in again tonight?It certainly wasn’t to be tortured.No, it was so he could come up with his own rehab plan.“So I can’t work out while I’m here tonight?”
Releasing him, she stood back.“I don’t normally reward bad behavior, but since you went to the trouble of breaking in, let’s do a few exercises and see how the ankle holds up.”
“Let’s see, more alphabet soup?”When she nodded, he added dryly, “Can’t wait.”
She actually had him start with ankle circles, after which she started him on the alphabet with slow, deliberate movements, using his big toe to outline the letters in the air.
“Stiff?”she asked.
Grinning, he quipped, “I was, but not anymore,” pulling another eye-roll from her.
“I’m talking about your ankle,” she gritted out.
He didn’t want to admit it, but every motion tugged at the stiffness in his joint.When she plucked a resistance band from her box of torture devices, she recited a bunch of textbook jargon about what he was working through, like dorsiflexion and inversion.His eyes glazed over.But then one of the last moves caused his breath to hitch, and she caught it.Of course she did.
“That’s your high ligament talking.”She tapped away on her keyboard.“You’re not quite ready for rotation.”
He scowled at her.“Why not?”
“Because your ankle isn’t happy with these exercises.”
“Are you saying this could take longer?”
“I’m not saying anything except that you’re not ready for the next step.And yes, it’s possible this is going to go longer than what we were hoping for.”
He spluttered.“You said four weeks!”
“I said four to six, possibly eight or more.That’s for an average patient.”She met his gaze, calm and unflinching.“That’s if you behave and your body plays nice.So far, both of those qualifiers are questionable.”
