Page 26 of Keeping Mr. Right Now
She uncrossed her arms and placed her hand carefully on top of his. He cupped it between his, enjoying how damn soft her skin felt. “A guy in Hong Kong taught me that rubbing yourhokurelieves stress.” Zane couldn’t help it; with a very light touch, he rubbed his thumb across her palm. She shivered.
“Yourhokuis the flap of skin that connects your pointer finger to your thumb.” He moved his thumb there and applied pressure. “It’s an acupressure spot that alleviates upper body tension, and when you squeeze it, it minimizes stress.”
Rubbing his thumb in circular motions in the sensitive spot, he watched Sophie’s shoulders relax. Her eyes close.
Holy hell. If she responded to his touch so easily and hypnotically here, he could only imagine how she’d respond if he touched her in more sensitive spots.
His gaze fell to her smooth, creamy legs. Her skirt had lifted some, giving him a peek at her pretty thighs. How he wanted to stroke her there and move higher.
A tiny moan escaped her lush mouth, and her eyes jerked open. She whipped her hand back and sat taller. “Sorry,” she said. “I guess I had a little stress to relieve.”
He was damn tempted to offer his services on other parts of her body, but he refrained. “Works like a charm, right? So if I get stressed when I’m out in public, I just rub myhoku.”
She sucked in her bottom lip and then burst out laughing.
“Sounds a little dirty, doesn’t it?” he said.
“Uh-huh.” She pushed her glasses back into place and turned her head to look into the room. He followed her gaze to a stack of papers on the bed.
“How about that swim in the ocean?” he asked, remembering his reason for being there. And needing to cool off. To his surprise, Sophie pressed his hot buttons.
“I can’t. I’ve got a bunch of little things to take care of. Besides, you’ve got another surf lesson this afternoon,” she pointed out.
“How do you know that?” He’d forgotten about it.
“Bryce sent over your schedule so I’d know when you were available for some meet-and-greets.” She furrowed her brows. “What?”
He scraped a hand over his head and through his hair. “Nothing.” Seemed Bryce was as comfortable with Sophie as he was. “So how long have you been an event planner?”
“Umm…not very long. Almost a year.”
“First job out of college?” She looked a few years younger than him.
Moving her legs out from under her, she crossed them at her ankles and sat taller. “No, actually. I graduated four years ago. I was twenty.”
“Wow.” Zane gulped. His dad’s hurtful words about his intelligence rang in his ears. The fact that he didn’t even graduate from high school clenched every muscle in his body. He and Sophie might have connected on surfing, but she was otherwise out of his league.
“I studied neurobiology and used to do research for the university in Montana I graduated from, but I decided I wasn’t really happy doing that.”
He watched her pulse tremble in her throat. Why wasshenervous? Did she think he’d like her less knowing she was smart? If anything, he was even more intrigued and impressed. He’d sensed she was special, and he wanted to know more.
“What made you pick event planning?”
Her gaze went somewhere over his shoulder. “There was an event at the university for the chancellor’s retirement, and for the first time I got to dress up and go to a party and I loved everything about it. I thought it would be nice to be part of something where everyone had fun.
“I know it’s silly.” She waved her arm in the air. “But then in the ladies’ room I met the party planner and we got to talking and she was hiring. I gave notice the next day.”
As inadequate as he’d often felt without a high school diploma, he’d seen how people could be cruel to someone who was smarter than everyone else and didn’t fit the “norm.” In a different way, he guessed Sophie might have felt like an outsider, too, given her accomplishments at such a young age.
“It’s not silly. I admire your courage to change professions and go after something different.”
“I wish my family felt the same way.”
“They think party planning is beneath you?”
“As my mother likes to say, ‘Intelligence without strong purpose is a waste of your IQ.’ She means well, but I wish she’d let it go.”
Zane wasn’t sure what to say. When would Sophie figure out he wasn’t all that smart? And once she did, would she still want to have these conversations? He’d talked more with her than he had any other girl since longer than he could remember. He needed to get up and walk out the door before she figured him out.
