Something about that offer should’ve worried me. The man was bringing me sugar and offering to stick his hands on my body when I was emotionally vulnerable.
Somewhere very, very deep in my mind, I heard a voice whispering that this might not be the best idea.
Naturally, I hit the mute button on that bitch and sat my emotionally vulnerable ass in the chair.
If I couldn’t snuggle on his lap or let him do naughty things to me, then this was going to be the thing I allowed myself.
Donuts and a neck exam. How very depressing.
When I opened the box of donuts, I sighed happily. “Oh my.”
Emmett approached from behind, the warmth of his big hands stealing through my shirt when he settled them on the back of my chair. “I wasn’t sure what you might like or if your employees would want some.”
I smiled. “In this office, anyone who brings donuts has our eternal love and admiration.”
It was said lightly enough, and I didn’t really mean anything by it, but nonetheless, Emmett and I lapsed into loaded silence.
“Where does it hurt?” he asked.
My heart, I thought. In so many different ways.
With a deep breath, I touched the spot just underneath the base of my skull. “I’m sure it’s nothing. Just a little brain teaser.”
It was very telling that I didn’t even attempt to grab a donut. I was a little hungover, a lot worried about my family, and in the presence of a man who had the uncanny ability to spin my head completely around.
He pressed his thumb in a gentle line down the edge of my neck, and my breath came out in a soft whoosh. “Oh, right there.”
“Tell me if it’s too much,” Emmett said. His voice was low and rumbly, and I pressed my legs together.
Emmett’s hands were magic. The perfect heat, the slight scrape of his callouses, and as his fingers dug into the aggravated muscle, everything in my body melted.
Months of holding myself in check seeped out of my frame, a tension I hadn’t even been aware that I’d been carrying around.
For the first time in four months, I could breathe.
My chin fell to my chest, my eyelids fluttering shut. He brushed my hair aside carefully, digging into another area, pushing the tension further out. The tips of his fingers slid over the nape of my neck, and my toes curled when he hit a particular knot of muscles.
I groaned, my hands falling limp into my lap.
He laughed under his breath.
“You’re really good at this,” I murmured. “I could fall asleep right here.”
“I’ve had a few sore neck muscles in my day.” He pushed his thumbs up the back of my neck and dragged them back down. “I wouldn’t be able to do my job without the team trainers working on all the places we get beat up.”
“Do they bring you donuts too?”
Was I slurring my words? What kind of black magic did he have in those fingers?
“They don’t.” Amusement was heavy in his tone. Maybe because I sounded as drunk as I had been last night. “How did you feel this morning, by the way?”
I hummed. “Better than I deserve to. I didn’t actually drink all that much. I just … have a terrible habit of saying things better left unsaid when I get a little bit of alcohol in me.”
“I don’t think that’s such a bad thing.”
Of course he didn’t. He got me to admit all the things I’d refused to say out loud for so many months. And those things involved me and him and tongues and no clothes.