LLucy’s Revenge(Divine Creek Ranch 15)(32)

“I really did appreciate that cup of coffee.” He’d thought she wanted to say more but she left it at that.

“I liked doing something that would take care of you, Lucy. You always take care of everyone else. I’m sorry I’ve been such an asshole. Difficult. Belligerent.”

Lucy let out a soft chuckle as she put her body weight into a long, slow stroke up the back of his thigh. A corresponding thrill raced down his spine. “You? No. Really?”

“I’m glad you can laugh about it.”

Her voice was soft and she sounded vulnerable as she said, “I’ve played that night over in my mind probably hundreds of times.”

“Which night?”

“The night we met.” She scoffed lightly and her tone hinted at sarcasm. “Your words played in my head for days…weeks after you said them.”

Of all the times he’d put his foot in his mouth, she went back to the first time they’d met? He couldn’t understand why but got a bad feeling.

Fuck. What did I do now? “What did I say?”

He lifted up on an elbow but she pushed him back down and worked the heel of her hand down the outside of his thigh. “Lie still or you’re going to tighten all those knots up again. Do you remember that I asked you for a dance that night? I read you all wrong. I thought you were flirting and that maybe you’d like to dance with me. Now that I know more about Chloe, and the timing…”

“What did I say?”

Lucy’s hands stilled for a moment. “You looked me up and down and your exact words were, ‘I think you’re more woman than I can handle, sweetheart,’ and you turned me down.”

“Shit. Shit. I’m sorry.” He could hear in her tone what she’d thought he meant but that wasn’t how he’d felt at all. It was never a question of her not being thin enough.

Lucy placed her palm on his lower back to stay him as she kept working. “When I finally talked to Patrick about it recently, he told me what he thought you meant by that and convinced me I might be wrong. But it was a bad time for me personally, too, and your words cut me. Patrick told me he felt terrible for not asking me to dance but he was dealing with his own issues and couldn’t risk me turning him down and I didn’t have the guts to ask him anyway, and…”

“I promise I didn’t mean it like that.” The fact that he’d hurt her when she had demons of her own added a new layer to his guilt.

“I’ve come around to that. You tend to stick your foot in your mouth sometimes so I make allowances.”

Son of a bitch. She had to make allowances for him? He let out a sigh as he replayed the scenario in his mind from her perspective. Being facedown on the table made it easier to talk about it. “Lucy, I spent all evening watching you dance up a storm with that other guy, Vance, who’s a well-known ladies’ man.”

“Yeah, he is,” she whispered, making it hard for him to gauge her emotions. She unwrapped his feet and he couldn’t believe he was able to lie still while she worked them over, too. He had very ticklish feet, but it was important to him to let Lucy have her way with him. Their conversation had followed a slow ebb and flow as she massaged the back side of his lower half and stretched him out. She was stronger than she looked.

“I was a wreck, Lucy. I took one look at you and knew I just couldn’t handle someone as…vibrant as you, not in the state I was in. You were so damned sexy in those high-heeled cowgirl boots and jeans, and I knew I could never do you justice. You deserved better. Still do.”

That’s not all. Tell her, coward.

Lucy finished with his legs and covered them up again. After removing the moist heat pack from his back, she trailed her hand along his spine and removed whatever was holding his hair without comment. Her heady scent combined with the eucalyptus as she bent near him and softly said, “Time to turn over. I’ll hold the sheet up for you while you get comfortable.”

Suddenly a soft cool draft wafted over his skin and he was uncovered, but she held the sheet up so he still had privacy. A fat lot of good that’s gonna do me when my boner tents the covers. No missing that greedy motherfucker. As if it knew its moment had come, his dick swelled some more and got even harder.

He let out a long sigh and framed an apology as he tilted his cock toward his hip with his palm. She laid the sheet and coverlet over him and then folded it down at the shoulders, smiling at him as he opened his eyes while she was bent over him.

“Sorry, sweetness,” he murmured as he held his cock down willing it back asleep. Not that it listened, with her that close to him. The pleasant sting as a droplet of pre-cum cleared the head made him grit his teeth.