“Holy—” she gasped. The hot water temporarily scorched her skin. Not enough to make her want out, but enough to take her breath away until her body adjusted to the sudden increase in temperature.
“Your skin is already pinking up,” he observed, touching her arm gently. “Is it too hot for you? I tend keep it extremely hot. It’s my preference. He placed her down on to one of the built in curved seats and turned and stepped out of the tub.
Faced with his retreating back, she blurted, “Don’t leave me.”
He paused, turning back to her. “I’m definitely not leaving. Just grabbing some necessary supplies. Lie back and relax, let the heat do its magic. You need to recover for later.” He winked and headed back into the house.
His naked backside walking away was a treat to behold. He had a butt sculpted to perfection on top of long tan legs with a healthy sprinkling of dark brown hair. Her stomach fluttered. She loved the way the hair on his arms and legs felt when he slid over her skin. Soft and rough at the same time. Maggie sighed when he disappeared out of sight, sinking back into the comfy seat.
Despite what he said, she was definitely in trouble here. She laid her head back on the tiled edge and looked up at the impossibly blue Carolina sky. It would be too damned easy to get used to this. She didn’t really understand much about Tucker’s life anymore than she did her own.
She had a feeling he was far more than a patron at Purgatory and wouldn’t be surprised to learn he was more involved with the club than he’d let on. That new thought unsettled her. Given time it was certainly possible she’d want to go back, but not for a while. She’d need more time to be ready. That would likely put a pretty big crimp in his style. Although she’d heard more than one comment about how long it had been since he’d been there. Maggie made a mental note to ask him about that.
“Falling asleep in there?” Tucker’s deep voice permeated the fog of Maggie’s brain.
“I’m thinking about it.”
She heard Tucker enter the hot tub and take a seat next to hers. “You might want to wait until you’ve had one of these first.”
She took a deep breath, ready to tell him whatever it was it could wait when the scent of cinnamon and sugar drifted through her brain. “Oh. My. God. Is that…” She cracked an eye open to find a plate of cinnamon rolls shoved under nose. “It is.”
She sat up and grabbed one, stuffing it in her mouth in two seconds flat.
“Sexy,” he drawled.
Maggie shrugged mid chew. He’d discovered her weakness. “Nothing gets between me and a cinnamon roll. They’re my favorite.”
“Good to know.” He sat back and relaxed. She watched him rotate his shoulders and move his head side to side.
“Sore muscles?” she asked. Maggie popped the last bite of her delicious sweet roll into her mouth and scooted closer to Tucker. “Turn around.”
One of his eyebrows climbed.
Maggie ignored the look and climbed behind him in the tub. She curled her legs around his hips and snuggled comfortably so she could massage his shoulders and back. Faced with the up close view of his muscles, she tried to ignore the tingle in her breasts and pussy. Her visceral reaction aside, she wanted to give something back to him.
“Have you slept much this week?” she asked.
He grunted some non-committal sound as her fingers went to work on his shoulders. “Sleep is overrated. Isn’t that what they say?”
“I guess,” she answered. As she kneaded his muscles loose her mind wandered back to high school and the boy who’d stolen a kiss from her. He’d scared her witless when he’d pulled a reaction so fierce from her that she’d been numb for days afterward. Even now, all these years later, her body still came alive when she remembered the feel of his mouth on hers.
He’d become her secret crush for years. The unrequited lust she never quite got over. After she’d left for college she moved on but somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that it was that one kiss that set the standard for every man who came after him.
“What happened to you after high school?” she blurted. There was so much she didn’t know and it was time to fill in the blanks.
His back stiffened, the move so slight if she hadn’t been touching him she’d likely not have noticed. A few seconds ticked by without an answer. Finally he sighed and the muscles underneath her hands relaxed a fraction.
“Same as you. I went off to college. Although I didn’t go far. I opted for football at East Carolina.”
Maggie frowned. “You’d think I would have heard about one of our own becoming a college football star.”