She hesitated again. “Well…okay.” He patted the couch again, and this time she crossed the room and sat down.
She twisted her hair into a loose knot and turned to face away from him. “Here’s the spot,” she said, reaching her hand around to touch the curve where her neck met her shoulder. “It’s been aching ever since I woke up this morning. I must have slept funny, or something.”
She was waiting for him to touch her, her body language expectant, but he couldn’t seem to move.
It had been a mistake to suggest this. She smelled so good…and he was afraid if he put his hands on her she’d know exactly what was on his mind.
What the hell was wrong with him? He should be thinking about taking care of her, not jumping her bones. The woman was six months pregnant and sex was probably the last thing on her mind.
After a moment she looked at him over her shoulder. “Is something wrong?”
She was wearing a thick wool turtleneck. “Your sweater’s a little bulky.” If he was going to ogle a pregnant woman, he might as well go for the gusto. “Do you mind taking it off?”
“Um…sure,” she said after a moment, reaching down for the hem and pulling the sweater over her head.
She wasn’t wearing anything provocative underneath it—just a long-sleeved white cotton shirt. But her neck was bare now, and the sight of the smooth, creamy skin at her nape made his mouth go dry.
“Great,” he heard himself say.
He hoped his hands weren’t shaking as he settled them on her shoulders.
The crick in her neck had been killing her all day.
It was just a shoulder rub, right? And she was desperate.
She had a moment’s trepidation when she first felt Jake’s hands on her, but when he started to knead her muscles all her anxiety went out the window.
She went boneless with pleasure. Jake’s hands were so big and strong and warm, and they searched out every pocket of tension along her spine. She let her head fall forward and he used his thumbs to smooth the muscles from her collarbone to the base of her skull.
It felt so good a low moan escaped her. Jake’s hands stilled and she held her breath, but after a moment he kept going, moving from her neck to her shoulders and then down her arms to her wrists.
She pressed her lips together, determined to keep quiet from this point on. She didn’t need Jake to know how much she craved his touch—in every sense of the word. He’d probably be shocked if he knew what she’d been fantasizing about last night.
He massaged her hands, and she never wanted him to stop. Who knew her hands could hold so much tension, and that it could feel so good to release it?
A few minutes later he moved back up her arms to her shoulders, and when he started to work again on the knot that had been causing all the pain, she winced.
“Still stiff?”
She nodded, and he shifted a little behind her. When she looked over her shoulder she saw that he was reclining back against the arm of the sofa, and that he’d put a pillow in his lap.
“If you lie back, I can use gravity to help me.”
She started to, awkwardly, and he caught her under the arms and pulled her towards him, until she was lying on his lap with her head resting on the pillow.
She felt vulnerable in this position, cradled between Jake’s strong legs and with him looming over her. But then he slid his hands under her back, all the way down to her shoulder blades, and walked his fingers up along her spine to her neck. Delicious sensation radiated all through her body.
Jake was kneading her shoulders now, and she felt herself relaxing completely. Then he was cradling her head, supporting the weight of her skull in one hand while he worked on the knotted muscles between her neck and shoulder.
She’d thought that one hard core of tension would resist even Jake, but he worked the muscle so gently and so persistently that after a while it started to release.
Her eyes were closed, and Jake’s touch was so soothing. She hadn’t slept well the night before and she was full of tryptophan from the turkey. She had to be careful not to fall asleep. Falling asleep on Jake would be way too intimate, way too…
When she opened her eyes again she was deliciously, luxuriously comfortable. She was still between Jake’s legs but she was lying on her side now, further up his body, her head resting on his chest and her hands curled into the material of his shirt. He’d tucked a blanket around her at some point, and between the blanket and Jake she felt surrounded by warmth.
She couldn’t recall ever feeling so safe, so utterly at peace. Jake had one hand in her hair, caressing softly, and his other hand spread protectively over her belly.
She could have stayed like that forever. But then she felt him shift slightly underneath her, and she wondered if his leg had fallen asleep. “Am I too heavy? Do you need me to move?” she murmured sleepily.