She trailed her hands over his hips to his waist, not wanting to take her hands off him and break the connection, even for a second.
“Is that it?” she said at last.
“Why don’t you explore and find out for yourself?” His voice was a deep rumble that went through her body.
Kirsty hesitated.
“I’ll keep my word,” he said as though reading her mind.
He wasn’t going to come and get her. Not tonight. Not unless she wanted him to. And, she had to admit, she was beginning to want him to - very much.
“Okay,” she said.
She walked around him, trailing her fingers in her wake, letting them slide over hard warm muscle. Feeling him react to her touch with hitches in his breath and a slight tension in his muscles. She stood behind him and ran her palms, flat and open, up his back. Tracing the line of his spine with her thumbs before fanning out over his shoulders.
“This?” she said breathlessly.
She touched a finger to a tiny white scar on his right shoulder.
“I was pushed into a wall with a nail sticking out.”
“Training?”
“Afghanistan.”
Her hands were on the move again. Over his shoulders and down his arms, feeling the strength in his biceps. Her mouth was dry.
“How do you work out here, in Invertary?”
“I put some kit in the back room at the shop.” She could hear his breathing. She knew it was speeding up. “Come over and spar. I’ll teach you a thing or two.”
He was already teaching her a thing or two, she wasn’t sure she could handle much more. Her hands moved back up to his shoulders. The feel of him was making her light headed. And she wanted more. Badly. But she wasn’t sure that she could return this. She wasn’t sure she could be this open with him.
“Lake,” she said timidly. “You promise you won’t touch me?”
He made a strangling noise.
“You promise you won’t make me undress?”
“I gave you my word,” he said. “Therapy. Remember?”
It was obvious that he was trying to keep things light, and failing.
“But you promise,” she hesitated. “No matter what I do?”
She felt every muscle on his body tighten.
“I promise,” he growled.
Kirsty leaned forward and kissed the shoulder muscle that drove her wild.
He made a strangling noise as he clenched his fists.
“You’re driving me crazy here, babe,” he told her.
Kirsty smiled against his skin, which made him groan. She kissed her way around his shoulder until she stood in front of him.
“If I say I want to kiss, but nothing else, will that be okay?” she said as her fingers traced circles on his pecs.