She frowned. “That doesn’t hurt.”
“It doesn’t have to hurt.” He worked it up and down her arms. Then he showed her what it felt like when it arced.
“Ooh, that’s a little tingly, but not bad.”
“Exactly. The point isn’t really to make you say red. It’s to find the place where your body hits that tipping point from coasting along to jumping into the endorphin pond.”
“Can you turn it up a little?”
“Sure.” He tested her with it until he found the setting where it was a little too much. “And then it can change depending on the probe you’re using. Different probes have different sensations. Or if I’m using a light bulb instead of a probe.”
After a few minutes, he noted her smile. “I do like that,” she said. “You’re right, it doesn’t hurt.”
While they were sitting there, Holly’s friend Joyce walked over, trailed by her new play partner.
Joyce knelt. “You good?”
“Yeah, I’m good.”
“You don’t mind if I go ahead and hang with him for the rest of tonight, do you?”
“No, that’s fine.”
“I didn’t want to just abandon you.”
“Seriously, have fun.”
“Great, thanks! See you later.”
They headed off, but Holly had already refocused on Walt. Behind her glasses, her brown eyes stared into his.
“Would you like to try some of the other probes?” he asked.
“Yes, please.”
He spent the next hour showing her a lot of different things, and her tolerance quickly rose, as did her bravery. He suspected a good deal of that was due to what Nate had already done, loosening her body up and getting her endorphins flowing.
“Can you do that on my back?” she asked. “My shoulders get really knotted up.”
“Sure.”
She wiggled around a little and then pulled her dress up and off her before she rolled onto her stomach and got comfortable.
He turned the intensity down once more and adjusted it until he found the sweet point for her before working it along her back. Her flesh was already marked with large, overlapping purple and reddish circles from Nate’s cupping treatment.
Walt wouldn’t deny he felt a smidge envious of Nate for having gotten to do that to her.
Must add cupping to my skills list.
Once he finished with that, she rolled over. “What was the sadistic reflexology Nate was talking about?”
“How comfortable are you with me touching you?”
“Yes, please.” She offered him a smile he suspected was more than a little subspacey.
He couldn’t help but chuckle. She was adorable. “Are you okay with me touching your feet and legs?”
“That’s all?”
He fought the urge to laugh. “Let’s start there. You might be calling me a sadistic bastard in a few minutes.”
“I can only hope.”
* * * *
Holly wasn’t sure what had gotten into her, but she wanted Walt to touch her in way more places than just her feet. When a chilly draft of air wafted across her skin, she pulled one of the throws loosely around her.
Maybe this is kind of what subspace feels like.
He moved so he was sitting at her feet and put them in his lap. She watched as he picked up her right one first and his fingers gently probed, first up and down her instep, then along her big toe, inside and out.
He paused. “Ready?”
She nodded. Hell, he hadn’t even tickled—
“Holy fuck!” she shrieked as pain shot through her foot. Before she could even yank her foot out of his grasp, the pain disappeared.
Walt wore a grin. “You were saying?”
“What the hell was that?”
“Pressure point. Hold out your hand.”
Now she wasn’t sure she wanted to, but she finally did.
“Palm up.”
She turned her hand over.
He pressed his index finger against her palm. “That’s all the pressure I was using.”
She stared at him. “No freaking way.”
“Way.”
She sat up, adjusting the throw around her. She had her panties on, but hadn’t worn a bra tonight with her sundress. “Show me again.”
He took her hand and, holding her index finger, ran it along her toe so she could feel the bump. Then, with his own fingers over hers, he pressed—
“Shit!” She let out a squeal of pain as he immediately released her fingers.
Walt arched an eyebrow at her. “You were saying?”
Aghast, she ran her fingers over the spot herself, lightly pressing and wincing as pain shot through her foot.
“Holy hell. I didn’t believe it. Still not sure I believe it.”
“Believe it. There are a couple of spots like that on the body. Agony with little work involved.”
“That’s absolutely crazy.”
“That’s what everyone thinks the first time they experience that.”
She settled back again and let Walt do his worst, so to speak, enjoying the back side of every jolt of pain he sent through her. He was absolutely right that it felt great when he released the pressure points.
Eventually, Tony walked over and squatted just off the mats. “I hate to interrupt you, Walt, but this is your thirty-minute warning.”
“Ah, okay. Thanks.”
“No problem.” He caught her eye. “You look happy.”
“I feel happy.” Holly sat up, not only feeling happy but a little spacey, too, and realizing her panties were now somewhat damp. “Wow. I really lost track of time.”
“So did I,” Walt said.
He started packing up his violet wand kit while she got dressed and went to use the restroom one more time.
“I’ll walk you and your friend out,” Walt said when she returned. “That way, you and I can exchange numbers and I can get your address for tomorrow.”
“Oh, yeah. Thanks.” She felt like the world’s shittiest sister that she’d totally forgotten about meeting with the attorney.
Walt stayed with her, walking her back over to the other side. When Holly scanned the room, though, she didn’t spot Joyce.
Or Joyce’s new playmate, Luke.
Walt seemed to notice their absence as well. “You go check the bathroom on this side. I’ll go look in the office.”
But Joyce wasn’t in the bathroom, or in the office, where Holly met up with Walt.
They walked outside and that’s when Holly realized Joyce’s car wasn’t there.
Holly stared. “What the hell?”
Chapter Seven
“Why would she drive off and leave you?” Walt asked.
“I don’t know. I hope everything’s okay.” Holly pulled out her phone and called Joyce’s number but got her voice mail. “Hey, I’m at the club and it’s about to close. What happened? Where are you? Call me back, please.”
Shit. After a great night, now this.
“Let me put my stuff in my truck,” Walt said, “and I’ll wait in the office with you.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
She walked back inside. When Walt returned, Joyce still hadn’t called her back, and Holly had also sent her a text message. Meanwhile, Holly exchanged numbers with Walt, as well as gave him her address.
By two o’clock, the club’s closing time, there was still no word from Joyce. Cherise and the other volunteer at the desk hadn’t noticed when Joyce had left exactly, or if she’d left alone. People came and went all the time, as well as the smokers who went back and forth, making it nearly impossible to keep a close eye out for someone they didn’t even know they needed to look for.
“Well, now I’m really worried,” Holly admitted to Walt. “And now I’m freaking stuck here.”
“You’re not stuck here, because I’ll drive you home. But do we want to go by her place and make sure she’s okay?”
Now he’d probably think she was as flakey
as Joyce, but Holly couldn’t help but be worried. “If you don’t mind.”
“Of course I don’t mind. I wouldn’t have offered if I minded.”
“Thanks.” They walked back outside to his truck and she didn’t miss that he opened the passenger door for her. “Sorry about this,” she apologized.
“Nothing to be sorry about. All I’d be doing is going home. This gives me someone to talk to for a little longer.” He gave her a smile that would have melted her under other circumstances. “At least this way now I get to see where you live instead of just having your address. It’ll make finding it tomorrow easier.”
Joyce lived nearly thirty minutes from Holly, which made Holly feel even worse for the trouble she was putting Walt through. The apartment complex was dark and poorly lit, and Walt refused to let Holly walk up to the woman’s door alone.
Joyce’s car sat parked out front in her usual spot.
Holly knocked, hard. It took a couple of minutes, but Joyce finally opened the door, looking disheveled, half asleep, and with a bathrobe pulled around her. “What’s wrong?”
“Uh, what’s wrong?” Holly held her hands up and waved. “Hellooo? Did you forget something when you left the club?”
“What?”
“You freaking left me there!”
“I told you I was going.”
“Uh, no, you didn’t.”
“You didn’t,” Walt said.
Luke walked up behind her. “What’s wrong?”
Holly fought the urge to scream. “You ditched me at the club because you’re getting laid? Fucking seriously?”
“Hey, I asked you if it was okay if I left.”
Before Holly could, Walt stepped in. “No, your exact words were, ‘You don’t mind if I go ahead and hang with him for the rest of tonight, do you?’ You never said anything about leaving.”
Joyce’s hand pulled the collar of the robe closed at her throat as her face turned red. “I didn’t?”
“No,” Holly and Walt said together.
“Oh. I thought I did. Look, I told you I didn’t want to just abandon you.”
Walt took over from there, and Holly was happy for him to do so. “Considering I also did not interpret your comments to mean you were leaving with this guy, it’s not just a misinterpretation on Holly’s part. Kind of rude to leave her at the club by herself.”
“I didn’t mean to! I figured she’d get a ride with you or something.”
“Did you ask her that, or were you just so horny to sleep with this guy that you wanted to ditch her?” Walt shot back.
Holly had never found herself in this position before. It was a nice position to be in, despite the awkward circumstances, of someone fighting for her, on her side for a change.
“Look, I’m sorry, okay?”
“Whoa, you ditched her?” Luke asked. “Not cool. You told me she had a ride.”
Walt gently draped an arm around Holly’s shoulders. “I’ll make sure she gets home safely, no thanks to you.”
Holly wasn’t sure if it was just residual effects of them playing earlier, or maybe the comforting feel of Walt’s arm around her, but she thought her panties might have just gotten a little damper.
While he walked her back to his truck, she swore she could feel the tension vibrating from Walt.
“I’m really sorry about this.”
“Don’t you dare apologize.” He opened the door for her. “This isn’t your fault. I heard exactly what you heard, and I don’t mind driving you home. It pisses me off that she could have put you in danger by leaving you there. Had she simply asked if you could find another ride home, I would have been happy to volunteer to give you one.”
“Thanks.”
Once they were headed back to her house, she risked staring at him while he drove. “And thank you for tomorrow, too.”
“Not a problem. Kimbra looked up your brother’s case while I was on the phone with her. She’s eager to get hold of it.”
“Why?”
“Because she loves a challenge and she hates when justice is derailed. Makes her a fantastic attorney.” He glanced her way, smiling. “Made her a horrible wife, though. She’ll be the first to admit it, so I’m not horrible for saying it about her.”
“I don’t think I ever asked what you do for a living.”
“I’m an audiologist. Mainly pediatric patients, which is another reason I keep this side of my life very private. I do some ASL interpreting on the side, mostly for Kimbra and her clients when needed. She does quite a bit of pro bono work for the PD’s office and non-profits locally.”
“That’s amazing.”
“It’s a living.”
“How’d you get into that?”
He started telling her about his deaf uncle, also an attorney, and how he’d grown up with ASL as a second language in his family. By the time they reached her house, she was beginning to allow the glimpse of hope to peek through.
Normally she wasn’t a superstitious person, but it sure as hell seemed like maybe her luck had finally changed for the better.
Walt walked her to her front door while she started fumbling around, trying to fish her keys out of her purse. When she went to open the screen door so she could unlock the front door, the iffy top hinge finally gave way. She would have dropped the top-heavy thing as it tried to pivot on the remaining hinge had Walt not grabbed it.
“Whoa.” He got a better grip on it. “Glad that didn’t whack you in the head.” The upper section was glass, the bottom metal, and the center section screen with an ornate metal scrollwork in front of it.
“Sorry. That thing’s been close to going for a while. I usually go in and out of the garage with my car.”
“Looks like the screws just pulled out of the frame. If you have a screwdriver, I can try either putting them back in, or at least taking the others out so we can lay it down. I can come over early and fix it for you tomorrow.”
“I can’t ask you to do that.”
* * * *
Walt wasn’t going to take no for an answer, especially as pissed off as he was on Holly’s behalf at Joyce. Now even more that he’d gotten a look at Holly’s house.
Despite the shadowy, dim glow cast by the anemic porch light, he could see at least five other honey-do projects that she likely hadn’t been able to do herself or pay to have done—including fixing the porch light fixture, which looked like it was barely hanging on by a single screw and electrical wires. From what he could tell of the rest of the neighborhood, Holly’s house was slowly becoming “that” house on the street, the one slipping into disrepair while everyone else kept theirs up.
“You didn’t ask me to do it,” he said. “I’m telling you I’m going to do it for you.”
“Thank you. Let me go find a screwdriver for you.”
“Okay.”
She disappeared inside. From the glimpse he got through the doorway, the house seemed clean, but he suspected there were a lot of things her fibro wouldn’t let her do. Already, he was planning tomorrow—more accurately, later that afternoon—in his head. He could get back over here with his tools and start working on knocking out a few projects for her, whatever she needed doing, and still have time to clean up and change before Kimbra got there. Then he’d take Holly out for dinner and—
Wait. What am I doing?
He barely knew her, and here he was, planning a whole white knight scenario.
Maybe she wouldn’t even want him to do all of that.
What the hell is wrong with me?
He didn’t have to wait long for her to return. “I wasn’t sure what size.” She held three screwdrivers.
After switching places with her and making sure she had a good grip on the door, he was able to get a better look at the door frame and realized the door did need to come off. “I’ll take it off for tonight. I’ll fix it in the morning. I’m pretty sure I have the screws I’ll need.”
Which was a fib, because he knew he’d need to stop by the hardware stor
e and get more than just screws, but he didn’t want to overwhelm her right then. The outer frame was dry-rotted and needed to be replaced. Not a horrible job, probably, but it would take a couple of hours and a few pieces of lumber.
And the last thing he wanted her doing was saying no.
Not when he wanted to spend more time with her.
Once he had the door off and safely lying on its side propped up against the wall, Holly invited him in so he could wash his hands.
As he’d guessed, the house was neat, but from the dripping faucet in the guest bathroom to a toilet that he had to jiggle the handle to make it stop running, the evidence of disrepair was mounting.
When he emerged from the bathroom, he found her in the kitchen. One of the drawers in there was missing the pull handle. “Okay, so here’s the thing,” he said. “I’m not doing anything tomorrow other than meeting with you and Kimbra. So I’m going to come by about ten, if that’s all right. I’ll knock out a couple of projects around here for you. Then later, after we talk with Kimbra, you’re going to let me take you out to dinner. Or I’ll cook you dinner here, if you’d prefer. I’ll bring stuff so I can wash up and change clothes. Dinner plans depend on how you feel.”
He loved how she blushed. “I can’t ask you to do that.”
“Again, you’re not asking me. It’s a simple yes or no answer. I like to help people. It’s not an imposition. Seriously, all I’d planned to do was wash my truck and lounge around on the couch.”
She finally nodded, pulling her glasses off and wiping at her eyes. “Yes, thank you,” she quietly said. “I really appreciate it. It’s hard for me to keep up with basic chores and I can’t afford a repairman. If I can’t do it myself, it doesn’t get done unless it’s something big that can’t wait.”
“Well, lucky for you, I enjoy doing stuff like this.” He offered her a smile. “Ten o’clock then.”
She walked him to the front door. “Ten o’clock.”
As Walt climbed into his truck, he felt lighter than he had in years.
He certainly didn’t mind how his evening had turned out.
When he got home, he texted Kimbra Holly’s information.