“Actually, I think it’s extortion,” I tell him. “Then again, I’m not sure there’s a difference.”
“They’re similar enough that it can be easy to get the two confused,” he says, “but where you’re threatening to call the cops to shut down the tournament, exposing not only me, but a lot of people I’ve grown to tolerate over the years makes it blackmail.”
“Between your knowledge of the law and my knowledge of medicine, maybe we should start working toward being one of those doctor/lawyer power couples,” I tell him.
“What, like your parents?” he asks.
“Don’t think that just because you’re in bed at my urging that I’m above smacking you around,” I answer. “And no: If my parents are a power couple, it’s only due to all the money they’ve tucked away over the years. Neither one of them is actually good at anything.”
“You don’t really like your parents very much, do you?” he asks.
I know what he’s doing. He’s uncomfortable being confined to his bed, so he’s going to try to make me uncomfortable by talking about my parents. He tried this yesterday. It didn’t work then, but maybe he thinks my resolve has weakened since then.
Fortunately, I know just how to get out of this.
“You know, maybe we should use this time talking about our families,” I tell him. “Neither one of us is going too far for a while: You’re supposed to stay in bed until further notice, and I don’t trust you to do that unless I’m right here.”
“Don’t you have school or something?” he asks.
I feel as much of the unbandaged portion of his forehead as possible to see if he’s spiked a fever.
“Summer break started last week,” I tell him. “You don’t remember?”
He looks up at me, saying, “They have summer classes, you know. Don’t you want to get your degree already? I mean, why wait?”
“Because I have to work during the summer,” I tell him.
“Then isn’t there a job you should be getting to or something?” he asks.
I pat his chest. “It can wait,” I tell him. “Right now, I think maybe it’s time for your sponge bath.”
“I don’t know what your obsession is with wanting to do that,” he says, “but I really don’t want to have that be what you’re thinking about when you see me naked.”
“I’m a healthcare professional-ish,” I tell him.
He says, “That’s exactly the sort of thing you want to hear from—”
“Well, I’m not going down on you until you’re all nice and sparkly clean, so I’m open to suggestions,” I say and then turn away, trying to hide my face as I feel the hot blood rising toward the surface of my skin. I’m trying to play it cool.
The way things have been recently, it’s been a little while since either of us has gotten particularly flirty. I think it’s about time we change that.
“I can take a shower,” he says. “I’ll be in and out in five minutes.”
“Nope,” I tell him. “Hot water thins the blood and with you having a problem with lightheadedness because you didn’t stop when your body told you to stop, I really don’t want to risk you going in there and cracking your head worse than you already have.”
“I’ll take a cold shower then,” he says.
“No, from what I’ve heard from sitcoms and late-night talk shows, that’s kind of the opposite of what we’re shooting for,” I tell him.
Yeah, I could use the release, but that doesn’t mean I have to make it easy for him.
“A bath then,” he says. “I’ll make the water warm, but not hot. I’ll get in, make sure I’m good and clean and then…”
He keeps going, but I just have to laugh. I could use the release, but I’d dare say that Mason here is flat-out horny.
There’s nothing medically wrong with him at this point, apart from some lingering exhaustion. He has some cuts and bruises, but they’re bandaged and healing. If we do have sex, I’m going to have to do all the work, but right now, I’m pretty okay with that.
The only problem is that he’s still trying to convince me.
“…one of those things that I think we can agree, I’m really good at,” he says. I don’t have any context. I wasn’t paying attention.
“Make it quick,” I tell him. “Momma’s gettin’ antsy.”
“Not gonna lie,” Mason says, sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the bed, “that’s more than a little creepy.”
“Whatever,” I say, smacking his ass on his way past. “Just don’t get too worn out in there,” I tell him.
He gives me a sideways look, but doesn’t bother calling me on how quickly I made things awkward.
From a medical standpoint, Mason’s fine walking, though from the careful steps, I’d guess that he’s still pretty sore from the way he’s been hitting the gym.
It’s continued to surprise me how he can stay so lean with all the lifting he does. I would have expected that he’d be somewhere between bulky and musclebound by now, but he’s obviously learned how to stay at a given weight by now.
I follow Mason to the bathroom.
Exhaustion is simple enough to treat, but it’s not an instant cure type of thing. Even with nothing but solid rest, the body takes time to rebound. Mason knows this just as well as I do, but I still get the feeling he thinks the rules don’t apply to him the way they apply to everyone else.
It’s a good primer watching Mason get undressed as the tub is filling up with water.
I check the temperature just to make sure it’s not too hot or too cold.
If it was hot, it wouldn’t kill him or anything. He just wouldn’t be too steady on his feet for the walk back to his room, and after that, he’d probably just fall asleep. Too cold might not help him drift into a peaceful sleep, but it can kill a guy’s mood.
If it didn’t feel like eons since he and I have had a chance to connect physically, the temperature of the water might not be such a pressing concern for me, but at the moment…
“Leave the bandages on,” I tell him. “I’ll change those out later. Right now, I’m just going to need you clean from the mouth down.”
“That’s some pretty solid dirty talk,” he laughs.
“Need any help?” I ask.
“No thanks,” he says. “I’m just barely on the right side of weird with you standing there watching me. Maybe if you’d played down the nurse thing a little, I could relax, but oh well.”
I give him my most inviting smile, saying, “Well, you’re a reasonably attractive man. You can’t blame a girl for wanting to catch an eyeful now and then, can you?”
He chuckles softly through his nose and continues to wash himself. After a minute, I do step out, not wanting to actually make him start associating my seeing him naked with him being uncomfortable, but I stay close.
After a few more minutes, I can hear the water splashing and I go back in as he’s getting out of the tub.
“Now, where were we?” he asks, grabbing a towel which I then grab from him.