Chapter 6
The next few days
were pretty uneventful for Paul. The scenery was beautiful and he tried
going for a hike one day, but his heart just wasn't in it and he almost got
himself lost. He tried some fishing, but he couldn't catch a thing.
The depression he was settling into was definitely getting worse. He had
taken to lying on the sofa and watching the satellite TV in the living room.
Trish watched him carefully from across the
room late Saturday night. She had been keeping busy with various things
while he had just wandered around like a lost puppy. The sight of him like
that was breaking her heart. She had tried getting him to do things with
her, but nothing could hold his attention. When she'd first seen the rage he had
been in the night she'd told him about Dwayne and Gabrielle, Trish had thought
after the anger passed he might just get over it. But he wasn't. He
was in such pain and depression that she didn't know what to do. She would
do anything if it meant he just wouldn't hurt anymore. Well... almost
anything.
"Paul?" Trish's voice was
tentative as she called his name.
There was a pause as the television volume
was turned down. "Yeah?" Paul asked.
"You want to go for a walk or
something?"
Silence.
"You ok?"
"Yeah, Trish, I just don't feel like
going for a walk right now," came the half-hearted reply.
Trish sighed as she rose from her chair and
went over to him. "Why not?" she asked.
He looked up at her with a little
frustration as he said, "My back's kind of sore."
"What did you do, pull a muscle
grabbing the remote?" she said.
A chuckle escaped from Paul.
"Very funny. I think I slept on something wrong, or maybe strained
something when I went for that hike yesterday."
"Hmm... I've got the perfect thing for
that," said Trish with a smile, "A massage."
He raised an eyebrow. "You give
massages?" he asked quizzically.
"Are you kidding? Jackie and
Terri swear by me. Follow me; I've got some stuff in my bedroom I can use.
You'll feel like a million bucks," she stated confidently as she walked out
of the room.
Paul stood up from the couch and mumbled to
himself, "What the hell, can't hurt."
"OW!! Trish!!!"
Trish frowned and took her hands away from
his back. "Well, I'm SORRY! Jackie makes me do it that hard, I
figured since you're 'The Game' and all that you'd want it like that, too."
He laughed, looking up at her. "I'm a
teddy bear compared to that woman sometimes. Gently, Trish.
Please."
"OK, gently. I can do
that," she said with a chuckle, playfully pushing him back onto his
stomach. Paul was lying facedown on her bed wearing just his boxers and
she was kneeling next to him. She put a little more oil on her hands and
started to rub it slowly into his muscled back. "How's that?"
"Mmmmm..." he rumbled as he
closed his eyes, "Perfect."
She grinned and worked the oil deep into
his skin, reveling in the soft feel of him. She had always wanted to touch
him like this, to stroke him like this. Her hands ran up and down his
back, kneading the muscles under his skin. Every once in a while he let
out a noise that would just send goose bumps up and down her spine and make the
hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. It was sending her up a wall.
"Paul?" she asked.
"Hmm?"
"Well, in order to work the muscles
evenly... I'm gonna have to... well, kind of sit on you?" Trish said
hesitantly.
Paul chuckled, "Sure,
Trish."
Trish slowly pulled a leg over him so that
she was straddling the tops of his thighs. Just the sensation of him under
her like that made her temperature climb. When she stretched up and went
to work again on his back, she could feel her body pressing slightly into his.
Her mind was racing a mile a minute and so was her heart. She thought for
sure that she was going to burst at any second. He shifted his leg
slightly underneath her and she had to bite her lip to keep from sighing aloud.
As her hands and fingers massaged his shoulders and made their way down, it was
all she could do not to just caress him... and kiss him.
And when Paul sighed happily again as only
he could, Trish found that she really couldn't resist any longer at all.
back to Chapter 5
