7 Days and 7 Nights by Wendy Wax

“You’ll forgive me for saying so, but you seem a little tense.”
    She averted her gaze. “Tense? Me?” She shook her head and offered what he supposed was meant to be a smile.
    â€œTurn around.” He took hold of her shoulders and spun her around. Without asking permission, he began to massage her neck. When she tried to pull away, he pulled out his trump card. “You don’t want our viewers to think you’re afraid of me, do you, Liv?”
    Olivia stopped struggling, but she didn’t relax.
    He worked his way down the graceful column of her neck. “Jesus, Olivia, you feel stiff enough to break in half.”
Who said they had nothing in common
? “This much physical tension is not good for a person.”
    A quick glance up at the monitor told him that, once again, he and Olivia looked decidedly cozy. But then the viewing audience couldn’t feel what he felt beneath his constantly moving hands. Olivia was as tightly strung as a bow, and he knew it was only pride that kept her from jerking away. Working his way down her throat one last time, Matt brought his hands to rest on the nape of her neck and thought about making her quiver.
    With strong fingers, he kneaded her warm, taut flesh. And suddenly he was remembering details he’d put out of his mind long ago: the feel of her supple body shifting under his, the delicious length of her thighs wrapping around him, her hands on his buttocks urging him inside.
    Olivia didn’t relax under his ministrations, but she
did
respond.
    And, damn it, so did he. He willed himself into submission, offered himself some very direct words of discouragement, but crucial body parts didn’t seem to be listening. In fact, he seemed to have gone completely deaf below the waist.
    If there was one thing he’d always been able to count on, it was his self-control. Not that he’d needed to call on it all that often, of course, but it had always been there at the ready. He was fairly certain of this.
    Now he was the one taking a step back, carefully separating his front from Olivia’s behind before she encountered the evidence of what touching her did to him. It would never do to let her hold it against him the way he’d been planning to hold it against her.
    He turned Olivia around to face him and saw her eyes narrow with suspicion. “What are you doing?”
    â€œJust trying to help you relax.”
    â€œYou want to help me relax?”
    â€œUm-hmm.”
Relaxed and sloppy and no longer in control
would be just about perfect. As long as he didn’t find himself in the
same condition.
He nodded toward the couch. “Of course, it’s easier to do that horizontally than vertically.”
    â€œGee, how tempting. I’ve always dreamed of performing nude before a national audience.”
    â€œI’m here, Livvy. Willing and able to make that dream come true.”
    â€œAn incredibly generous offer, Matt. But I don’t think I need to be quite that relaxed. Any other ideas?”
    â€œFeel like hitting something?”
    She tilted her head at him and cocked an eyebrow. “Absolutely. Are you volunteering?”
    â€œIn a way.” He pulled the punching bag away from the wall and dragged it to the patch of space between the dining and living areas. “It’s not quite as effective as sex, but it will release some of the same, er, energy.”
    The caricature of his face stared out at them from the side of the bag. Beneath it were the words PLACE FIST HERE.
    Olivia smiled. “Great target. Very motivating.”
    Matt worked the gloves onto her hands, careful to keep his distance as he laced them up.
    â€œRight.” He aimed her at the bag and pulled the gloves up in front of her face, the right slightly above the left, in the classic fighter’s stance. “I hope this won’t be too complicated for you.”
    â€œWhy don’t you use real small words like you