Rico's Recovery (Detroit Heat Book 2)

by Lynn, Davida

  Finally home, getting some sweet relief.

  I hit send just as the pleasure became too much. I gripped onto the sheets as my body twisted. I clamped my thighs around my toy as I cried out. I wanted to call out Rico’s name. I wanted to feel him behind me, taking me like a big, manly beast. I wanted to feel his hands at my hips, pulling me back to meet him thrust after thrust. My back arched from the orgasm that Rico didn’t even know he had given me, lifting me from my bed.

  Collapsing back into the sheets, I tried to open my eyes, but the orgasm was still surging through my body. I held onto every last bit of pleasure that I could, and then I grabbed my phone.

  He hadn’t responded yet and I decided to take things up a notch. Holding the phone above me, I sent him a picture. It was nothing dirty, if you didn’t know the context. It was just a headshot, my eyes closed and a smile on my lips, my teeth barely biting at my bottom lip. Nobody would bat an eye if they saw it. Nobody but Rico, that is.

  I waited for his reply. I smiled when the large square popped up, showing me that a picture was loading.

  I actually fell into my pillows laughing when I saw what he had sent me. I’d never seen such a shocked look on a person’s face before in my entire life. His eyes looked like they were about to bulge out of his skull. I couldn’t wait to get him back in my gym the next day.

  I knew Rico would be sore. The first day was always so rough on patients. To them it seems like I don’t ease them into it, and they often let me know it. In reality, I’m taking it very easy on them, because I need to know where their strengths are. Knowing what muscles they are good with helps me work on the muscles that need the most attention.

  Rico was a unique case, because his entire lower half needed attention. Even the elderly, who suffer hip fractures all the time, bounce back faster than a double tib-fib break.

  Leg presses had been the extent of Rico’s first workout. A set at the beginning of an hour and a set at the end, with stretching and joint articulation in between. He was still pouring with sweat when he left. Some of that sweat might have been from the harmless flirting I had thrown in. I thought it was harmless. But then everything came crashing down.

  Rico rolled in, and I could see that even after a day of rest, he was still beaten down. I couldn’t blame him. But even through the exhaustion, I could see he was more than happy to be back. Our sexting affair the day before must have given him a second wind.

  He raised a hand from the other side of the gym and yelled to me at the top of his lungs. “Good morning, Lizzie!”

  Blood rushed to my cheeks, and I raised my hands to try and cover my face. I panicked when I saw everyone in the gym turn from Rico to me. My coworkers gave me a confused look, but before any of their eyes could try and bore the truth from me, I ran back into the break room.

  Once the embarrassment had passed, I grabbed a clipboard and Rico’s folder. After a deep breath, I came back into the exercise area, avoiding all of the eyes that were on me. All of them except his, of course.

  Rico had a great, big grin on his face, like he had just won some sort of contest. Unless that contest was pissing me off, he had not.

  “You think you’re a real card, don’t you?” Without waiting for a reply, I turned him around in his wheelchair and pushed him toward the exercise bike. My clipboard didn’t have him scheduled for any cardio, but I thought he had earned it.

  He tried to turn to look back at me, but I leaned away. “I was just messing with you, that’s all.” I could hear some sadness in his voice, but I was going to let him lie in it for a while. Rico hadn’t done anything wrong, but I didn’t want to leave anything to chance.

  While he was working the pedals, I managed to send him a text.

  Play it cool, hotshot.

  Rico was beginning to sweat when I came back, but he had a smile on his face. I saw him putting his phone away. He got the message. After a tiny nod, he asked, “What else is on the agenda for today, coach?”

  Moving behind him, I looked down to see how his legs were faring. It was hard to tell myself that I was worried about his posture. Being that close to Rico was intoxicating, and all our dirty texts from the day before flooded my mind. He let out a grunt, and I thought I might die. He sounded so manly.

  “How’s the knees feel? Biking is far less stress on the knees than running, but it is way more stress than you’ve had on them for quite a while.” I was leaning over his shoulder as he rode.

  Rico was breathing heavily, but I could see that he was doing all right. I was even thinking about bumping up the resistance. “They feel all right. My quads are still killing me from the other day, but I’ll live.”

  I nodded and came back around to face him. Rico smiled, “My glutes are killing me, too. Real sore back there.”

  Rico couldn’t resist. He just had to throw something out there to destroy any professional thoughts I had.

  I stretched him out after his ride, and I could already feel his flexibility returning to him. “Keep doing your stretches at home on your days off. They will be your life saver.”

  “Coach, you mind if I get some water?”

  I obliged, but Rico didn’t feel like sitting in his chair and waiting for me to bring some water back to him. He wheeled behind me toward the break room. At the door, I turned around.

  “Rico, we don’t really allow patients back here. I’ll bring you a glass.”

  I should have known by the smile on his face that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. “I’ll be quiet. I’ve oiled my wheels, so I won’t make a squeak.”

  Lowering my voice, I said, “Rico, come on. The last thing you and I need is someone watching us.”

  I leaned down to talk to him, and that was when he wrapped an arm around my neck. Before I had a chance to react, Rico’s lips were at mine. I could feel the heat from his body. I could smell his sweat. Everything about our kiss was magical. It was intense and powerful. Rico was strong, taking exactly what he knew we both wanted. I closed my eyes, moaning and leaning closer to him.

  When we broke the kiss, my pulse was rushing in my ears. My mind was strangely silent. For a change, I wasn’t overthinking things. It didn’t last long, though.

  Seconds after breaking the kiss, Alan walked into the break room. I pulled upright in an instant. “I think you got the… lint, Mr. Baggio.”

  It was maybe the worst lie I’d told in my entire twenty seven years. I couldn’t tell if Alan knew or not, but I didn’t wait to find out. I spun around, grabbing for an empty cup for Rico. I filled it and handed it to him.

  “All right, back into the gym area like I told you, Mr. Baggio.”

  He nodded. “Sure thing, coach.”

  As Rico wheeled out of the break room, I kept my eyes glued to the clipboard. I didn’t want to meet Alan’s gaze. I did have to hear his voice, though.

  “Persistent, isn’t he?”

  “Hmm?”

  “With you. He sure is persistent.” My heart jumped. Alan must have seen the two of us interacting. Clearly we weren’t doing a great job of hiding our attraction.

  “I told him he wasn’t allowed back here, but he must not have heard me.” I tried to up my lying game. I hated that instead of thinking about the electrifying kiss, I had to backpedal and get Alan off my back.

  “You know, Lizzie, I’ve seen how he looks at you. Frankly, it worries me.”

  I looked up. “What do you mean?”

  He stepped closer, as if we weren’t alone, “I don’t think he’s quite right upstairs. I think we’re dealing with more than just broken bones.”

  I turned away, relieved and also holding back some serious laughter. Alan thought that Rico was into me, but it was because he had brain damage? Oh, God, it took everything I had not to laugh. I had been panicking, but it was all for nothing. It’s cool, Rico. They all just think you’re brain damaged.

  I turned back to my coworker. “He’s harmless. Really. I think it will be all right. He does his exercises, and we’l
l get him back on his feet.”

  Alan nodded. “I think he only does his exercises because of you.”

  I laughed, letting the tension out. “Maybe he does do the exercises for me. If what you think is true, Alan, maybe it’s more important than ever. If he needs someone to motivate him, I say go for it.” I headed back out to the gym, eager to tell Rico what Alan thought. At the doorway, I turned back. “Thanks for looking out for me, Alan.”

  I had three days off, and goddamn, did I need them. I thought the first workout was bad, but it was nothing compared to the aches and pains the second one brought out. I had something better than morphine distracting me from all that muscle pain, though. I had a kiss.

  I had a kiss with the strongest, most beautiful woman I’d ever met. I knew I was taking a real risk when I grabbed her, but there was something deep inside of me screaming at me to do it. I had to do it. There was no other option. We never got a chance to be alone, and I wasn’t about to throw away that one moment.

  I saw it in her eyes when she came back out to the gym, too. She felt the same way I did. There was no anger or shame. When she told me about her coworker, I laughed. If that was the impression he got, I wasn’t going to stop him.

  The texts started flying back and forth the moment I left PT. My mother asked me what I was so interested in on my phone. I told her I was on a particularly hard level of Candy Crush. I didn’t need my family meddling in my relationship. It was complicated enough. We were hiding in the shadows, and my mother loved gossip. Those two things made for a bad combination.

  The weekend was long, but at least Lizzie and I got to speak on the phone. I convinced the family to let me out in my wheelchair alone, and the second I was around the corner, I called her up.

  She didn’t even say hi. “I have a surprise for you.”

  I smiled at the sound of her voice. It was cheery and refreshing. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”

  “Rico, you don’t really get the whole surprise thing, do you?”

  I laughed. “Well, I may have suffered some brain damage, so big words like that might just be too much for me to take. When do I get to see this surprise?”

  “You’ll see part of it on Monday, but I don’t think you’ll like it.”

  I was confused, but with Lizzie, that was par for the course. She loved keeping me guessing. I never knew what she was thinking. It was like riding a rollercoaster with the crash bar still raised. Hold on tight.

  “If I’m not going to like it, do I want the surprise?”

  I could hear the confidence in her voice. God, it was sexy. “Yes. I think once you get over not liking it, you are going to like it very much.”

  She made herself as vague as possible, and I'd have to wait a long weekend to find out what she meant. I knew we'd keep talking over the weekend, but I also knew that Lizzie wouldn't reveal the secret to me. She was so cruel and so kind the same time.

  Knowing that part of the conversation was over, I changed topics. "Seems like you had quite a bit of fun the other night." My entire body tensed thinking about it. We had taken our relationship from flirting to a whole new level.

  She gave me a shy little laugh. It sounded so feminine and beautiful. My eyes rolled back in my head.

  "After being tortured all day at work, yeah, I needed a little bit of fun. Are you telling me you didn't have any fun, Rico?"

  I smiled. "Oh, I had fun. I'm sure it would've been a lot more fun with you there, but I did the best I could."

  Despite how wonderful it was, our stolen kiss had been damn close to a mistake, and I knew it couldn't happen again. Lizzie had been right when she said we couldn't see each other until I was up and walking. Until I was able to get around by myself, she and I were nothing more than physical therapist and patient.

  It made me ache. I was being cockblocked by my own body.

  Despite the fact that I was trapped in a chair, it wasn't a bad afternoon. The sun was shining, I was out of the house and somewhat on my own, and Lizzie and I were having a great conversation about everything and nothing at the same time. Our talk came easy as if we'd known each other for years. When I realized how short the time we’d known each other actually was, my eyes opened wide in disbelief.

  None of my past relationships had felt this strong. Even the girl I'd been with for two years in high school paled in comparison. It was hard to be careful with Lizzie, but I knew I had to be. There was something powerful between us.

  After our conversation ended, I sat in the chair for a few minutes. I watched the leaves dancing in the breeze. For a few moments I wasn't trapped in the chair. For a few moments, I was just resting there and thinking of her.

  I was aching to get back to work, aching for her, and aching just to be able to stand on my own again, but it could've been worse.

  I took the long way home. Well, longer. On the way back, I had to fight against the wind. I enjoyed the challenge, even if it was a small one. I could feel my muscles getting stronger day by day; especially my heart.

  The weekend was long, even if it was filled with texts and the few short conversations. I was ready to get back to physical therapy. Well, I was ready to get back to Lizzie, and it just so happened that she was a physical therapist—my physical therapist.

  Monday morning, my pops dropped me off. He wanted to stay, but I insisted. I wanted to try to get back to a normal life, and that meant doing as much on my own as possible. After he drove away, I turned and began to wheel myself inside. I smiled as I rolled through the doors.

  The usual crowd was already there: older people with hip fractures and kids with sports injuries. They were my new crowd, at least for the next few months. As I looked around, there was one person missing. I didn't see Lizzie. Figuring she might be in the break room, I wheeled myself toward the cubbies, ready for another intense therapy session with my coach.

  As I stuffed my drawstring bag into one of them, I heard a voice behind me.

  "Well, hello, Rico." It was what's-his-name, Lizzie's friend who thought I was a little slow. I could hear it in his voice. He spoke to me like he was talking to a six-year-old.

  I turned in my wheelchair to face him, smiling just a little too wide.

  Alan. That was his name. "Good morning, Alan.”

  "And how are you this morning?" He spoke each word clearly, making sure I could understand each one. I wanted to roll my eyes, but it was good that Alan didn't suspect anything between me and Lizzie. I'd have to keep it up.

  Nodding to him, I said, "Good, good. You?" I tried not to oversell it, just slow things down a little bit. "Where's Lizzie?"

  Alan bent down so that we were eye to eye. "Oh, buddy. Did they not tell you? Lizzie isn't going to be your physical therapist anymore. From now on, it's you and me."

  I tilted my head and looked past him. Was that the surprise? Because that was a pretty shitty surprise. Why would Lizzie take herself off my case? We hadn't had any problems and nobody suspected that there was anything between us. A million questions flooded my mind. Had I done or said something wrong over the weekend?

  Aside from my handicap, things had been going just fine. We were moving forward and getting to know each other. I didn't know about her, but I was counting down the days until I could step from the wheelchair. It was only two months away, maybe less, but maybe she couldn’t wait that long.

  Alan didn't give me much time to think about it, though. It wasn't long before I was doing leg presses, riding the bike, and learning to use the rowing machine. I worked hard, but my heart wasn't in it. It wasn't just me that I had been working for, and that other person wasn't around anymore.