Thayer looked up when she heard Corey’s keys in the door and looked at the clock. It was nearly nine. Corey had texted earlier and said she was going to be late and to go ahead and eat but Thayer had never known her to work this late.
She shuffled in and dropped her keys on the counter, kicked off her sneakers with a sigh, and took her glasses off. They had taken to keeping the lights in the condo or Thayer’s place dim so she didn’t need them at home. “Hey.”
“Hi.” Thayer closed her laptop. “I was starting to get worried.” She rose and crossed the room to slip her arms around Corey’s waist, immediately feeling Corey tense and suck in a breath. “Uh oh.” She leaned back and studied her face, the tightness around her mouth and eyes suggesting she was in pain. “What happened?”
She shook her head and gave her a soft kiss on the lips. “Really long day and I may have overdone it a bit.” She slipped out of Thayer’s grasp and went to the kitchen. “You want a beer?”
“Sure.” She didn’t really but she knew Corey would bristle if she fussed at her too soon.
She sat back down on the sofa and waited for her, making note of her hunched shoulders and slight left cant as she walked. “Thank you.” She accepted the bottle and took a sip while Corey drained half of hers in one go. “You want to tell me about it?”
“Nothing bad. I mean it’s bad for someone. Don’t even know who yet, but not for me.” Corey winced and rolled her shoulders. “Just a hot, labor intensive gore fest.” She made a move to sit next to Thayer on the sofa.
“Hold it.” Thayer set her beer on the coffee table before pushing it out of the way, making room for Corey to sit on the floor. “Down here.”
“Babe, it’s okay. I’m just tired.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.” She appreciated how important Corey’s independence was to her, but she made it known when they got back together after she was injured that she would not stand for Corey pretending she was fine or hiding when she was struggling. “Sit.”
Corey finished her beer before easing herself down in front of Thayer and stretching her long legs out. Since she’d returned to work, this was a near-nightly ritual: Thayer massaged and stretched Corey’s taxed and tense muscles to stave off the spasms and headaches.
“Relax your arms,” Thayer instructed and gripped her around each bicep, gently pulling her arms and shoulders backward.
She sucked in a sharp breath, resisting the movement.
“That bad, huh?” Thayer released her arms and moved her hands to her shoulders, pressing her thumbs into the hard muscles where the tension often started.
Corey arched away from her with a groan before settling back down when Thayer eased up on the pressure. “Thanks.”
“What’s got you all knotted up like this?” Thayer asked, digging her thumbs around her scapula.
“Recovering a decomposed body from inside the crawlspace underneath his house. It was a tight fit.”
“Jesus.” Thayer breathed, going to work on another stubborn trigger point. “Is that why you smell like bleach?”
“Sexy, huh?” Corey dropped her head when Thayer pressed her thumbs into her neck and worked out the triggers there. “It was either that or smell like rotting, maggot-infested viscera.”
“Will you whisper that to me again in bed?” Thayer asked dryly and kissed Corey along the back of her neck.
“Sorry,” Corey murmured and let Thayer manipulate her arms again.
“I’m just teasing you, sweetheart.” Thayer pulled her arms back again slowly, this time without any painful reaction from Corey. “But I’d prefer to talk about your body when we’re in bed.”
“Is that what you’re limbering me up for?”
She released her arms slowly and ran her hands down her chest, cupping her breasts through her shirt and delighting at Corey's full body shudder. “I will confess getting through my shitty day was fueled by the hope that you might want to take your new arm for a test drive tonight.”
Corey leaned back and draped her arms over Thayer’s legs, stretching her back and giving Thayer better access to her. “I did. I do.”
Thayer slipped her hands down the neck of Corey’s shirt and into her bra, circling her nipples and eliciting a gasp from Corey. “I have yet to experience Corey Curtis’s two-handed lady loving.”
Corey laughed and dropped her head back into her lap, presenting her mouth. “Spiderman kisses.”
Thayer closed her mouth over Corey's and plunged her tongue inside. “Mmm.” She hummed. “But if you're too sore I can hold out for the morning. I don't have to be in until noon.”
Corey reached up and pulled her head down again, capturing her lips upside down. “Come on sunrise.”
Thayer sat up abruptly. “Oh, damn it.”
“What?” Corey spun around.
“Jim Collier left me a message this afternoon. He wants to meet with me in the morning.” She flopped back against the sofa. “I have no idea why. Probably wants some history on a patient or something I can’t even talk about—what is that face?”
Corey's lips were pressed tightly together and she looked almost guilty. “I know why he wants to see you.”
“Why?”
Corey picked herself up from the floor and joined her on the sofa. “The body we recovered today was at that fishing cabin across the lake from you.”
Her brows shot up. “You're kidding.” Corey's lips thinned again in response. “You're not kidding.”