154 — Bottom Lines

Eun Ha's POV:

The pain eased almost immediately. Then again, with how good his fingers were moving, he could've torn a piece of her skin and Eun Ha might not have noticed at the moment.

Eun Ha laid her head back and tried not to breathe as she listened to him, tried not to think too much.

Jae-il pressed and massaged along the underside of her foot, just the right amount of pressure. She felt the knots melt and fade one by one. She might have been blushing, too. Her insides went all tingly.

If not for that one momentary twinge of guilt—she didn't deserve this treatment, especially not after all the shameful and guilty things her mind had just conjured—her heart might have lifted and forgotten and let this bliss sink in.

It was her body's betrayal to react that way. This felt good, as a purely physical experience.

And she'd let herself revel in that much at least.

Eun Ha moaned softly, unthinking, leaning back into the couch, relaxing more and more as the massage progressed.

His thumbs found a particularly stubborn knot of tension just below her ankle bone, and pressed. Not roughly, but deeply. Her toes wiggled in delight.

Another sigh shuddered from her as she sank deeper into the couch. Heat bloomed under his touch and then trickled upwards, lazy and insistent, tracing a path up her calf to settle somewhere unwelcome behind her kneecap.

Ah. She felt that same treacherous heat slithering somewhere less appropriate as well.

"You're holding your breath, mom." Jae-il murmured, the words soft, his focus entirely on the map of tendons under his fingers. Not once did he think he was doing anything other than relieving his mother of some knots.

Not knowing that the more stubborn knot was somewhere else.

Eun Ha hadn't realized, and the rush of her breath was sharp as she dragged it in.

Every circle of his palm battered away at her weak composure. "It's just... sore." She managed, hating how shaky her voice sounded.

His ministrations didn't stop. He worked the arch of her foot with the heel of his palm—something he was genuinely good at, which somehow only made it worse.

Eun Ha swallowed another gasp. Jae-il met her gaze in a silent question, one eyebrow already rising. She instantly looked away, staring intently at a point on the wall. Anything, really, just not those purple eyes that could likely see how much this was getting to her.

"Does this help?" His tone was carefully neutral.

She wasn't sure if her quick nod was genuine or simply muscle memory by now, and then, because apparently not answering was the same as betraying the façade she was trying to hold on, added. "Feels good."

Eun Ha briefly closed her eyes at her stupid choice of words, only to have them fly open again when the light press of his knuckles brushed a line down her calf.

He made a small, absent sound. His fingertips squeezed a particularly sensitive patch and a hiss of pleasure caught in her throat, her traitorous hips twitching up towards his touch despite her best efforts. "Like that, mom? Better?"

"Y-Yeah… like that, sweetie." Her eyelids quivered as she squeezed them shut. "Just like that…"

He continued massaging that part, his fingers pressing and circling, then inevitably going up, over her calf. He had to roll the fabric inward a couple of times to get access to bare skin.

And damn, that zone wasn't exactly erogenous. Eun Ha didn't know why he seemed to be able to unlock its hidden potential. But she was suffering the consequences now, with that thickening pressure inside her pelvis.

Jae-Il placed his thumbs just under her kneecaps, pushing gently into her flesh. And to Eun Ha it felt as though every fiber in her core were tightening in reply.

This didn't hurt at all, yet her breathing was coming out harsh.

It was getting harder and harder not to whimper, or make even a single noise of any kind.

It was completely overwhelming, not unlike some sort of drug that could numb and incapacitate while feeling amazing at the same time. She closed her eyes and leaned back, resting the back of her neck on the edge of the couch as she gritted her teeth and bit down a moan.

"You're tensing up again..." Jae-il softly voiced his observation, looking slightly up at her. "Are you sure this doesn't hurt?"

"Y-Yeah... not at all..." She replied, her voice thinner than before, breathier.

"Well, don't tense too much." His hands never ceased movement, the sound of his fingertips digging and running against her bare calf incredibly soft and satisfying and teasing all the same. "Otherwise, you'll end up triggering the nerve and actually giving yourself pain."

The edges of his nails slid, oh-so gently, over the curve of her achilles and this time she let out a soft, choked-off sound of approval.

It was small, just one note, but there. At this point, a gunshot to the leg wouldn't deter the growing slickness between her thighs. Oh gosh.

Jae-il tilted her ankle a little, studying her expression as his fingers curled in the same spots, making Eun Ha feel her core go completely liquid.

She didn't know how long the massage had actually taken, but it was most likely longer than necessary. And truthfully, Eun Ha could actually, in theory, remove her foot from Jae-il's knee now that the pain was largely gone.

In her imagination, she even saw herself doing it, swiftly and without fumbling, putting some healthy distance between them.

All Eun Ha did, in practice, was lift her other foot and slip it a few inches closer, letting her knee stretch out completely, and nearly planting her foot into the base of Jae-il's stomach.

In hindsight, her behavior was going beyond problematic. At this point, she'd even thrown out the fucking guidelines Dr. Han had laid down for her.

"Ah... feels good. You are good at this, sweetie..."

Ah, it was so shameful to say this. But it was true, Jae-il's hands felt absolutely magical.

"You feeling better now?" Jae-il's hands came to a stop on her calf. He removed his hands as the massage was over. "Is the pain gone?"

Eun Ha made no attempt to take her foot away. If anything, it looked like she was pushing closer, planting her heel a bit deeper into his abdomen. "Y-Yes, it's gone." Realizing the position of her foot, Eun Ha stilled. Shit, she was pretty sure his abs were poking into the base of her heel right about now. "Thank you..."

This wasn't the problem. What had been a vague, barely audible thought was now a full-blown certainty, and it was out. Eun Ha wanted Jae-il's touch. Needed it. If this continued, it wouldn't matter what the circumstances were.

With great difficulty, she removed her foot from its improper placement on Jae-il's stomach area. She looked everywhere but at Jae-il, the former red coloring her face a shade so dark, her ears were no doubt crimson.

"Uhhh, honey..." Eun Ha licked her lips and shifted a little, trying her best to look at least a bit sane. "It was... nice. And... It really helped, thank you for that. Ummm, y-you should go get some rest. Your sisters will be back home any moment and... yeah... yeah... so... you should get rest."

She didn't even know what she was saying anymore, just a string of rehearsed sentences she hoped sounded convincing enough to cover up for her tactical retreat.

He blinked, mouth parting to speak—

Eun Ha didn't wait for his reply, instead she picked up her heels and stormed off in what she assumed was a very natural and casual manner up to her room and locked herself in.

"......"

Jae-il's eyes were a physical force on her back, she could feel their weight all the way.

She was an expert at avoiding trouble at the very last second, thankfully. She then took a deep breath. The spell wasn't broken yet, no, but she felt a lot safer from it now that her legs weren't stretched over Jae-il's.

Had her toes gone any lower, she'd have been struck down by heavenly lightning or something.

Eun Ha took several steps and threw herself on the bed the moment her legs started giving in under her, not from the pain—ridiculously enough, she couldn't feel any of it, something she was grateful for.

"There's nothing wrong with a massage…" She mumbled, eyes on the ceiling. "It was all perfectly normal. Right? Yes, right! Nothing inappropriate about that! Nothing happened, and nothing ever will! Absolutely not! No! Nope, nope, nope!"

Eun Ha cradled her own head with her hands, realizing what she was thinking, and all the more appalled. That pleasant heat in her lower belly hadn't faded yet, and to add more shame on top of her pile, she'd been subconsciously squeezing her legs tightly together to get more of that good friction.

Bottom line—this was so fucking shameful. What could be worse than being attracted to her own child?! Her own son?! No matter how pretty his eyes were, no matter how well he massaged her feet.

She shook her head furiously.

'But it felt really, really nice…'