He threw the blanket away from the surf and moved closer to me, gaze sharp and penetrating. “Like being asked personal questions gets under your skin.” He moved my hands to his chest, and held my wrists so I couldn’t pull away.
I scoffed. “You’re one to talk.”
“I know you like to keep people at a distance, and I’m guessing there’s a reason.” I looked down, unable to help it. “I know you like it when my tongue touches you here.” He licked the place where my neck met my shoulder. “And here.” His thumb trailed down my breast. “And here.” His hand slid briefly between my legs.
“Alec,” I gasped, then searched the surrounding area for any witnesses. We were alone. For now.
His lips made a slow path across my collarbone. I shivered as his fingertips brushed the strap of my dress off my shoulder.
“I know you close your eyes when you know I’m watching you,” he whispered. “And I know you don’t trust me.”
I stared into his eyes, dark as the ocean and filled with secrets.
“Should I?”
“That’s up to you.”
An alarm rang in my head. Too close, it said. I didn’t want to sit by, unable to stop him as he slowly stripped down my defenses. I needed to regain my footing, take the upper hand.
“Do you trust me?” I asked.
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”
My hands lowered down his chest, under his shirt and then back up. My nails raked over his smooth skin—not hard enough to scratch, but enough to remind both of us that I could play this game too.
“What do you want from me?” I asked.
His muscles flexed beneath my touch, and he jerked my hips to his. A small sound of pleasure came from my throat. It was impossible to deny the effect he had on me. Already my temperature was rising, the heat centering at that sensitive point between my legs.
“I want you, Anna.” He took my earlobe between his teeth and gave it a light nip. “I want all of you.”
All of me. I wasn’t sure I could give all of me. But I could give him my body, gladly and willingly, until he grew tired of it. I hoped I could walk away before he did.
His hands lowered around my rear and ground me against him. Fingers roamed, a series of brief, teasing touches. Our kisses became more needy. Our breaths became more ragged. The cold water splashed over our bare feet, and the gentle crash of the waves became our beat. After a while, we were practically having sex with our clothes on.
The ache in my body was starting to take control of my reason. I pulled back suddenly. His hands fell to his sides, then clasped behind his neck. In that position his biceps stretched the thin material of his T-shirt. After a moment he looked up at me, the struggle clear on his face.
“Maybe you shouldn’t trust me after all,” he said with a strained laugh.
The sand met an outcropping of trees just twenty feet from where we stood. It was sheltered enough to be hidden from those who might walk by, unless they thought to look.
I held out my hand, and he took it. Then I led him up the beach and into the trees.
*
That night he took me to a nice restaurant downtown that overlooked the water. We drank as we watched the cruise ships come in. And when it came time to order, I asked the waitress for the crème brûlée. She tried to hide her bewilderment and then focused all her energy on Alec. I wondered if she had any idea she was biting her lip while he was speaking to her.
“You don’t want dinner?” Alec asked when she had walked away.
“Maybe later,” I said. “Life’s short. I’m in a fancy restaurant with a gorgeous man, watching the sun set. Dessert seems like the right choice.”
“Gorgeous, huh?” he said, a glint of amusement in his eyes.
I hummed. “Our waitress seems to think so.”
He reached under the table and pinched the ticklish spot at the top of my knee. I squealed and twisted to get away. The black dress I’d changed into when we’d gone back to my place to shower rode up high on my thighs, and I smoothed it down.
“I like you jealous,” he said.
“I’m not jealous.”
He smirked and took my hand over the table. Slowly he began kneading the sore muscles at the base of my thumb.
“You have no idea, do you?” he said, keeping his eyes on my hand. I slipped lower in my chair; it felt incredible. “Every man in here is looking at you, all of them wondering what’s under that little black dress. Any of those guys at the bar would leave their dates if they thought they had a chance at taking you home.”
I turned slowly to look and, sure enough, caught a couple of them glancing away.
“People want what they can’t have,” I said.
He rotated my wrist, pressed on the heel of my hand, and I swear my eyes rolled back in my head.
“Why’d you become a masseuse?” he asked.
I focused on our hands, joined over the white tablecloth. “I needed a change. I wanted to do something that made people happy.”
“That’s why you changed careers. Left child-welfare services.”
My eyes shot open.
“Background check,” he said with a small wince. “Before Ms. Rowe called to schedule with you, she had me run your name through the system. I probably should have mentioned that earlier.”
“Probably. What else did you read about me?” I told myself to relax, but my back was rigid, and I sat up straight in my chair.
He watched me, but continued to rub my hand as if nothing had changed. “Not much besides your employment history. No arrests. A couple speeding tickets.” He paused. “Nothing before you’re eighteen. Nothing about your family.”
The air whooshed from my lungs. My father had had my records sealed when I was child. The adoption, my birth mother, it was all locked away.
“Circus performers,” I told him. “I grew up scaling high wires and doing backflips off the trapeze.”
He chuckled. “Who’d have thought we’d have so much in common?”
I eased back in my chair, feeling like I’d dodged a bullet but surprised that I wished I hadn’t. Part of me did want to let him in. At least a little.
“You’re very brave to start over,” he said, making me feel as if he knew more than he was letting on.
Brave? It wasn’t bravery that pushed me to move on every few months, or that made it so difficult to let people in.
His fingers stroked mine, a whisper of a touch that roused memories of what had happened hours before on the beach.
“It wasn’t easy,” I said.
“It makes you happy, seeing others happy,” he stated.
“Yes.”
The memories were becoming clearer. His hands over my hands. The sand sifting between my toes. The rasp of the lace as he’d hurriedly pulled my underwear down my legs. I’d faced the water, staring at the waves while he’d dipped down and entered me from behind.
I could still feel his lips on my neck, and his chest, heavy on my back even through our clothes.
Look at me, he’d said. I need to see you. He’d turned me, lifted me, and with my back against the tree, finished us both.
“Does anyone ever get out of line?”
I swallowed, sat up straight. “What’s that?”
His mouth twitched, and I could feel the blush rise in my cheeks. Sometimes it honestly felt like he could read my mind.
“I asked if you had any clients who got out of line. I would think it would be difficult for men to keep their hands off you, especially once you’re in their house.”
He kissed my knuckles tenderly before beginning his glorious assault on my other hand.
“I screen everyone before I meet them in their home. At least, most people—not your boss. But I did a thorough Google search beforehand,” I said, remembering the information I’d gathered after Ms. Rowe had made the appointment. “The salon has very rigid rules about sexual harassment. Occasionally someone will cross the line.” I cringed as I thought of Melvi
n Herman and his flagpole beneath the sheets at Rave.
“Anyone I should talk to?”
He kept right on massaging, but his words held a clear promise. My heart beat harder. He was protective.
“It’s already taken care of,” I assured him. “The guy was just lonely. Anyway, he’s not allowed back on the premises.”
Alec seemed unconvinced.
“Do you carry when you go into someone’s house?”
And suddenly he’d turned into my father.
“I carry a massage table,” I told him. “And an iPod. And my oils of course.”
“Hilarious,” he said.
I grinned. “I carry pepper spray. And I’m well trained in self-defense. My dad put me in classes when I was a kid—I took them all the way through high school. In fact, he’s the reason I’ve been doing more home visits these days. Once I save enough, I’ll be flying back to Cincinnati to visit him.”
“You’re close with your dad.”
“Yes,” I said. “I miss him. My mom died a few years ago, so he’s all alone now. I wish I could spend more time with him.” I could feel myself frowning. “You’re close to Mr. Stein?”
He nodded, serious now. “He’s like a father to me.”
I couldn’t help but think that Alec’s real father must have been pretty bad if a man who was cheating his way through wives was his role model.
The waitress returned with the food, asking Alec three times if there was anything else he needed before catching my “get lost” glare.
As expected, the crème brûlée was amazing, and I savored every sweet, succulent bite. I was so happy, I even let him steal the vanilla ice cream that came on the side. The sun had finally disappeared over the water, and the purple sky was growing darker. It had been a perfect day—not counting the earlier hair-dryer incident—and as the minutes wore on, I could feel a sort of regret creeping over me. Days like this were few and far between, and already it was slipping away.
“What is it?” he asked.
I studied him for a moment, wanting to remember him forever just like this. Breathtaking, dangerous, and ultimately heartbreaking. He did something to me I didn’t understand. As if I’d been sleepwalking through life, and when I’d found him, some switch had flipped and every sensation had suddenly become a hundred times sharper.
“What happens when this burns out?” I asked.
He tapped his spoon on the white linen tablecloth, his gaze never wavering from mine. “What happens if it doesn’t?”
Sixteen
I thought about those words a lot over the next week. Whatever was happening between us didn’t seem to be cooling off. To the contrary, it just seemed to get hotter. I returned to work the day after our beach trip, and he returned to my bed that night, and the nights after.
I hadn’t considered our relationship not ending. Everything ended. And as much as I wanted to live in the moment, I found myself waiting for the other shoe to drop. I still hit a brick wall every time I asked about his life. I’d even asked if we could spend the night at his place, and he’d brushed it off by telling me my apartment was more comfortable.
Sometimes I wondered if he was hiding something.
Worries like these were needling the back of my mind as I laid my hands on Maxim Stein’s oiled back and dug my thumbs into his rhomboids.
“There,” said Maxim when my fingers slid over a knot in his right shoulder. “Harder.”
His words conjured memories of him and Charlotte, and I quickly shook the images from my mind.
I bent forward over him, using my elbow to dig in to the muscle. “How’s that?”
He groaned.
Because of the rain, we were in his workout room, the cinnamon scent intensified in the closed space. The lights had been dimmed, and harp music played from the iPod station.
I imagined making love to Alec in this room. The air would smell like sandalwood, and our oiled bodies would slide over each other.
“You are quite talented at what you do,” said Maxim as I moved to the other shoulder.
“Thank you.” I lowered my voice to maintain the ambience, but Maxim didn’t seem to catch on.
“Are you and Alec enjoying each other?”
I stopped, then continued tentatively. “Enjoying each other?”
I remembered that Alec had said Maxim was like a father to him, and wondered what he had said about me.
“Having a good time,” Maxim clarified.
“Yes,” I said. “I like spending time with him.” Something stopped me from saying more. I wanted to like Maxim for Alec, but he didn’t exactly have an easy personality to warm up to.
“Good,” he said. “He needs a pretty distraction.”
My claws began to emerge. Was that all I was? A distraction?
“I’m sure Alec could take his pick of distractions.”
“Yes, but he chose you.”
“I’m honored.”
Maxim rose to his elbows, and took a hard look at me. I crossed my arms over my chest.
“I’ve upset you,” he said. “I didn’t mean to. You’re important to him. Otherwise he would have gotten bored and moved on.”
My heart twisted. Alec was a player. How many women, like me, had fallen under his spell? How many had he set aside?
I put on my best smile, but inside I was shaking. “It’s a good thing I specialize in entertaining easily bored men.”
He smiled. Then laughed. He had no idea he was being offensive.
“You’re funny. A good sense of humor will take you far in this world.”
He lay back down, and I returned to my work. Full pressure. My knuckles cracked. I’d pay for it later with sore hands, but I didn’t care.
When I’d worked my way down to his lower back, Maxim shifted again.
“Let’s add another hour on to today’s session. Ms. Rowe will reimburse you.”
As much as I needed the extra $300 for the plane ticket, I couldn’t. June Esposito was waiting for me at her house, and Maxim had already been forty-five minutes late.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I can’t stay today. We can reschedule for tomorrow evening if you like.”
He rolled over, and I quickly lifted the sheet so it didn’t drag under his greasy body.
“She plays hardball,” he murmured, eyes closed while I stood behind his head and began to knead my way beneath his neck. “I can appreciate that. How much?”
“It’s not a matter of cost, though I’m flattered that you’re enjoying your session so much.”
“Five hundred dollars?”
I swallowed. Eight hundred dollars for two hours of work. That would pay for the entire ticket.
“You must be really stressed,” I said.
“Maybe Alec’s not the only one who enjoys your company.”
I pulled my hands away. “I think we’re done.”
“I appreciate two things above all others,” he said as I turned away. “Good work and loyalty. I’m willing to pay for both.”
My temper flashed. “I appreciate respect. I’m not willing to pay for that, but I deserve it.”
He clicked his tongue in his cheek. “You’re right. My apologies. I’m used to speaking the language of money.”
I stopped and sighed. Alec trusted him, and despite myself I was beginning to trust Alec. Maxim Stein may have been arrogant and condescending, but I could handle him.
“People don’t say no to you very often, do they?” I asked.
He smiled and combed his silver mane over his ear. A trademarked move, I’m sure.
Here goes eight hundred bucks, I thought.
“I appreciate the offer,” I said. “But I have other plans today. We can reschedule for tomorrow evening if you’d like.”
His eyes flashed with such an immediate, intense anger that I took a step back. Then the look was gone. He sat up, pulling the sheet across his lap.
“Tomorrow then,” he said. “I look forward to it, Ms. Rossi.”
; *
After I’d packed up, I looked for Alec. I hadn’t heard from him since he’d left early in the morning. After the way my session had gone, I thought I should probably give him the heads-up that I’d pissed off his boss, but he was nowhere to be found. Instead I ran into Bobby, who met me in the foyer and walked me to the door. He was wearing the same suit I’d seen him in before; the dress shirt could barely button at the top on account of his bulging neck muscles.
“Wandering around again?” he asked with a snide grin. I wasn’t sure how Alec could stand working with these people.
“I was just on my way out,” I said. He reached for the massage table, but I adjusted it on my shoulder and kept walking.
“So soon?” I glanced over at him. “How about a back rub on the house? We can see where that takes us.”
I stopped, turned to face him.
“Sure,” I said. “Let me just set up here in the living room.”
His brows lifted. “Really?”
“No. Not really.” I kept walking, but he stood in front of the door, one hand on the knob. Shivers worked through me. I stood tall, but subtly reached into my bag for the pepper spray.
“I’m just starting to feel left out is all,” he pouted, running one finger down my arm. I jerked away. “The boss is getting his, Alec’s getting . . .”
“What’s Alec getting?” The table clunked on the floor as I spun toward the voice behind me. Alec approached from the kitchen, wearing a neatly tailored black suit. His hands were in his pockets, and there was a fierce look in his stormy eyes.
Relief shimmered through me, along with a hint of arousal. Power came off of him in waves. Bobby may have had more muscle, but I had my money on Alec if it came to a fight.
“Alec,” said Bobby, standing upright. “Thought you were taking today off.”
I wasn’t sure if this was some kind of joke; Alec had told me he was working all day.
“Looks like you were wrong,” said Alec. “Go ahead, Bobby, finish what you were saying.” His voice was as cold as ice.
Bobby only smiled.
I felt caught between them, stuck between the walls, the front door, and two men quite obviously in the middle of a pissing contest.
The Masseuse Page 14
