The Masseuse

by Sierra Kincade

  With Alec watching me closely, I took the first bite. Despite the stress, my body melted into the couch. Apparently I was famished.

  “Your sponsor’s right,” I said. “This is delicious.”

  “I’ll let Mac know,” said Thomas. It took a moment for me to place the name, but when I did, I blushed. He’d been the owner of the burger place Alec had taken me on our first date. The same place Alec and I had nearly ravaged each other in the parking lot, right in front of an audience. I remembered Mac saying he would stop by the house when we left. He must have meant this house.

  It wasn’t hard to eat fast, and when we were done, my body felt better, even if my brain was still racing. Alec cleaned up while Thomas walked me out to the front entryway, closing the door behind him. Askem the dog plopped down on the cement beside his calf.

  “Thanks for having me,” I said. “I know it was unexpected.”

  “I live for the unexpected.” He gripped the railing, staring out into the night, and I gave in to the sudden urge to squeeze his hand. With a smile, he tucked my still cold fingers in the crook of his elbow.

  “Alec’s always trying to get me to move out of this place,” he said. “But this is my home. It’s important to have a home. Somewhere you can put down roots.”

  I wouldn’t know.

  “My son’s a good man,” he said. “Loyal. Sometimes too loyal. For him to tell you all that history, you must be very important to him.”

  “You were listening?” Why didn’t that surprise me?

  “I have impeccable hearing.” He smiled. “It’s not my business what he’s done to wrong you, but I know this much. Alec will love one woman all his life. He’s like me in that way. I wasn’t sure it would happen for him, but I’m glad it has.”

  I wasn’t sure how to respond; his statement was like an arrow in the back. I hadn’t seen it coming, and it hurt like hell.

  Inside, the water at the kitchen sink shut off.

  “I think he’s like you in a lot of ways,” I said quietly. “Good ways.”

  Thomas pulled me close and kissed my cheek. “That’s the best news I’ve heard all week.”

  *

  “I need to show you something,” Alec said when we were back in his car. I was still wearing his clothes, and I was glad for the extra warmth now that it was dark outside.

  “You promised you’d tell me what Maxim meant.”

  “I will,” he said.

  Silently, he drove in the direction of my apartment. I watched him carefully, mind still reeling with the previously hidden details of his life. Things appeared to be good with his father now, but they hadn’t always been. I tried to imagine the lost boy who’d been abandoned by his mother and left alone by his father, who’d turned to drugs for escape and sold them to survive. A boy who had trusted a man who’d taken advantage of him. It reminded me of my days working in child protective services, and for the first time in a long while I had the urge to go back. I was certain I could have helped the kid that Alec had been.

  I wasn’t sure if I could help him now.

  Less than a half hour later he was parking on the street across from the Chinese restaurant below my place. The rain had lightened, but it was still misting. As soon as he shut off the car, the window clouded with a million tiny droplets.

  I met him outside on the sidewalk, feeling a little ridiculous in Amy’s heels and Alec’s baggy clothes.

  “I don’t understand,” I said, looking up to my dark second-floor windows.

  Sorting through his keys, he led me in the direction opposite from my apartment, down a narrow dark alley between the steak house and bar across the street from my place. The path was empty, and dingy with the walls’ weathered bricks and the trash that gathered at our feet. My senses became more attuned as my nerves heightened. Bass thumped from a club behind us, the scents from the restaurants mingled with the pungent smell of garbage. I kept glancing behind me to make sure no one was coming.

  “Don’t be afraid,” he said, sensing my hesitation.

  I moved closer to him, just in case.

  We came to a metal door near the back of the lot, and he opened it with one of his keys. Inside was a stairwell, and I followed him up in silence, wishing for more visibility than the square, rain-stained skylight overhead could provide. At the top of the second-floor landing was another door, and through that a large open room, the same size as the restaurant floor below, spread out before us. The floor was intricately designed with Spanish tile, and wires hung from the ceiling panels where lights should have been. Despite its haphazard shape, the room looked as though it had been recently cleaned.

  Floor-to-ceiling windows made up the wall facing my apartment—a straight view into my place.

  “What is this?” I asked.

  “It’s a property Max is looking at renovating for a high-end nightclub.”

  “So much for keeping my windows open,” I muttered.

  Alec leaned back against a pillar in the center of the room, arms crossed over his chest.

  “Charlotte MacAfee was the owner and president of Green Fusion. I knew her in college—she guest lectured in some of my classes. She and her brother were working in secret to build an engine powered by high-grade ethanol—corn fuel—a renewable, cleaner energy source. Her plane-engine design was the first out there; the flight industry has had a history with big oil since planes first started using jet fuel. This would have changed things. In a big way.”

  I faced the window, looking across the street through my open curtains. I could make out my dresser, the edge of my bedframe. If the lights were on, you’d be able to see everything.

  “Force’s biggest clients are oil manufacturers. You told me that before,” I said.

  “Yes,” he said. “Charlotte knew I worked for Max—for Force. We’d talked a few times after I graduated, but just casually. She approached me last year to tell me her design was nearly complete, but that it had taken everything they had. She was broke and couldn’t finish it.”

  “The news said she was on the verge of declaring bankruptcy.”

  He nodded. “I told her I’d talk to Max and see what he could do. She was looking for investors to fund the rest of the project and help her pay back an enormous amount of debt. He agreed to help.”

  “And they started sleeping together.”

  “They were both using each other. She needed his money, and he needed her design. He convinced her to show him the plans before she filed a patent. I guess she thought it would impress him enough that he’d agree to invest. You saw those plans on his desk the first time you were at the house.”

  Out of nervous habit, I began to braid my damp hair down my back.

  “I wasn’t supposed to see them.”

  “No,” he said. “And neither was he. Without a patent, the work was unprotected. She didn’t even have him sign a non-disclosure form—maybe she couldn’t afford the lawyer, I don’t know. He could have filed documents saying the design was his own, and reaped the rewards.”

  “But?”

  “There is no but,” he said. “That’s exactly what he was planning to do. Steal the design, file it under Force’s name. And then stop production.”

  “Stop production?” I asked. “Why not build the engine himself? He has the money. He could change the plane industry, like you said.”

  “And go broke in the process,” Alec explained. “Our biggest clients are in oil, remember? Piss them off and there goes three-quarters of our revenue. No, Max wanted to claim the design as his own and then sit on it, making sure no one could build an engine to compete with his. That way he stays rich and our clients stay happy.”

  “Wow,” I said. “My opinion of him is rising higher by the second.”

  “There were two problems,” Alec continued. “One, Charlotte couldn’t find out that he’d stolen the design until after he’d filed the patent under his name, and two, you’d seen the plans. If you wanted to, you could have sold those plans to a competin
g industry.”

  “Or gone to the police,” I said.

  “You signed a waiver when you first got there saying everything you saw in that house was confidential. If you’d gone to the cops, he would have ruined you. Taken every penny. Anything you made from now until retirement would go to your legal fees.”

  The power Maxim had over both our lives loomed heavily over me. I remembered that waiver well. I’d thought it was offensive at the time. I’d felt like Ms. Rowe had been questioning my professionalism—like I was going to steal a cereal bowl from the kitchen or something. I’d had no idea what was at stake.

  I kicked off my heels so I could pace more effectively, and the tile floor was cold under my bare feet. “I couldn’t go to the cops, but if I’d taken it to a competitor, they could do the same thing Maxim was trying to do—claim the patent as their own and make all the money. Or sit on it.”

  “Right,” he said. “One of us had to follow Charlotte and make sure she didn’t catch on or go to the cops. The other had to follow you. I made sure I was the one to follow you.”

  I turned back to the window, wishing I didn’t feel so small.

  “Why?” I asked. “You knew Charlotte. She wouldn’t have suspected anything if she’d seen you hanging around. You barely knew me.”

  “I didn’t like the way Bobby was looking at you,” he said.

  I softened a little, but couldn’t look at him.

  I tried to put myself in Alec’s shoes. It couldn’t have been easy convincing Max that he should follow me when he already had a previous relationship with Charlotte.

  “And so you were assigned.” It was impossible to hide the prickle in my voice.

  He looked up at me, shadows hiding his expression. “Yes.”

  His shoe made a scuffing noise across the floor. “Max came to me with the design and said I had to get to one of his high-powered patent attorneys to file it as soon as possible. It had to be me, that way if anything happened, Force would be clean. Max would have plausible deniability while I’d go down for corporate espionage—but, of course, his lawyer would get me off.”

  “Oh God,” I said, beginning to hate Maxim Stein for all he’d put Alec through. A moment later a heavy realization weighed down on my shoulders.

  “You did it,” I said quietly. “That’s why we went to New York.”

  He was quiet long enough to let the full effect of his actions sink in. I closed my eyes, burying my face in my hands. He’d done something awful and was totally screwed. It didn’t seem possible that even the best lawyer in the world could help him now.

  “I told Charlotte,” he said. “After I met with her, she showed up at Max’s house ready to burn the place down.”

  That was the first time I’d seen her—with her clothes on at least. Ms. Rowe had shoved her off, saying Maxim was with his wife. Alec had barely acknowledged me, he’d been so intent on getting Charlotte out.

  “I remember,” I said.

  “I had tried to get her to file the patent first, but she insisted on going to the press. Exposing Max. She knew Bobby was tailing her. He scared her, I think. Before she drove off the bridge they’d gotten in a fight outside her house. From the sounds of it, it wasn’t pretty.” His voice had grown thin, angry.

  I was back near the window and leaned against the glass, letting it hold my weight.

  “The reporter had mentioned that the passenger window had been smashed. That was why they thought there’d been another person in the car,” I said quietly. “I was afraid it was you.”

  He pushed off the pillar and walked to the window beside me, staring at my apartment.

  “I’m sorry I left the way I did. It killed me to leave.”

  There was such raw honesty in his voice that it was impossible not to believe him.

  “I called,” I said, dropping down yet another step in this slow motion tumble to the truth. “When I knew you didn’t have your cell, I called Maxim’s house looking for you. They thought you’d told me about the patent.”

  He nodded.

  The pieces were falling into place one by one. “Bobby must have just gotten back from Charlotte’s.”

  “If I’d gotten to her faster . . .” He shook his head. “We weren’t supposed to meet until later that night. I was going to take her to the police. I told her not to leave her house without me. She didn’t know what Bobby was capable of.”

  Like assaulting a woman and leaving her at his uncle’s house for Alec to clean up.

  “If you’d gone to the police with her . . .” I twisted the hem of my shirt. “If they’d taken Maxim into custody, he would’ve thrown you under the bus. You would go to jail, Alec.”

  He was still. Stone still. Still enough to tell me he’d already considered this.

  He had been trying to make things right and would still be punished for it. I thought of the wreck he’d been when he’d shown up to my apartment. I’d been correct—he had come to say good-bye, but not because he was leaving me for Charlotte. Because he was going to jail.

  Despite the bad things he’d done, he was a good man. This was clearly eating him alive.

  I moved closer to him, put a hand on his arm. The muscles beneath clenched, then relaxed.

  “What happened to Charlotte isn’t your fault.” I paused, a deeper fear clawing up my spine. “Do you think Bobby had something to do with her driving off the bridge?”

  He scratched a hand over his jaw, still staring forward.

  “I watched you,” he said absently. “The first night after I met you, I came here and looked through this window, and saw you undressing. You’d done something to me at the house. I couldn’t explain it. I’d never felt that way about anyone.”

  I swallowed, throat hot as he turned to me and moved closer, a dark heat in his eyes.

  “It’s my stalker magnet.” I laughed weakly.

  “Something changed that night,” he continued. “The thought of Bobby laying a hand on you, or Max fucking with you . . . I couldn’t let it happen. I couldn’t let them near you.”

  He was closer, caging me against the window. He didn’t touch me, but I could feel his warm breath on my lips, his chest inches from mine. A flush heated my skin. My body yearned for contact. A rhythm had begun pulsing in my sex, keeping beat with my accelerating heart. Behind me, the window was hard and cold, but in front of me was fluid fire.

  “I couldn’t look away,” he whispered tightly. “Your back was against the window, just like this, and you began to move. Just a little. I had to watch closely to make sure I’d seen it at all.”

  I was trapped in place, mesmerized by the growl in his voice. I was afraid of what he’d done, afraid for him and for myself as well, but the fear only heightened my arousal.

  “Your fingertips skimmed your shoulder.” He showed me how, just a light brush of his thumb down my neck to my collarbone and out. My pulse beat wildly. Automatically, my head tilted to the side, exposing more flesh to his caress.

  “I wanted to kiss you there,” he admitted.

  His lips ghosted a trail down the same path, never once touching my skin. Staying a breath away.

  “Your face turned to the side, like it does when I make you come.”

  I was breathing hard now, and my hands were fisting in the baggy sweatpants that hung off my hips.

  “Did you touch yourself and think of me?” he murmured. “It drove me crazy wondering.”

  I shuddered with the memory of the first time I’d wanted to be with him. Moisture dewed on my hairline. My sex clenched. Without my panties, I was acutely aware of the dampness between my thighs.

  “Alec.” My heart hurt, but my body still wanted him. I couldn’t give in to the need without the rest of me feeling whole.

  “Anna,” he said roughly. “I knew then I had to have you. All of you. Not for Max, not just for one night. For good. I needed to be someone you’d want. Someone worthy.”

  His hand lowered over my waist, and my abdominals quivered in anticipation.
Still, he didn’t touch me.

  I did want him. I wanted him so badly it hurt.

  His face tilted, and his lips brushed gently over mine.

  “Before I saw the lawyer in New York, I made copies of everything and took them to the FBI,” he said. “Very soon Force will crumble, and Maxim Stein with it.”

  Thirty-one

  “You . . .” I blinked. “You what?” I put a hand on his solid chest and pushed him back. My body was still humming with need. The blood was pounding in my ears. Either my brain was about to explode, or I was going to tear his clothes off. It could have gone either way.

  As if searching for something to grasp, his hands clawed through his hair, then wove behind his neck. Then shoved into his pockets.

  “I’m turning Max in,” he said. “Too many people have been hurt. You could’ve been hurt. And Charlotte . . .” He turned away, shoulders tensing as a shudder raked through him. “Whatever loyalty I’ve shown Max won’t mean jack if he gets in a bind. I always knew it. I just didn’t care until I met you.”

  I was still trying to catch up and couldn’t think of anything to say in response.

  “That night you came to Max’s house, the FBI had put a wire on me,” he said. “I think Bobby may have had more to do with Charlotte’s death than he’s saying, but they needed him to admit it on tape. My fists were just about to convince him to talk when I saw you on the monitor.”

  The wall I’d been leaning against outside Maxim’s office shook as Alec had rammed Bobby into it—I remembered the way the window overhead had rattled.

  “What did you do?” I finally managed.

  He turned, streetlights gleaming in his eyes.

  “The right thing. It just took me a while to get there.”

  “What did you do?” I said again, feeling the tremor start in my heels and work its way up my legs. Higher it went, through my core. Higher, into my chest.

  “Anna—”

  “Stupid man!” I shouted, covering my mouth. The words came out anyway. “You stupid . . . crazy . . . stupid man!”

  I lunged at him and grabbed his shirt in my trembling fists. His hands wrapped around my wrists while I tried to shake some sense into him. His brows came together, his mouth made a tight straight line. I kicked him in the shin and he hissed in pain.