Devi's Bliss: Books 4-6

by Mika Lane

The smile she wore now was anything but a façade. It was the real deal. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so happy.

  She jumped on her bike and made her way across San Francisco, dodging the heavy traffic of tech workers and tourists alike. Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge via the bike lane, she couldn’t stop smiling as she took in the views. But as incredible as she felt, there was something missing. Hale would have been thrilled to know she’d gone on an audition.

  He’d called more times than she could count in the last week, and she’d sent every one to voicemail. She’d neither listened nor responded to any of them. And she wouldn’t, either. But as resolute as she was, a nagging sadness lingered…

  She arrived at work and entered the dimly lit spa, waiting for a moment as her eyes adjusted to the light. Leaning back against the door, she inhaled the scents that added so much to the spa’s atmosphere.

  “Aurora,” a familiar voice said.

  Her head whipped toward the waiting area’s cushy sofas.

  Goddammit.

  Hale sat there in all his gorgeousness. But his usual confidence seemed diminished, like it had been knocked down a few points.

  If he apologies again…

  “Aurora, I’m here to apologize again.”

  Ugh.

  “I want to talk to you. Can you at least give me a minute?” His brows knit together, leaving his forehead lined and his eyes tired. He did look contrite. And sincere. And hot.

  But he drove like a shithead.

  As he stood to approach her, another client entered the spa. He lowered his voice and asked, “Can we go to an empty room?”

  Aurora made a cursory check of the schedule and found the Earth Chakra room available. She nodded, and he followed.

  She closed the door and turned to him with her hands on her hips. “What did you need to talk about so desperately that you showed up at my workplace?” Her jaw twitched in anger.

  Hale leaned against the edge of the massage table. “It wasn’t me driving.”

  “What?”

  “I wasn’t driving. The day you were hit. It was my car, but it wasn’t me.”

  Her arms folded tightly in front of her. “Yeah, right.”

  Hale’s expression darkened. “You could at least listen instead of standing there like you’re the only person in the world who has ever had a problem, ever had their heart broken, ever been shit on by life.”

  She flinched, stunned into silence.

  He ran his fingers through his hair and shook his head. “You know, I think I’ll take off now. It was a mistake to come. I can’t help your rigid thinking with any amount of the truth.” He opened the door to leave.

  “Wait,” Aurora said, putting her hand on his arm. “Wait a minute.”

  Now Hale stood, hands on hips.

  “Tell me what happened. Tell me.”

  Hale took a deep breath and looked around the room as if deciding whether to stay or go. His gaze returned to Aurora. “One of my employees was driving my car. He was the one who hit you.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “How do you know?”

  “After I last saw you, I wracked my brain, trying to remember if someone else had driven my car. And someone had. I’d been in a meeting and sent someone on staff to get the car serviced. I have the receipts with the date, time, and his signature. He’s been fired.”

  Oh. Shit.

  She looked down at her feet, wanting to crawl away in shame like the idiot that she was. For fuck’s sake. It was the right car, just not the right person. When she looked back up at him, she couldn’t speak. Not even a word. And what would she say, anyway? How did one apologize for being so sure she was right that she wouldn’t even listen to the facts?

  Who does that?

  Stupid people, that’s who.

  Or maybe people who’ve been burned? Had their hearts decimated? Been fucked over by their best friends?

  What a fool she’d been.

  “Hale. I…I’m…so sor—”

  He pressed his finger to her lips. “Don’t say anything. Let’s put it behind us.”

  He pulled her to him, his hands igniting the ravenous desire she’d been denying for several long, painful days. That heat came rushing back with a vengeance and her head spun with giddiness. With his hands on her waist, he hoisted her to sitting, perched just on the edge of the massage table. His lips came down on her like a thundershower, washing away the disappointment and anger of the past few days.

  She drew back from him to speak. “Thank you for dropping this. And thank you for not going on about it so I feel like a bigger jackass than I already am.”

  He pushed her hair out of their way and held her chin. “I thought I said don’t talk about it.” His mouth was on hers again, devouring her embarrassment.

  She wrapped her arms around him, immersed in his inexplicable, but persistent, understanding.

  He pulled back. “How much time do we have in here?”

  “Maybe…fifteen minutes.”

  “Okay…” he murmured, helping her from the massage table to standing. He pulled her flowy dress over her head, leaving her standing in nothing but lace panties.

  “Lay down,” he growled.

  She kicked off her clogs and hopped back up on the massage table. As she reclined, he reached under her ass, removing her panties and tossing them to the floor. Without wasting a moment, he parted her knees and admired for the first time what he had only touched until then.

  “What a pretty pussy,” he murmured.

  Pushing her knees back against her breasts, he spread her open until her hips ached. His hot breath whispered over her sex, and he inhaled her aroma. Just as she was getting ready to beg for his touch, his mouth brushed over her shaved lips with vicious delight. She gasped and her limbs convulsed. All she could think of was how much she needed this.

  His tongue dove into her, sweeping up and down from clit to ass and back again. An occasional nibble surprised and tickled. From her restrained position, she impatiently squirmed, pleading for the lashing she was so starved for.

  “Hale, don’t make me wait. Please.”

  His fingers opened her, and his tongue invaded. She was on her way. Lapping up and down in a semi-frenzy, it was as if he couldn’t get enough. Her thighs cramped and her head banged against the massage table.

  This man. This fucking man.

  Her orgasm finally detonated in delicious explosions through every cell of her body.

  In a swift movement, he withdrew from her between her legs. She looked up for the cause of the interruption and saw his face glistening with her excitement.

  “God, Hale,” she whispered. “That was so good.” She twisted her hard brown nipples, and he sucked in his breath at the sight.

  Diving back into her pussy, he zeroed in on her erect clit, circling it with the tip of his hot tongue. His lips created a suction that left her screaming with more tremors. With two fingers deeply pumping her, he pushed her closer to her edge, and her second orgasm in minutes shattered her.

  “Hale,” she screamed. “Fuck me harder.”

  “Yeah,” he mumbled, his face buried in her. “Come on me, baby. Come on my hand, come on my face.”

  That was all she needed to hear. A half-sob erupted from her lips and she tumbled into another bout with ecstasy. Her head rocked back and forth, tossing hair over her face where it tangled and fell in her mouth. She gasped, unable to form words. He continued his attention to the nub of her clit, and her pussy seized his pumping fingers. The orgasm rolled on and on and when it finally slowed, she was almost grateful for the reprieve.

  Joining her on the massage table, he encircled her with his arms until her shaking subsided. Just as her mind was returning to the room, a soft knock rattled the door. Time to vacate the Earth Chakra room.

  A few moments later, they strolled down the hallway with smiles on their faces, passing Isabella, who had a client close behind.

  As they dumped their sheets in the laundry, Aur
ora turned to Hale. “Why are you so nice to me?”

  Looking surprised at the question, he ran his hand through his hair.

  “I like you. You’re smart, determined, beautiful, and sexy. And I like your singing. Speaking of which, Isabella told me you had an in-person audition—”

  “When did you see Isabella?”

  “When I was waiting for you this morning,” he explained. “She chatted me up a bit. I think she felt bad that I was sitting here so long.”

  “How long were you waiting?”

  “About two hours.”

  Her mouth dropped open.

  He had waited two hours…?

  Now she really felt like an ass. But Hale didn’t see her that way. Maybe she didn’t have to, either.

  “Stan!” Aurora hollered as she entered the studio, searching for her vocal coach. “Stan?” She wandered down the hall toward his office for her lesson. It had only been a couple days since her last one, but she couldn’t wait to get going.

  “In here.”

  She followed his voice to a musty storage room littered with music stands, dusty speakers, and recording equipment so old it was unidentifiable. He riffled through a box of reel-to-reel tapes of different sizes, all spilling off their spools. The box, which looked like it had been nicely organized at one time, had become a pile of celluloid spaghetti.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  He threw the last of the tapes in the box and shrugged his shoulders. “Just looking for an old tape. One of these days, I’ll digitize all this stuff.”

  “Stan, you need to hire someone to help you with this. You don’t have time for it.” Aurora stood with her hands on her hips.

  His eyes suddenly widened as if he remembered something important. “I had someone to help. But it didn’t work out.”

  “What happened?”

  “You remember Eliza, the redhead?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  “She was helping me with some office work in exchange for a break on her lesson fees.”

  “That’s nice. I didn’t know you offered that. I’d pitch in but I’m so busy with my own job—”

  “You might have noticed she hasn’t been around.”

  “Did she get another job?”

  Or had she been asked to leave?

  “I have no idea. But she better not use me as a reference.”

  “What happened?”

  “I found out she tampered with your demo recording. That’s why the file was empty.”

  A wave of nausea washed over Aurora.

  “You. Are. Kidding.”

  The bitch…

  “I’m sorry, Aurora. I really am. I had no idea she was so ruthless. I guess she didn’t want anyone to have anything she didn’t have. There was always a strange vibe about her, but she was very devoted to her singing. Anyway, she’s gone now. What a fool she was to think she could get away with something like that.”

  Aurora had a brief vision of running into Eliza at Left Bank and accidentally dropping a beer right on her head.

  “What a creep, to do something so hateful.” Her stomach churned.

  “Yeah, well, you do come across folks like that in this business, I’m afraid. I’m usually pretty good at sniffing them out, but this one got by me. I’m gonna be more careful from now on with who has access to our recordings. Thank god I had a master file.” He stood from his stool. “Again, I’m really sorry, Aurora.”

  “Oh, Stan, thank you. But it’s not your fault.”

  She took a deep breath to shake off the anger. There had been too much of that in her life in the last twelve months. It was time to send it on its miserable way.

  “Ready to sing?” he asked her.

  Thoughts of the evil redhead quickly dissipated. She clapped her hands.

  “Absolutely. Let’s go.”

  “That’s the spirit.” Stan patted her on the shoulder as he clicked off the storage room light, closing the door behind them.

  Chapter 12

  “Hey, Devi.” Having just arrived for work, Aurora leaned over the reception desk toward her boss. “How are you doing?”

  Devi let loose a long sigh and smiled. Her customary grouchiness was absent. Could it be that facing her mortality had softened her up?

  “Thank you for asking. I still get pretty tired. But it looks like my old ticker will be hanging in there for a while yet. Ruth won’t stop talking about retirement, though.”

  “But she just made head of surgery!”

  “I know. But my heart attack changed her thinking about work and such. She wants to make sure we fully enjoy our golden years.”

  “Could you both retire now, if you wanted to?” Aurora asked hesitantly. It was rare that Devi shared anything so personal. Normally, she’d have shooed her away and told her to get her butt to work.

  But her boss continued. “We asked ourselves the same thing. This business has been good to me. Ruth’s long career in medicine has left us in good stead. That’s what happens when you marry a doctor, I guess.” Devi laughed, shaking her head.

  Marry a doctor? Did Devi sound like Aurora’s mom for a second?

  The spa’s front door blew open, and Aurora turned toward the commotion. Two of her fellow massage therapists appeared to have just shared a very funny joke. Jewel doubled over with laughter as Gaia leaned against the door, shaking her head in amusement. But their mirth came to a screeching halt when they saw Devi’s stern face.

  “Ladies!” Devi hissed. “We have clients in the treatment rooms and I doubt they want to be disturbed by your hullabaloo.”

  Hullabaloo?

  “Sorry, Devi,” Jewel said. “It’s just that Gaia was telling me—”

  Devi raised her hand like a stop sign. “I don’t care what Gaia was telling you. Keep the noise down. Now all three of you, get to work.” She waved them away like so many annoying flies.

  The girls all smiled, and a small snort escaped from Jewel. This led to another fit of laughter, and she ran for the staff room so she could make all the noise she needed to.

  Ensconced in their “clubhouse” as Aurora liked to call it, the three found Isabella relaxing in a chair with her latest motorcycle magazine.

  “Hey, girl. How’s the tax man?” Gaia asked with a grin as she pulled open her locker.

  “Don’t call him that. He’s a tax attorney. His name is Boone. And he cleared up my IRS problem. So he’s pretty freaking awesome.”

  “Don’t forget hot and hunky, too!” Aurora turned to Gaia and Jewel. “And he adores her.”

  “And he rides,” Isabella added, nodding. “In fact, we’re going up the coast this weekend. He got a new Harley.”

  “Oh, yeah, forgot he was into bikes! You hit the motorcycle-riding tax man jackpot,” Gaia teased.

  Isabella stood up and smoothed the wrinkles from her white robe. “Ladies, I have a client waiting. So I will leave you here to your silliness. I wish you all a wonderful and financially rewarding day.” She headed for the door and was gone.

  Aurora sighed. “So happy for her. She’s been through some hard times. But I hope we didn’t make her mad just now, teasing her about Boone.”

  Gaia shrugged and rolled her eyes. “What about you? How goes the singing?”

  A smile exploded across Aurora’s face. Recent events rocketed through her mind, not the least of which were the zesty sessions she’d had with Hale.

  “Glad you asked. You won’t believe this. The other day I recorded in the studio of a guy who used to work with the Dead. The. Grateful. Dead.”

  Their mouths fell open.

  “The Grateful Dead?”

  “The one and only. I am not kidding. It was off the hook.” She filled them in on Eddie’s jaw-dropping Tiburon pad, omitting the piece about sex on the deck with Hale.

  “I’m supposed to get my recording in a few days. Then I can get it to a few of the folks who book for local clubs. We’ll see what happens. Maybe I’ll get another audition.” She held up crossed
fingers on both hands.

  Gaia threw her arms around Aurora’s neck. “Oh my god, that’s so exciting.” She stepped back and looked at her.

  “I’m so proud of you.”

  Turning to Jewel, she added, “We’ll be able to say we knew her when…”

  Aurora laughed, shaking her head. “You guys are crazy.”

  “Yeah, but you love us.”

  “I suppose so…”

  The truth was, of course she loved them. Every last one.

  The next day, Aurora and Hale returned to Mount Tam to repeat their favorite hike. And to perhaps repeat some other favorite things…

  As they entered the trail, rocks crunched under their boots. Aurora finished telling Hale about Isabella’s motorcycle ride up the coast with Boone.

  “Speaking of road trips, what do you think about taking one to L.A.?” Hale asked.

  Aurora stole a look at him while they walked. God, he was handsome with his chiseled jaw and thick black hair. “L.A.? Why do you want to go there?”

  “Oh, you know, I thought you might like to talk to some people in the recording industry.”

  “That would be awesome, but I need to send out my recordings first, the ones I made at Eddie’s house. I haven’t gotten around to doing it yet. But I will this week.”

  Hale stopped and cupped her face. She closed her eyes to inhale his scent, which wasn’t much more than plain, clean soap and an occasional whiff of motor oil from the track.

  So freaking alpha.

  “You may not have to send your recordings.”

  “What do you mean? Why not?”

  “Well…because I already have.”

  Huh?

  The air was so still, so silent, she heard a solitary leaf flutter to the ground and settle in the dirt.

  In confusion, she shook her head.

  “What?” She tilted her head at him, confusion causing her pulse to quicken.

  “I know some folks in L.A. in the music business.”

  “So you sent them my stuff?”

  He smiled proudly. “Yeah. I thought I could speed things along by calling in some favors. A lot of celebs come to the motorsports complex to play around with race cars. For them, it’s kind of a rich-boy hobby. They go for the fastest—”