She was missing sex, that’s all it was. A couple of assignments and she’d be just fine. It was apparent that Reuben was just fine about it anyway. He hadn’t even attempted to contact her. A guy with a body like that would have no trouble getting all the sex he needed. He just didn’t need it from her any more.
In a place like a gym there were plenty of women. She got that nervy curl in her stomach again when she thought about all the gorgeous girls who worked out at Reuben’s place. It would be like picking warm, ripe peaches from a tree. But that was his choice. And leaving him standing naked in the sauna had been hers. Now she had to live with it.
Hayley looked at the phone, hoping it would ring. Another case. What else? She needed something new to get her teeth into. It reminded her of something Reuben had done in the sauna. Her hand flew to her neck. He’d bitten her. Like a rabid wolf. The guy was a jerk and she was better off without him. Her stomach fluttered again.
OK, so it wouldn’t hurt to just go around and tell him she didn’t mean to run out on him like that. It was only being reasonable. He must be wondering what had happened, what he’d done to make her leave so abruptly. It didn’t mean she was going to start anything up again. Or that she felt anything she didn’t.
The office door was locked before she realised what she was doing. Her heart thumped, but it stood to reason she’d be nervous. She’d never needed to explain her actions before.
Walking slowly past the lit glass frontage from the darkness of the street, Hayley looked in carefully to see if she could catch sight of Reuben. It was always better to view your target before they got wind of you. And maybe if she did she could change her mind in time.
He wasn’t around, even though it was too early for him to have gone home. Perhaps this wasn’t a good idea, after all. He might think she was coming back for an after-hours session again, like before. But that was all over. This was just ending things properly.
Pushing the door open, she entered.
A couple of the guys working out looked up as she passed their equipment. They always did. She’d learnt to ignore it. No sign of the Rottweiler either. The reception desk was empty. Good. She wasn’t in the mood to explain herself to anyone.
That thought made her laugh. Wasn’t that exactly the reason she was here? To explain herself?
Irritation nipped at her. Why the hell should she explain anything? She didn’t owe Reuben a thing. It had been mutual casual sex and now it was over. Hayley was about to turn on the balls of her feet when she heard a noise in Reuben’s office.
What if he should come out just as she was running away? He thought she ran away from everything. Maybe she did. Perhaps it was time to face her fears.
What was the worst he could do? Tell her to get the hell out? Beg her to stay? She could face down any number of cheating scum, but she couldn’t tell Reuben it was over? Hayley didn’t even want to think about what that might signify.
No, she would do it quickly and cleanly. Like a kill. Then there could be no doubt. No regret. No going back.
She walked into the office. Empty. The sounds were coming from the small private massage suite that Reuben used when he worked with a client. Was he tidying up in there? The door was shut so she couldn’t tell, but she wanted to get this over with. She’d hesitated long enough. If he was alone she’d do it. Before she changed her mind.
Hayley listened for a bit. She’d know if he was working with someone as he always explained what he was doing to them, so it came as no surprise to them where his hands landed next. She thought about his hands. On her.
Hayley almost felt Reuben’s hands massaging her own body. Flowing over her taut muscles like warm honey until they softened and relaxed. She would be giving all that up if she never saw him again. Perhaps they could maintain a more professional relationship? She would pay for it. There were nights when she just needed the kinks ironed out.
But it always led to sex with her and Reuben. The mental back massage turned into virtual hands running over her breasts, and she felt her nipples stiffen as her whole body came to life. Reuben’s imaginary fingers had found their languid way down to her pussy, dipping and caressing the silken skin to tingling awareness.
Maybe casual sex with Reuben wasn’t so bad? She could field the emotional stuff, like she always had.
Hearing a woman’s gentle laughter, Hayley stiffened. Laughter?
Client? Her replacement? The only way she could find out was to open that door and there was no way she was going to do that. How embarrassing would it be? Ditching Reuben, then bursting through his door like an avenging Valkyrie to find him in the arms of another woman. It wasn’t going to happen to her.
‘Oh, that feels so good, Reuben.’
The words drifted through the massage room door. Jesus. She knew that high, breathy voice. The Rottweiler. The one who obviously fancied Reuben like a crazy thing. And she sounded in ecstasy. Like she was ready to come.
The bastard. How long had that been going on? Had Reuben been making a complete fool of her all the time? Had she been making a complete fool of herself? Just a kid, my eye.
It was one thing to give up Reuben. It was quite another to find out she’d been used all along. How ironic was that, given her job? And her past. She grasped the door handle and burst into the room.
Reuben wheeled around.
‘You really should learn to lock your door when you’re entertaining, Reuben. It doesn’t do to get caught out. With a kid.’ The kid was 19 if she was a day. Hayley knew she was being unreasonable. Reuben was a free agent. She’d made that perfectly clear.
The Rottweiler pushed herself up off the bench. She was naked except for a towel wrapped around her middle. The sight of her, with Reuben, enraged Hayley. A hot burn ripped through her. She did this for a living. Knew the signs inside out. Believed that it would be a sorry day in hell when she got caught out being cheated on. Yet here she was.
‘This isn’t what it looks like, Hayley.’ Reuben stepped towards her, voice calm.
The classic one-liner. She took a step backwards and snorted a bitter laugh. ‘Can’t you come up with a better excuse than that? What I want to know is how long it’s been going on?’ Blast. Now she sounded like most of her own irate clients. How dare Reuben do this to her?
The Rottweiler sat there in all her glory, smirking triumphantly. She looked relaxed, warm, and flushed. Oh, Hayley knew exactly how that felt. Exactly what Reuben’s magic hands had been doing to her body. She was only surprised he hadn’t got his own clothes off yet. Perhaps she should have waited another five minutes for the grand entrance. She wouldn’t have made such a mess of the reveal for any of her paying clients. But this was the sort of mess emotion made of things.
No wonder The Rottweiler guarded her boss so well. If it wouldn’t look so undignified, Hayley wanted to slap the smug expression off her face. Besides, it was Reuben she was angry with. How could a girl like that resist the attentions of an amazing-looking guy like Reuben? She hadn’t herself, and she was old enough and world-wise enough to know better. Much better.
Well, she knew better now.
‘Hayley.’ He was trying to get her attention off Tammy, back on to him.
‘Forget it.’ Hayley put her hand up, palm towards him, to stop him advancing any further. ‘This makes it easy. Goodbye. I won’t be using your – services again.’
She felt satisfied to see Reuben wince at the intonation she put on the word.
Hayley turned to the naked girl sitting on the massage bench. ‘Nice top, by the way.’ Her bitchy comment made the silly girl giggle as she turned back towards the door to exit this whole sorry mess. She was right about men. All of them. She just wished she didn’t feel so disappointed with one in particular.
Reuben’s hand grasped her bare upper arm and stopped her leaving. She looked down at it venomously. It was covered with oil. The oil he had been caressing Tammy’s naked body with just a few moments before, as a prelude to having sex with the girl.
And how many other women besides?
Her voice dripped acid. ‘Take your hands off me, Reuben. I only came to say goodbye.’ Had she? ‘And I just have.’ So why was she so mad?
‘We need to talk.’ His tone was modulated, gentle, unlike her own.
He was one cool customer, she’d give him that. While her temper flared, he acted like he was as innocent as a new-born babe. What a jerk. ‘We’ve done all the talking we’re ever going to do. We’ve done all the everything, we’re ever going to do.’ Reuben appeared to ignore her. He still had hold of her upper arm. ‘Let me go, Reuben, or you’ll be sorry.’ So help her, God, he would. She felt her fists bunch.
Reuben merely turned and spoke to Tammy over his shoulder. ‘Can you give us a moment, Tammy?’
That wiped the smile off Tammy’s face, Hayley noted. Did the girl expect that Reuben would order her out of the room instead? It was better she got the lowdown on men from the get-go. This was doing her a favour.
Hayley addressed the girl as she stalked past. ‘He won’t be a moment, Tammy. We’re done. He just doesn’t believe it yet.’ Hayley’s eyes must have sparked as she turned her attention back to the hand on her arm. ‘I have nothing to say to you.’
‘Well, I have something to say to you and you’re going to hear it.’
The hell she would. But she wasn’t going to provide a floorshow for the Rottweiler. She stood coolly seething while Tammy, pouting her discontent, stomped past them both with her small, pert breasts shoved out in front of her. Reuben reached around and closed the door quietly.
Hayley would have slammed it.
She heard a muted cheer go up from the guys outside. Tammy clearly hadn’t seen the need to cover up as she moved through the public gym.
Reuben clipped the lock shut. Hayley barked another laugh. ‘It’s a bit late for that. You’ve locked yourself in with the wrong woman.’
He wheeled Hayley around to face him. She threw her head up and glared into his eyes. ‘Well?’ she demanded.
‘There’s nothing going on between me and Tammy.’ He looked so damn sure of himself. Sounded so calm, so reasonable. The best liars and cheaters always did. She’d known that from the time she was barely a teen.
‘There looked like plenty going on from where I was standing.’ She threw it out like a challenge. Demanding he deny it.
He did. ‘I’m a qualified masseur.’
‘Qualified to use women as toys for your enjoyment?’
He looked genuinely hurt, she’d give him that, but she wanted him to be. The way she was. Not that she was going to investigate the reason why. No point. She was done with Reuben for good. Consigned him to the scrapheap, like all the rest of the devious rats.
‘Qualified to treat sports injuries.’
The laugh that erupted from Hayley’s mouth shocked even her. She yanked her arm out of his oily grasp. It was easy enough. The thought of his fingers on her skin gave her gooseflesh.
‘Is that what I made you feel? Like a sex toy?’
‘Yes.’ She wasn’t in the mood to be conciliatory. The bastard had clearly been cheating on her, the way she promised herself no man ever would. Not the way her stepfather did to her mother. Not any way. She quickly squashed out the bad old memories.
‘I care about you, Hayley.’
Present tense. So what? ‘So much that you never came near me, after you got what you wanted.’
‘I was giving you space. I get the feeling with you that you don’t like to be crowded. It makes you run faster.’
That was exactly what she’d done. Now she was here to explain. To end it.
‘I came to tell you straight it was over.’
It was Reuben’s turn to get annoyed. ‘So if it’s all over, what the hell is all this about?’
‘All what?’
‘This jealousy.’
She was incensed. ‘Jealous? Of a kid like Tammy? You can have Tammy any time you want. I just would have liked to think it wasn’t while you were also having me.’ Bright rage overwhelming her, she moved to strike him.
He stopped her by grabbing her wrist. She struggled to get free, so Reuben turned her into his body with her back flush against his chest, crossing her arms like a living straitjacket in front of her. No matter how hard she struggled, he held her easily. He danced around, avoiding her stamping on his instep. She wasn’t tall enough to break his nose with the back of her head. She tried.
He hooked one powerfully restraining leg around one of hers and lifted her up, inches from the floor, leaning against the wall for balance. ‘Now listen here, and listen good. I’m treating Tammy for a pulled shoulder muscle.’
‘Kid yourself, you’re not kidding me. I see the way she looks at you.’ Hayley struggled futilely to escape. ‘Take your hands off me.’
‘Not until you calm down and listen. I know that too. If I clicked my fingers I could have Tammy under me and willing in a heartbeat.’
The shock of hearing him say out loud exactly what she had been thinking stunned her into immobility.
Reuben continued, lowering her slowly back to the floor. ‘I mean what I say when I call her a kid. She’s too young for me, and I don’t want to go there besides. I had a woman I wanted already, or I thought I did. She’s complicated. I don’t pretend to understand her but I’d like to.’ Hayley stopped struggling to escape his arms and he gingerly tested out the idea of releasing her, doing it inch by steady inch, ready to react if she started thrashing again. ‘If she’ll let me.’
He turned Hayley in his arms. She was silent. Wary. Processing all the information put her in overload. What she’d seen, believed. What Reuben had just said. Her past. Her work. Truth and lies.
He spoke softly. ‘Now I’d really like to kiss her, see, to show her how I feel about her, but I don’t think she’ll let me.’ Reuben quirked an eyebrow, back to requesting her permission again.
He tried moving his mouth towards hers, slowly, carefully. Hayley jerked back instinctively. She had never let any man kiss her. Not since realising her stepfather was a cheating louse who had ruined her mother’s life.
He sighed and retreated. ‘Do you, at least, believe me when I tell you I’m not screwing Tammy?’
She did actually. And now she felt a fool for letting her emotions get the better of her. Her voice was soft. ‘Yeah, I suppose.’
He laughed. ‘You suppose?’
She smiled back ruefully. ‘OK. I believe you.’
‘Thank you.’ Reuben’s features became serious. ‘Were you really coming to tell me goodbye?’
‘I think so.’
‘Does that mean I still stand a chance with you?’
He looked so attractive. Hayley sighed. ‘Why do you always have to be so damned reasonable? You make it really hard for a girl to stay mad at you.’ She paused. ‘Or to say goodbye.’
‘I’m a reasonable kind of guy.’ The tone of his voice changed. ‘I’m also a horny kind of guy. I haven’t had any meaningful sex since you ran out on me.’ He looked hopeful.
She ignored the comment about the state of his sexual frustration. ‘Don’t you even want to know why I did it?’
‘I guess you’ll tell me when you’re good and ready. Now, about that meaningful sex.’
He could always make Hayley smile. ‘So what other type of sex have you been having while I’ve been away?’
Reuben held up an oily hand and grinned like a college boy. Foreplay had begun. ‘Let me go and lock up. Everyone should be done out there by now and I’m in real need of a little workout of my own.’
So was she. All the fighting and forced submission to Reuben’s physical power recalled her fascination with Don Friar’s fantasy world of domination and more. The thought of submitting to Reuben teased at her, and she wondered if she would shock him by initiating that sort of play.
There was only one way to find out.
While Reuben locked up, Hayley searched the treatment room and his office for equipment she thought she could use. He
would return expecting great vanilla sex. Her lips quirked. It was a night for revelations. It was time she shocked Reuben a little, introducing him to other types of sex.
‘Do you trust me?’ she asked simply, stepping aside when he reached for her.
He frowned quizzically, suggesting he was interested to find out what she had in mind. Hayley helped Reuben to strip out of his T-shirt. She loved looking at his hard, muscular chest and couldn’t wait to touch it, but resisted the urge to lay her hands on his flesh. Reuben was itching to feel her hands on him, she could tell, so prolonging the delay would add excitement and need for both of them.
‘Be an obedient servant and do as your mistress tells you,’ she demanded, in a firm tone. Instantly, she could tell that he liked this side to her when his irises flared and his focus on her intensified. When she turned Reuben’s back to her, he readily complied.
Reaching up, she placed a length of bandage around his eyes and tied it behind his head. He threw his hands up in surprise but submitted to her, smiling softly. He didn’t feel threatened. Yet. Hayley took his wrist and tied another length of bandage around it firmly, attaching it to his other wrist. His erection was burgeoning steadily.
‘You’re a disobedient slave. What makes you think your mistress will allow you to take pleasure from her actions?’ Hayley stroked a hand over his hidden cock. It jumped beneath her touch. She took the ends of the bandages hanging from his wrists and led him behind her into the gym.
‘I can’t see.’ He hesitated after a few steps.
‘Then you must accept where I lead you and trust what I do.’ She knew his cock was throbbing as much as her pussy. This wouldn’t end quickly, she promised herself.
Hayley stood Reuben in the middle of the room and went over to activate the switch that would bring the shutters down over the windows, to ensure their privacy. It wouldn’t do for the whole town to pass by and witness what she was about to subject Reuben to. She imagined gathering a crowd of onlookers and a multitude of phone camera flashes going off to record the event for posterity and the local newspaper. It amused her.
P I Honeytrap Page 9
