Solitude (Cunningham Security Book 4)

by A. K. Evans

  When I stepped out into the front reception area, I felt him there. I looked over to the seating area and saw Lorenzo waiting in a chair.

  After I walked over to him, I asked, “Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  He grinned at me. “I’m your last appointment today,” he explained.

  My eyes rounded. “Really?”

  It had been such a busy day today that I hadn’t had the opportunity to check the schedule when I first arrived at work.

  Lorenzo nodded and reached over to the seat next to him. He’d completed his intake form and handed it to me. “Are you ready for me?”

  “Yeah,” I breathed. “Come with me.”

  “Planned on it.”

  I rolled my eyes at him and turned to walk away. I was going to be professional about this, so I treated him the same way I did all my other clients. I opened the door and held it for him.

  “We’re down the hall in room number four. It’s on the left,” I explained.

  He walked by me and that’s when I saw Tara and Brandee standing there with Joanne and Niki. They were all staring at me. Well, they were all staring at the space where Lorenzo had just been.

  “Go ahead, girl,” Tara encouraged me. “You’ve got a client waiting.”

  “Yeah, go,” Niki added. “You don’t leave a man like that waiting.”

  I giggled and walked down the hall toward room four. When I stepped inside, I closed the door and barely took two steps before Lorenzo bent and touched his lips to mine.

  I stepped back and held my hand up. “You, my friend, are here for a massage. A regular Swedish massage. Unless, of course, you decided to go for the hot stone or deep tissue instead.”

  He shook his head and admitted, “No, but I did spring for the extra thirty minutes with you.”

  “Right. Fine. So that means, you will get your massage the same way any other client would and you will not try to distract me from doing my job as the professional that I am. This is a highly-respected salon and there are no happy endings given here. I trust that you’ll respect that.”

  The corners of his mouth tipped up and he wondered, “Do you give this lecture to all of your clients?”

  “Nope. You’re the only one who’s been bold enough to kiss me the second I walked through the door and closed it.”

  “That makes me feel better.”

  I smiled and shook my head at him in disbelief. I looked down at his form and checked it over. “Have you ever had a massage before?”

  “Nope.”

  “Any areas of concern?”

  He cocked an eyebrow.

  “Before you even think about saying it,” I began. “I’m the boss in here. If I don’t like your answer, this will end before it begins. And, I’ll have you know, I give good massages. You’ll regret not ever having the opportunity to experience one.”

  He held his hands up in defeat. “You’re the boss. What do I do?”

  “I’ll step outside while you undress. Most people strip down to their underwear, you can take off or leave on whatever you are comfortable with.”

  “Jolie, you’ve seen me naked. Do you really think it’s necessary to step outside the room?” he asked.

  “Yes, I do. Because I’m a professional and this is my job. We do it my way or not at all,” I insisted.

  “Okay. You’re in charge.”

  “We’ll start with you face down on the table. I’ll be back in a couple minutes.”

  He gave me a nod and I stepped outside. I took a few deep breaths. I was going to do this, and I was going to remain a professional.

  A few minutes later, I knocked on the door.

  “Yeah, come in,” he responded.

  I stepped inside the room, closed the door, and dimmed the light. I didn’t need to be distracted by him more than I already was. Lorenzo was face down on the table, the blanket pulled up to his waist.

  “Did you have a preference for pressure? Light, medium, firm?”

  “Firm,” he returned.

  “Okay. If it’s too much or you’d like me to focus on any one area, please let me know. Otherwise, just relax and enjoy it.”

  He stayed quiet, so I took that as an indication he was settling in to enjoy his first massage. That was my cue. After rubbing my hands back and forth to put some heat into them, I squirted a generous amount of oil into my palm and got to work.

  I stood up by his head and looked down at his body. My hands started at his neck before I ran them down the length of his back. Within just a few minutes, the initial stiffness I felt in his muscles dissipated and I easily managed to work through any lingering tension. After working his neck, shoulders, arms, hands, and upper back, I moved to his lower back. I shifted the blanket farther down and was about to tuck it into the waistband of his boxer briefs, but I found he didn’t have any on.

  Great.

  Keep it together, Jojo.

  Filling my palms with oil again, I put them on either side of his body so that the heels of my palms were against the top curve of his ass. It wasn’t normally something I saw as anything other than my job, but this was Lorenzo. He was technically my boyfriend and he had a great ass. I remained focused on the task at hand and gave Lorenzo what I hoped he’d think was an incredible lower back massage. When I finished it several minutes later, I used a hot towel to clean the oil from his upper body.

  I covered Lorenzo’s torso with the blanket and moved to his legs. In all my years as a massage therapist, I’d given a lot of massages. There hadn’t ever been anyone who ever matched Lorenzo in size. His muscles were solid, and he looked amazing, but he had, by far, the tightest leg muscles I’d ever massaged.

  Typically, I didn’t talk while I was giving someone a massage, so I made a mental note to make sure I discussed what he’d need to do moving forward. I didn’t know if he’d listen to me, but I wouldn’t be doing my job properly if I ignored it.

  Shortly after I finished his legs, I lifted the blanket and had Lorenzo flip over to his back. I moved to the foot of the bed and took care of his feet before I worked my way up his legs and focused on his quads. When I finished them, I came back up to the head of the bed and worked his pectoral muscles.

  Most clients kept their eyes closed during their massages, but every time I glanced at his face while I was working, I found him watching me. There was a look of pure adoration in his eyes.

  I loved how seeing it made me feel.

  When his time was up and I’d finished the massage, I asked, “How are you feeling?”

  “I don’t know,” he started, and I felt my body grow tense. “I have so many thoughts running through my mind right now, but I’m not sure you’ll want me to share all of them with you.”

  “Oh,” I sighed, feeling disappointed that he either didn’t enjoy or he enjoyed it only for what he likely took as intimacy.

  “You’re incredible,” his voice cut into my thoughts. “Honestly, I never realized just how hard you work and assumed a massage was something that anyone could do. There’s no way I could come close to giving you a massage that would be anything like what you just gave me.”

  “So you enjoyed it?”

  “Immensely,” he replied.

  My mood instantly changed. It felt so good to hear him say that he appreciated the work that I did and that it was actually a pleasant experience for him.

  “Can I make a recommendation?” I asked.

  His brows pulled together as he answered, “Yeah.”

  “You need to stretch,” I asserted. “I’ve given a lot of massages, Lorenzo, but your legs have some of the tightest muscles I’ve ever worked with. It doesn’t have to be a lot, but I strongly recommend doing it, even if it’s only for ten or fifteen minutes a day.”

  “Really?”

  I nodded. “I’m serious. It would be a really good idea for you to try and get into the habit of it. I’ll warn you now that you need to make sure you warm the muscles
up first and then stretch. I can show you some good stretches later if you’d like.”

  “Okay.”

  I jerked my head back. “Seriously?”

  “You’re the professional and you’re good at what you do. I value what you’ve got to say,” he remarked without a second thought.

  “What are you planning to do when you leave here?” I wondered, knowing I needed the opportunity to show him just how much it meant to me to hear him say that.

  “Can I answer you honestly?” he challenged.

  I gave him a nod.

  “I’m planning to wait outside until you leave so that I can forget about the fact you need it to be professional in here and I can tell you exactly what I thought about your massage.”

  I licked my lips. Lorenzo’s eyes dropped to my mouth.

  “I’ll let you get dressed then,” I advised, my voice husky.

  I walked out of the room and let out a breath. Lorenzo and I had obviously gotten ourselves very well acquainted with each other a lot over the last several weeks, but something about what just happened in that room was more intimate than any sexual act.

  I did my very best to shake it off and walked down the hall to the reception area so that I could get him a cup of water. Thankfully, none of the girls from earlier were there except for Joanne. She happened to be on the phone at the time, so I quickly grabbed Lorenzo’s drink and walked back down the hall to wait for him. It was much more than a minute later when the door opened and he stepped out.

  I held the cup out to him. “This isn’t going to do a whole lot for you, so make sure you drink a lot of water after you leave. I’m not sure what you’ve got planned tonight, but whatever it is let’s hope you’ll be able to increase your fluid intake.”

  He grinned. “I can manage that.”

  “Great. You can head back down the hall out to the front. One of the girls will help you out. I’m going to get the table linens changed and finish up everything I need to do before I leave. I’ll meet you outside?”

  “Yep. Thank you for such a fantastic first experience, Jolie.”

  “You’re welcome, Lorenzo.”

  At that, he turned and walked down the hall while I went back into the room. As quickly as I could, I did what I needed to do. It wasn’t more than fifteen minutes later when I found myself standing at the front desk.

  “I’m heading out now,” I announced as I turned toward the front door.

  “Wait!” Niki called out. “You almost forgot your tips for the day and your paystub.”

  That could have all been easily forgotten. I was too distracted by my thoughts of Lorenzo to focus on anything but him.

  I turned around and walked back over to her. “Here you go,” she said as she handed me the stack of gratuity envelopes along with my paystub. “Have a great weekend, Jojo.”

  “I will,” I called out as I stepped through the front door and scanned the parking lot. There, parked next to my car, was Lorenzo’s truck. With his feet crossed at the ankles and his arms folded over his chest, my breath stuck in my throat. I’d never seen such a beautiful sight before in my life.

  As quickly as I could, I stepped off the small sidewalk in front of me and made my way across the mostly-empty lot toward him. With each step I took, closing the distance between us, I saw the look in his eyes grow more and more intense.

  Once I was within touching distance, he reached out for me and pulled me into him. He wasted no time crushing his mouth to mine, keeping my body tight to his, while his arousal pressed into me. Slanting his head, he took the kiss deeper and I moaned into his mouth.

  When Lorenzo pulled back, he held the back of my head in his hand and declared, “I’ve never been more turned on in my entire life than I was in that room with your hands doing what they did to me. Magic isn’t even the proper word for your hands, baby.”

  “I told you I was good.”

  “Magnificent, Jolie. I’m following you to your place. You alright with that?”

  I nodded.

  With that, Lorenzo opened my door. Once I was safely inside my car, he got in his truck and followed me home. We wasted no time in getting inside so I could use more than just my hands to make him feel good.

  Lorenzo, I learned, was no slouch when it came to showing me just how much he enjoyed his massage.

  “Okay, I’m ready. Now will you tell me where we’re going?”

  After Lorenzo and I had come back to my place following the end of my shift, we made good use of the time we had before we needed to leave for whatever it was that he had planned. I finally finished getting myself ready and hoped he’d now tell me what the plan was.

  Lorenzo stood there looking at me and his face softened. Instead of telling me where he planned to take us, he stated, “You look pretty, Jolie.”

  I walked toward him, wrapped my arms around his waist, and melted into him. “Thank you.” A moment later, I added, “But you still didn’t answer my question.”

  “Alright, let’s go out to the truck. I’ve got a present for you in there. That will be your clue.”

  “A present?” I questioned him as I tipped my head back to look at him. “Boss, we need to have a chat.”

  He raised his brows and gave me a curious look. “A chat about what?”

  I needed to cut right to the chase. “You and your spending.”

  The curious look was gone and replaced by an incredulous one. “You, Jolie Moore, avid shopper and buyer of everything unnecessary, want to discuss me and my spending?

  I nodded.

  “You bought pumpkins for Hank and Gracie. They don’t even know what pumpkins are and they’re too young to even appreciate them.”

  Now I was getting ticked.

  “See, now I’ve got a few problems with that.”

  At the mere sight of me working myself up to lose it on him, Lorenzo wasn’t the least bit fazed. In fact, I saw him working overtime to fight from breaking out into a full-blown grin.

  “First, maybe Hank and Gracie don’t know what pumpkins are yet and maybe they’re too small to appreciate them now, but they will grow up and see the pictures I took of them and with them on their first Halloween and they’ll say, ‘Our aunt is the shit.’ But secondly, and most important to note, big guy, is that I didn’t buy those pumpkins. If you’ll recall correctly, it was you who handed the money over.”

  “I was not the one on a mission to break the bank with frivolous purchases,” he shot back. “I could have easily been fine with one pumpkin.”

  “Oh, what fun would that have been?”

  “You’ve just proven my point that spending money on unnecessary things is like a second job for you. I’ve seen your closet, baby. You’ve got more clothes than any woman could ever wear in her lifetime. And don’t get me started on the shoes.”

  If my head could have exploded from shock, it would have. “You did not just tell me that I have too many shoes,” I warned him.

  “Baby, you do.”

  “I do not!”

  “Eighty-three,” he stated.

  “What?”

  “You have eighty-three pairs of shoes. Or, at least, that’s how many boxes I counted lined up in your closet. Considering I counted another twenty pairs of shoes not in boxes, I’m guessing your collection tops a hundred.”

  I had eighty-three pairs of shoes? He counted my shoes?

  “Why did you even count my shoes anyway?” I challenged since I had no other response.

  “If this works out long term, I need to prepare myself for the fact that you’re a big spender and you buy unnecessary things.”

  I jerked my head back. “I make my own money. I can spend it on what I want.”

  “I know that, which is why I haven’t said anything to you about it. You work hard, you make your money, you pay your bills. If you aren’t drowning in debt and can put food on your table all while being excessive with your spending on things you want, then who am I to tell you what you can spend your money on?”


  “Precisely my point,” I shot back. Ha! Score one for Jojo.

  He took a step closer to me, put his forefinger under my chin, and tilted my head back. “No, Jolie, precisely my point.”

  When my brows pulled together, he explained, “You started this conversation telling me you wanted to talk to me about me and my spending. I’m not sure you’re in a position to be telling someone how to spend their money when you aren’t exactly being very thrifty yourself.”

  Score negative one for Jojo, plus one million for Lorenzo.

  I was silent so long, Lorenzo went on, “Care to explain where you were headed with that conversation?”

  Swallowing hard, I rasped, “I’m not sure I should.”

  “I think I’d like to hear it.”

  “Well, it was the pumpkins,” I started. “And then today you came in for a massage. That would have been fine, but before I left, they gave me my tip envelopes. After I finished getting ready, I opened those.”

  “Yeah? And?”

  “You already know you put entirely too much money in there,” I answered. “It was unnecessary.”

  He shook his head and maintained, “It was what I believed you deserved for what you did.”

  I didn’t respond, even though I didn’t buy his explanation. He put two hundred dollars in the envelope. That was on top of what he paid for the massage itself.

  Since I had no reply, he questioned me further. “So, pumpkins and a massage for myself that I enjoyed more than ninety-nine percent of things I’ve experienced in my life. Those are your two things that I’ve spent needlessly on?”

  “Well, you just said you had a gift for me in the truck,” I pointed out.

  He nodded. “I can’t buy my girlfriend a gift? I can’t get her something I want her to have when I know that once she gets it, she’s going to be over the moon? I can’t want to make her feel that happy because maybe, just maybe, I get something out of seeing her that happy?”

  Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe. My lips parted and my breath stuck in my throat, my lungs burning.