“You’ve got to try this bodywork place, big brother. Relief. Best massage I’ve ever had. She zeroed in on every single knot and smoothed me right out. Best part? There’s an ‘extra services’ menu if you’re man enough to ask. I left a happy customer to be sure.”
I could still picture my younger brother’s smug expression as he told the story. Brody knew I wasn’t one to go for things like that, but he was always after me to loosen up, to become more like him. For the first time in my life, I considered it.
As I walked next to the massage parlor, I glanced inside, curious. Everything appeared warm and soft, from the red floor tiling to the varnished wood furniture, the wooden blinds, and potted plants. Much classier than I would have thought. Brody had said it was pretty exclusive, even though the sign suggested it wasn’t. Perhaps it wasn’t the sleazy place I had assumed after all.
A few drops were my only warning before the now-clouded sky opened and rain poured down in a solid sheet. Without thinking, I slipped into the massage parlor to escape the rain. I cursed myself for not bringing an umbrella, but as soon as I looked around, I was in no hurry to leave.
The place was better lit than I’d realized, and the scent of lavender filled the air, immediately taking away some of the tension I always carried. But that wasn’t the reason I suddenly wanted to linger.
“Good evening.” A slender young blonde woman spoke up from behind a simple but elegant counter. She must have been in her mid-twenties, with honey-blonde waves that tumbled over her shoulders and eyes a vibrant azure that almost didn’t look real.
She asked me if she could take my coat, and I nodded dumbly. She smiled with her soft pink lips and stepped out from behind her desk. I registered now how she was dressed: a black, short-sleeved tunic over black leggings. She didn’t look like she belonged in a place like this, no matter how much the beautiful trappings masked the truth of what this place really was. Maybe it was all an act, but she looked almost…innocent. A girl-next-door sort of charm.
Desire twisted my insides painfully.
When she came near to get my coat, a pleasant vanilla scent wafted toward me. Her hands lingered on my shoulders as they slid up to help pull the coat off. It was barely more than a second of contact, but it was enough for me to know I was going to stay for a while and damn the consequences.
Four
Lumen
When I heardthe chime from the little bells on the door, I sighed. I had less than an hour until close. Why did people always insist on coming in right at the end? It never failed.
I’d been busying myself by going over the day’s transactions in preparation for close, but I still put on my best customer service smile before turning around to greet the jerk who’d decided to drop in for a last-minute, late-night massage.
The moment I saw him, every word I’d intended to speak flew out of my head.
He was tall. Very tall. Well over six feet and gorgeous. Probably in his early thirties, he had a good head of golden-blond hair and a chiseled jaw that was surprisingly clean-shaven at this time of night. He was lean and tanned, with a scar through his right eyebrow that just added to his masculine appeal. Not to mention that the suit he wore looked insanely expensive. A far,farcry from the portly, hairy-backed businessmen I usually dealt with. They might’ve been nice enough guys, but this one…damn.
Staying open a little longer might not be such a bad thing, assuming he was here for a massage and not an escape from the rain that I’d just noticed. Considering this was Seattle, the Jins had come up with a method of dealing with people like this. First, I was to ask if I could take their coat. If they agreed to a small thing, they were more likely to agree to spend their money on a massage. Plus, for some reason, taking off a coat made people feel more like they were already making themselves comfortable.
“Good evening,” I said brightly when I found my tongue again. “May I help you off with your coat?”
His eyes widened, giving me the opportunity to see just how bright those blue irises were. Maybe it was confusion, like he hadn’t realized where he was, or I’d taken him by surprise. Whatever the case, I retained my best smile and stepped toward him with my hand out slightly.
By the time I was close enough to walk around beside him and reach out, he said, “Aye, thank you.”
Was that an accent? English? Irish? It wasn’t very heavy, but it was noticeable.Ayewasn’t English, I didn’t think. Scottish maybe? It sounded like something I might have heard in a movie or something.
Since he’d given me consent, I moved around behind him to assist. He’d managed to get inside before the fine material was soaked through, but my palm was still damp as I slid my hands along his shoulders before hooking my fingers under the soft fabric.
While I’d always been friendly during my sessions, I wasn’t like Mai, who enjoyed innocent flirtations whether she was working the desk or giving massages. She never let them venture into anything inappropriate, but she liked skating the line.
I didn’t. I was always professional. Polite, kind, attentive, but never flirtatious. Never touching more than a session called for. Not before or after either.
I’d never wanted to touch…until now.
My cheeks burned at the thought, and as I pulled his coat off, I turned away to hide my flushed face. I took an extra couple seconds hanging his coat up, and after taking a long breath to compose myself, I turned my smile back on and faced him again, better prepared.
“Nice to escape the rain once in a while, isn’t it?” I asked, hating myself for falling back on talking about the weather.
“Certainly,” the man said, smiling gently. “Though it only just started raining.”
Yes, definitely an accent. I was almost sure it wasn’t English. Deeper and more guttural than Irish, with fully-dropped Gs and a lot of glottal stops in place of Ts. Scottish. It was silly to be so heavily attracted to an accent, and yet…
“Well, you’re free to stay here until it stops,” I said, perhaps too quickly. Shit. “Um, that is, until we close.”
“And when is that?”
