CHAPTEREIGHTEEN
They got home midmorning on Tuesday. Rather than using their compass to hike over to the main trail in Haven like they’d planned, they’d backtracked to the access road where Ethan had dropped them off yesterday to get picked up. Mark had insisted.
And even though Jessica wanted to protest, she hadn’t. The truth was that her knee hurt. It was still swollen, and Mark’s words yesterday stuck uncomfortably in her gut. What if her joint pain was another symptom? What if she’d never injured her knee at all?
Ethan and Mark dropped her off at home before heading to Off-the-Grid. Since it was her day off, she went inside for a nice hot shower and a nap. When she woke, it was past noon, and she was in no hurry to get out of bed. Instead, she opened her laptop and went over the proposals from the three contractors she’d seen for her spa cabins. Melissa Gormier’s quote had fallen in the middle, cost-wise. But her rendering for the spa cabins was Jessica’s favorite, and her quote was within the budget. Plus Jessica felt like Melissa really got her vision for the cabins.
Okay, apparently she’d already made up her mind. She called Melissa and left a voice mail. Then she spent the rest of the afternoon running errands and catching up on all the other chores she’d fallen behind on.
The next day, she worked a full day at the spa. At lunchtime, she caught up with Melissa and made things official. The excitement over taking this next step put a spring in her step for the rest of the day. She was still tired, still achy, but these were things she was going to have to get used to. She could work through it. She had no other choice. Even if it meant ignoring that little voice in the back of her mind that said she was being foolish to move forward with the expansion while her health was still up in the air.
By seven o’clock, she was in her office, finishing up paperwork. When she peeked out, she saw that the lights up front were off. She was the last one here. And Nicole’s advice was still ringing in her ears.Give him a spa treatment.Shewasin the mood to celebrate after hiring a contractor to build her cabins. And she hadn’t seen Mark in more than twenty-four hours.
She pulled out her phone and texted him.You busy?
No, he replied. As succinct in text messaging as he was in person.
Meet me here at the spa in fifteen minutes.She tucked her phone back into her purse and went down the hall to get a room ready for him. She lit some frankincense in the incense burner, set towels and oils to warm, and started the music. She’d never given a “happy ending” massage before, but tonight…
Oh, tonight, she’d make sure Mark finished happy.Veryhappy. And then they’d soak in one of the natural hot tubs together. Grinning like a fool, she headed toward the front door.
Mark stood outside, wearing jeans and a black jacket, his expression guarded. “Everything okay?”
“Everything is great.” She tugged him inside and locked the door behind him. “You got to show off for me with your survival skills class. Now I’m going to show off my skills to you.”
His expression turned wary. “How so?”
“I’m going to give you a massage.”
“Nope.” He made to turn around and leave, but she grabbed his hand, dragging him away from the door. And he let her. She was under no illusion that he couldn’t have pulled free and left at any moment if he’d truly wanted to.
“No one’s here. We have the whole place to ourselves, and I’ll make sure you enjoy yourself. I promise.”
“The spa’s not really my thing.”
“I know that.” She went up on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss. “You trust me, right?”
“Of course.”
“Okay then.” She led him down the hall to the room she’d prepared. “You’re going to strip down, climb up on that table, and cover yourself with the sheet. Or, you know, leave the sheet off if you prefer.” She winked.
Mark stared at her, hands in his pockets, expression unreadable.
“I’m going to get ready.” She turned and went to the back of the room. Normally, this was when she’d leave her client alone to get undressed. But this was Mark, and he didn’t need privacy to undress. The question was, would he undress?
Sure enough, as she prepared her oils, she heard him shuffling around behind her and then the creak of the massage table as he climbed on.
Yes.
She rubbed the warmed massage oils into her hands and turned. Mark lay facedown on the table, the sheet thrown loosely over his lower half, hiding his bare ass from her view. She dimmed the lights and walked over to him. She could feel the tension vibrating off him before she’d even touched him. “Relax, Mark. You’re going to enjoy this.”
He made a noncommittal grunt.
She smiled as she touched her fingertips to his shoulders. Oh yeah, he was tense. She feathered her touch over his shoulder blades, gradually increasing the pressure as she located the knots of tension in his muscles.
He said nothing, made no sound at all as she worked, but after a few minutes massaging his neck and shoulders, he was feeling pretty relaxed, if his muscles were any indication. There was no faking the fact that the tension had leaked out of him. The knots in his muscles eased. His breathing grew slow and deep as Jess made her way down his back.
She took her time on his lumbar muscles, kneading deep into the soft tissue there, admiring his strength as she released his stress. She allowed her fingers to slide below the sheet, skimming over his ass as she headed for his quads.
