“It’s okay.” She gave him a hug. And for the first time she did it because she wanted to, and it felt good. “We’ll be okay.”
***
“Please take your clothes off, the masseur will be in shortly,” the receptionist said with a smile, then closed the door behind her and left.
Penny wriggled out of her dress, folded it and dropped it on the chair. She took a deep breath and inhaled the therapeutic scent of orchids and other local flowers. The dimmed light and green wallpaper invited her to relax. The refinement of the resort extended to the room with golden accent pieces and the atmosphere of pure indulgence.
Penny climbed on the massage table and stretched. She lay down on her belly and covered herself with a white blanket, soft against her skin.
A gentle knock on the door made her mumble, “Come in.”
She laid her head sideways and closed her eyes. She heard the masseuse stepping close to her.
“I can’t wait for my deep tissue massage.” She giggled out loud. “Please don’t be offended if I just relax and don’t talk a whole lot.” She hoped her implied request didn’t come across as snooty. However, after the long days she’d been having, she looked forward to this kind of indulgence. Not thinking about anything. Thinking…was dangerous.
“Don’t worry Penelope, talking is not what I had in mind.”
As soon as she heard the deep male voice, a hot tingle pinched her every nerve. Penelope automatically raised her head and sat up, juggling with her sheet to keep all of her parts covered. “Luc?”
“I’m your masseur.” His lips curled.
She took a good look at him. He’d donned a white shirt with the hotel logo embroidered on the left side. It looked rather tight. He also wore white pants, and if there had ever been a man supposed to wear white pants…he stood in front of her, with a couple of bottles of lotion in his hands. All hard muscles and sex. All danger. All man.
“I talked to the manager and he’s in the process of hiring male masseurs. I wanted to thank you in my own way for your… observation.”
“I thought you were mad at me.”
He shrugged. “So did I. It turns out, besides good looking and rich, I’m also forgiving.”
“But are you qualified to do a massage? I’d hate to get tainted with a bad experience.”
A deep chuckle left his lips, the sound reverberating in her body. “I am a certified masseur. I took the classes a million years ago. I might be a bit rusty,” he drawled, “but since this is complimentary I thought we could both compromise.”
She chewed on her lower lip. “We were never good at compromising.”
“It’s never too late to learn. Also, I’m very good with my hands.”
That is exactly the problem.
Penny curled her lips. It didn’t take a genius to understand what he was doing. Luc wanted to make her suffer for blowing him off earlier. He wanted to make her squirm and beg for him, and if she ran from the massage, he’d rub that in her face.
He stretched his arms like a lazy cat and cracked his fingers. “What is it going to be, Penelope? Are you scared of a little massage?”
She shifted on the table. “Not at all.”
“Lay down.” He turned his back to her to give her privacy. She looked at how the white pants shaped his tight butt and her throat felt dry.
Penny rested her head in the hole in the table and closed her eyes. The moment she felt his hands on her shoulders, a ripple of excitement began, starting at her oversensitive scalp and continuing down to her curling toes, traveling everywhere and anywhere in between. The chilling waves of awareness quickly gained heat.
She pressed her lips together to suppress a moan when his strong hands caressed the hollow of her shoulders, spreading a cold cream on her skin. Good God, it felt good.
He made invisible patterns on her shoulders with his fingers and to her surprise his hands didn’t heave on her like a brick on water. They felt strong and firm, but as he deepened the movements and moved them down her back, there was a softness about the way he touched her.
He kneaded her upper back for quite some time. A blend of deep relaxation and latent desire warred inside her, making her concentrate the best she could not to whimper with pleasure. When he moved down her lower back, she opened her eyes wide. A part of her expected—damn—wanted his touch to travel south, to massage her butt cheeks.
She took a deep breath to inhale the fragrance of the candles, which had fascinated her not long ago. But all that penetrated her sense was the scent of Luc–the familiar woodsy notes, the light citrus and the undeniable male in him.
The way he was handling it, handling her…he made sure she was covered by the blanket whenever he didn’t touch her exposed skin. He acted professionally, just to make her want him even more. The pulsating knot between her legs wanted release.
“Move to your back,” he said coolly, giving her his back again, though this time as she raised her head from the face holder she caught a glimpse of the tightening in his pants.
Hhhmmm… Empowerment surged inside her. This wasn’t easy for him either, was it? He had an erection long enough to hang dry a pile of clothes. Damn it, it was time she did something about it. But first, she’d make him suffer.
The sheet covered her entire body, though she doubted he didn’t notice the imprint of her turgid nipples, slightly elevated against the fabric. She took a deep long breath as if all the oxygen in the room could be contained in her nostrils.
He caressed her shoulders and his fingers lingered on her neck. She let out a sexy moan, not to admit defeat but to arouse him.
She raised her eyes to him in pure defiance. Although the light was dimmed, there was a hot intensity in his pair that was hard to resist.
While his fingers worked her neck and arms, her gaze didn’t leave his. She wondered if he would do or say something to make things easier for her. But time dragged as he moved to touch her legs, spreading lotion on her calves.
He challenged her, she knew it. All part of a game… he wouldn’t touch her where she throbbed to be touched. Could she resist his pointless, yet maddening, stalling?
She felt another wave of heat tugging at her sex. “My legs are really sore.”
“Here?” he cupped her knees.
With a head shake, she said, “Higher.”
His fingers caressed the skin above the knee. “Here?”
She swallowed. “Higher.”
He raised the sheet a bit more and the current of cold air prickled her sex. With a hint of a predatory smile, he touched the softness of her thighs. She spread her legs slightly on a silent invitation. But he didn’t fall for it–she glanced at his erection again, and licked her upper lip with the tip of her tongue. He took a deep breath.
She moaned. “Higher.”
He raised his fingers close to her sex. His fingertips brushed against her dark red curls. The pressure gained speed within her, but she couldn’t come from heavy petting. She needed more, wanted more. Wanted him inside her.
She propped herself on her elbows, and the sheet slid down revealing her breasts. He looked at them with animalistic hunger.
“Oooops.” She removed the blanket with one swift movement.
Naked and completely exposed in front of him, she spread her legs, as his fingers still kneaded her.
“Since you haven’t done this in a while, perhaps I should show you.”
She dropped her arm over her sex and stroked a finger inside her moist heat. He stopped touching her and just looked, his mouth parted in fascination. It was all the encouragement she needed. She added another finger, and moaned as a gleam of desire flickered in his eyes.
He groaned. “Although I could watch you all day, I’ll show you I’m a fast learner.”
Without tearing his eyes from hers, he touched her slick heat. He threw his head back and she could feel the tip of his finger slightly trembling inside her for a moment just before he inserted it all the way in.
She closed her eyes
and smiled. He touched her intimately and added another finger that went in and out of her imitating the rhythmic movement she wished a different part of him performed.
“Open your eyes,” he demanded, his voice thick and unsteady.
She did. The dim lighting didn’t conceal the twinkle in his eyes.
His knuckle teased her clit and a deep moan escaped her lips. She couldn’t stop the waves of pleasure that broke in her body as he moved his fingers inside her, faster and deeper. Her own breathing alerted her, along with a last explosion that overtook her body.
She still shook when he pulled his pants down, stepped out of them and kicked them to the side. Good God, he looked magnificent. Handsome and fully aroused.
She licked her lips, wanting to have him inside her. He offered her a sexy smile. And then he unbuttoned his shirt. Each time he opened a button she felt a sharper thump in her heart.
He removed his shirt completely, rumpled it, and threw it on the small table at the back. She smiled. He pressed a button and her table lowered with a beeping nose. The movement reminded her of where they were, at a Spa.
“Luc, we have to be quiet.” What if they had heard her earlier? A cold shiver ran down her spine.
“No,” he grinned. “I told the receptionist I’d lock up and there aren’t any other appointments. Everyone left already. We can be as loud as we want.”
Any tentative thinking about what the receptionist thought of the strange offer went out the window the moment his breath feathered the white skin around her nipple. A thrill of excitement traveled through her body, matching the speed in which his tongue stroked her breast. She arched her head back.
He suckled her nipple, wet from his tongue while his hand touched, rubbed, and teased her other one. He groaned with pleasure the moment he switched his mouth to the other breast, which was also when he got onto the table and covered her with his body.
His cock was within a brush of a touch from her skin, wrapping her hand around it, she felt the hard steel coated by velvety skin.
An incoherent sound escaped her lips. But propping himself on his elbows, Luc raised his head and kissed her. His tongue swirled with hers, their lips sealed as their limbs touched. She kissed him with the desire of a hungry animal in the wild. He could be the lion, but didn’t the lionesses go hunting? Weren’t they many times the one responsible for bringing food for the pride?
Penny didn’t feel responsible. Priceless.
He murmured some words in French which only added to her oversensitivity.
“You are so sexy. So responsive.” He traced his fingers down her body, and she involuntarily bucked when his finger found her boiling core. “So wet.”
She gently pulled his shaft close to her, and he grinned. She parted her legs, rubbing the tip of this thick shaft along the outline of her sex. He trembled over her. A flash of pleasure snaked down her spine, spiraling in her body and shooting down between her legs. If he didn’t penetrate her soon, she would come again.
He got off of her, stood up and scooted her to the edge of the table and parted her legs. He positioned himself in the middle of them. With one deep thrust, he impaled her.
“This is heaven, ma petite.” He whispered as he plunged inside her, each thrust surpassed the last one. He nibbled her upper lip, his tongue flicking hers teasingly. She threw her head back and he nipped her jaw, kissed her neck, and licked her skin as if he couldn’t get enough of her.
She squirmed. “Oh, Luc, I need to come.”
He slowed his thrusts, and she thought she would die without him. She wrapped her legs around him tightly, the pulse of her sex engulfing his cock. There was no way her body could take more of the growing agony.
She clenched her inner muscles, binding him to her. Encouraged by his frustrated growl, she began to buck around him. It was her turn to tease him by sucking his neck. She slid her hand down and cupped his heavy balls and gave them a gentle squeeze.
He moaned and thrust hard inside her, plunging so deep that pleasure rotated within her, powerful and strong like a tornado. His following groan announced his own shattering pleasure as he convulsed and groaned her name.
Chapter Nine
Luc whispered her name, although he could have said something entirely different. She wasn’t sure. Most of it didn’t make sense. She lay on the floor with him covered by rumpled sheets. They’d tried to gather things and leave the massage room, but one knowing look from him had been enough to change her mind.
With her head on his chest and her legs intertwined with his, she hummed. He stroked her back, his hand making circles on her bare skin.
“Who knew you could put your hands to…er…professional use?”
With a chuckle, he tightened his hold. “I haven’t renewed my license in at least ten years, so if you tell anyone what we’ve done I could be in serious trouble.”
She drummed her fingers on his chest. Her index finger traced an invisible pattern on his short dark curls. “I think we both could be in serious trouble.”
“I guarantee this is the first time I’ve ever offered a happy ending,” he said softly, and kissed the top of her head.
Or two happy endings, she added inwardly. Although those two words together, next to his name, made her body rumble in a non-sexual way.
“I gave massages to bring in some extra money and pay for Bertrand’s appointments with specialists. My mother was relieved when I got the hotel manager promotion,” he said, and although she couldn’t see it, she assumed he smiled.
She propped herself on her elbow and put her chin in her hands, looking raptly at him. “I didn’t see her name on the guest list for the re-opening party.”
“She came for the first one,” he said casually, the look in his eyes not giving anything away. Damn it. “But she lives in France, and I didn’t think it was fair to drag her all the way back again for just a few days.”
“Do you two get along?”
He looked away. “We do. She sacrificed her entire life for our family. I make sure she enjoys hers now.”
“But?” She insisted, unconvinced. Resentment lingered in the air, in his voice, even though he obviously tried not to show it. Ideally she wouldn’t care, but who was she fooling?
“We didn’t for a few years. Before Bertrand died, the doctor gave her a couple of options…to try a more invasive surgery which had little chance of success…or to do nothing and let nature take his course. He’d been suffering,” Luc’s expression was hard, like granite, and his mismatched eyes remote, staring off into the distant past. “It happened the week I was working overtime. Maman never told me and asked the doctor not to either. I only found out when she told him to come say goodbye.”
She pressed her lips together so roughly it hurt. “She was just protecting you.”
“A part of me still wishes I had known.” The resentment in his eyes confirmed his words, his body tense, energy gone from his semblance.
Luc would make a good dad one day. She almost said it out loud, but stopped in time, thankfully. If she’d said that, he’d look at her with the “Thanks, but no thanks” look a guy was sure to give a woman who mentioned fatherhood so soon. A negative reaction wouldn’t make it any less true.
She rested her hand on her belly. What would have happened if their baby had survived? “What could you have done? You aren’t a miracle worker.”
“No, but I wasn’t done fighting. And I deserved to know. I cared for him just like she did. I loved him. I…” He stopped mid-sentence, his words trailed off as if the memories were too painful to relive.
“Sometimes people do what they do because they’re scared,” she murmured, her voice weakened toward the end. Like I am, right now. It didn’t matter. In a couple of days, the re-opening party would take place. She would finish her work, and he’d move on to a different hotel, a different cause, maybe even a different country. And all they’d have were the memories. Why should she spoil their last few days with ghosts from the past?
Penny held up the bottom of her dark gold lamé sequined gown. She usually chose no-nonsense elegant gowns for work functions, but this one had been an impulsive buy.
The way it dripped on her body made her feel luxurious and decadent. She had chosen it with Luc in mind, there was no denying it. Though the amount of glances she got from the male guests and the compliments from the women felt damn good.
Penny crossed the Polynesian gardens. A great local band played on the stage overlooking the dozens of people who mingled and enjoyed the beautiful evening. Everything went according to plan, apart from the acid slowly knotting her stomach.
The last evening. Tomorrow afternoon, she’d go back to Dallas. Next to nothing had been exchanged with Luc about her departure. He would head to New York in his jet, and they’d have a stopover in Dallas. Where I will stay. Truthfully, to venture the skies no longer worried her much. What consumed her was preparing to say goodbye to him.
“Penelope.” She heard Luc’s deep voice behind her, and even before turning to him, she knew he wasn’t alone. Whenever that was the case, her name rolled off his tongue with the texture of a high-thread-count silk sheet. When other people surrounded them, he toned it down a bit, but his professionalism didn’t rid her of the goose bumps on her arm.
She found him looking at her, and wondered for a moment if his thoughts ever included her. Then she smiled at the white haired, skinny gentleman by his side.
“Meet Porter Colton.”
The CEO of a big food service company in Dallas. Of course she knew who he was. She stretched her hand out and shook his firmly. “Mr. Colton, it’s a pleasure.”
“Same.” The old man curved his thin lips at the corner of his mouth. “According to Luc here, you are a force to be reckoned with.”
Penny smiled. “I do what I can. I’m in the process of opening a boutique PR firm, sir, to cater for companies with specific demands in the hospitality and services fields.” She returned to full on PR mode.
“Well, shoot my PA your information and we’ll take it from there.” He handed her his high-quality card, distinguished by a customized watermark. Her stomach contracted as she knew what holding that card meant.
Heating Up Hawaii Page 10