Amanda quickly sat back up straight, startled by the distinct edge of the voice now reflected in his tone. She detested that her stomach immediately dropped in response to it. Curses, she made that deal when it was going to curtail the revolving door of women in his past, not the three buffoons from hers. Damn it, would any of these conversations ever go in the direction she wanted? Every time she tried to illustrate a valid point on this particular topic, he would turn all toppy and arrogant, never failing to reinforce their roles. There were times when she really resented the power he had over her. This was rapidly turning into one of them. She crossed her arms, sitting fully back in her own space.
“Okay. I get it. No dirty words, no ex-boyfriends,” she said, trying unsuccessfully to ignore the heat on her backside intensifying yet again. She wriggled the tiniest bit in her seat to try to relieve it.
“I’m not trying to get into an argument with you here,” he said, his ire dismissed as quickly as it appeared and replaced with congeniality, completely unaware that anything was amiss. As if he didn’t know he was mentally paddling her to tears, the bastard. “I’m just saying that I’ve been at this a lot longer than you. I’ve honed the skills. If I don’t know how to handle the likes of you, I need to hang it up.”
“The likes of me?” Amanda asked, equal parts intrigued and annoyed. She tried to make the shifting in her seat to face him look like she was becoming fully engaged, but she was really trying to alleviate the inferno raging on her behind, which was slowly driving her mad. Surely he was some evil wizard disguised in adorable man/boy packaging. “That almost sounds like a challenge,” she snapped.
“Baby, if issuing me a challenge makes you happy, I’ll do my best to rise to it. You don’t need to get so worked up. You’re getting all flushed.”
He was confident to the point of sounding condescending; self-assured to the point of being smug. She resumed the crossed-arm battle stance in her seat, fighting back tears of frustration at the whole exchange and his ability to roast her derriere without laying a hand on her. And then she caught sight of it, in the far right corner on the digital display in the center of the dashboard. A tiny icon of a car seat appearing, then disappearing, intermittently flashing, and underneath it read, 86 . . . then 87 . . . and then 88. As soon as it fully registered, Amanda dug her feet into the floor mat, heels and all, and arched her body off the seat as best she could.
“What’s the big idea!” she shrieked.
“Just a little reminder, angel.” He chuckled, depressing the button on his steering wheel with his thumb to shut off her seat warmer. Watching her subdued squirming reach its crescendo was easily the best thing he’d see all day, at least until he picked her up after his game when all her seat warming would be courtesy of his right hand. “You really hung in there. I was beginning to worry the leather would start smoking.”
“You’re not funny, Chase,” she said, unable to keep from laughing at her own stupidity for thinking he had that sort of mental hold over her. At the same time, she was also relieved.
“Sorry, baby,” he said, smiling out his window, completely unrepentant.
She gingerly settled back down, satisfied the seat had cooled. And then she thought about how he could use a little reminding of his own. They drove the rest of the way to the Cold Creek in silence. He was thinking about how endearing all her wiggling was. She was thinking about how to up the ante. When he pulled up to the curb, he grabbed her hand to pull her in for a sound kiss. “I’ll see you tonight,” he said after grudgingly unlocking their lips. “Stay off the Internet. It gives you bad ideas.”
“Have a great game,” she told him lovingly, pulling away and reaching for her door handle. Once safely outside the car but before closing the door, she leaned back in and added, “This means war, you know.”
“I would expect nothing less from you,” he replied happily. “You have my debit card if it can be of assistance. Give it your best shot.”
She closed the door and he watched her walk away, his view from the passenger-side window a perfectly framed picture of her behind provocatively swishing within the confines of a respectable Ralph Lauren dress. He smiled; the game was already afoot. He watched her until she disappeared into the restaurant, thinking she should be glad he didn’t believe in topping from the bottom since it was becoming apparent she had a real knack for it.
“Bring it on, baby,” he said out loud to himself, pulling away from the curb and back into traffic, admitting he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Amanda walked into work and found Eric on his side of the bar. Sitting across from him was a tearful Nicki. They were holding hands. It was drama of a different kind, and she approached the pair cautiously.
“You found a roommate?” Amanda asked.
They both turned to her with bittersweet smiles.
“Sort of,” Eric said, squeezing Nicki’s hand again. “I’m moving to California.”
Amanda smiled, spreading the bittersweet around. “Now I also have to find a bartender?” She thought on the matter logically. It could be Liam’s first real test. It was all so serendipitous. Liam had shown up with all his zeal at precisely the same time she began to feel left behind when Chase had to travel. Even more cosmic timing, Eric and Nicki had been with her since she opened. They had helped her with their own blood, sweat, and tears for a lot of sixty-hour weeks.
“Afraid so,” Eric said, biting his lip and looking Nicki up and down. “They have some great waves in California. And curves, lots of great curves.”
Nicki returned his look with a little lip-biting of her own, and it was easy to see that she and Eric had left the friends-with-benefits zone.
“Was I the only one who didn’t see this coming?” Amanda exclaimed.
“You’re busy being swept off your feet,” Nicki told her. “Whether you want to admit it or not, your luck’s about to change.”
It wasn’t said with malice. It was a complete revelation. One that Amanda’s friends had come to before she did.
“Yeah, don’t blow this,” Eric agreed. “You just won the love-story lottery.”
“And it’s funny,” Nicki continued. “Watching the whole thing go down is what really gave me the push to make the move. It’s like watching your dream come true made me really want to go for mine.”
Amanda nodded, saying nothing. She wasn’t sure when she gave anyone the impression that being the trophy of a well-known sports figure was her dream, but apparently she had. Or was she just having other’s dreams projected onto her? Either way, whatever it took to give someone a rush of perseverance was a good thing, and she was glad she could help.
Eric cast another affectionate look at Nicki before adding, “And watching you make excuses to try to fight off the man who adores you made me realize that the person I loved was right in front of me. I just had to get over thinking it was too much to compromise. As soon as I opened up to the possibilities, it dawned on me, I can tend bar anywhere.”
“What about your lease?” Amanda queried.
Nicki smiled smugly and shot Eric a look before informing Amanda, “Well, see, that’s the thing. I called the landlord asking if he could be of any help, to see if maybe knew of someone looking for a place. He thought I was being awfully nice about it, that trying to find Eric a roommate was really going the extra mile. Turns out we’ve been month to month on our lease since our renewal back in March.”
“Can’t blame a guy for trying,” Eric remarked, stone-cold busted. “I only did it because she sounded like she didn’t want me to tag along.”
“Maybe you should let a girl know you’re interested.” Nicki reiterated something that sounded suspiciously like it had been previously discussed. “I didn’t invite you because I think your exact words were you would never move there. You didn’t need to board the crazy train at the first stop.”
“I’m really going to miss you guys,” Amanda said.
“We’re only going to be a private jet ride away,” Eric repl
ied.
Eric and Nicki set their definite date of departure for two months. And Amanda felt a very real shift in what she thought was important. Like the intelligent, handsome wise guy who thought he couldn’t be outsmarted.
CHAPTER 10
HER CHANCE TO get even with Chase came less than two weeks later, when, on his day off, Amanda told him she had a surprise for him. The word surprise tipped off the other to be alert. They drove away from the city and closer to her hometown to a local spa named Vita, located on a golf course and in a country club that her father was a member of. After leaving the car with the valet and entering the spa, Amanda took Chase to the front desk, where a flustered receptionist, blushing profusely, asked him his shoe size and if he would mind taking a picture with her. After Amanda snapped the shot with the girl’s iPhone, they were handed pairs of spa sandals and directed to their respective changing rooms, where plush robes awaited them.
“I’m not getting a facial or a pedicure, am I?” Chase joked as they moved away from the reception area. “It’s a little too girly for me.”
“Of course not, silly,” she replied.
“Are we going to roll around in mud? ’Cause that I could get into.”
“We’re getting massages.”
“Baby, I’m really touched. But you know I get rubbed down several times a week. I can think of better ways to spend an hour naked than with you in another room.”
“I agree,” she said over her shoulder, right before disappearing through her changing room door. “This is different. We’re getting a couple’s massage.”
When she ventured out into the relaxation area a short time later, Chase was already in his robe and on a chaise longue in front of a wall-length tropical fish tank, waiting for her.
“I think I’ve figured out what you’re up to,” he said suspiciously, quirking an eyebrow.
“I’m up to something?” she asked, stretching out on the chaise next to him. “I just thought this would be something different and relaxing that we could do together.”
Before he could open his mouth to take it a step further, a shapely brunette floated in and joined them. She greeted Amanda and introduced herself to Chase as Bobbi. They chatted a few seconds about the weather, then Bobbi requested they follow her. She led them down to the last room at the end of the hall leading away from the fish tank area. The room had been made up with two massage tables side by side, with about a three-foot gap between them. Sconce lighting fixtures shaped like clamshells on the walls were dimmed and made to look like candles gently flickering. Soft music consisting mainly of pan flutes, harps, and pianos played in the background. The whole mood of the room was designed to mollify. Amanda hoped it would be enough to keep him from going ballistic when the time came.
“I’ll give you two a minute to get all comfy under the sheets,” Bobbi said soothingly before leaving and closing the door behind her. “Kelly and I will be right back.”
“Bobbi certainly is attractive, isn’t she?” Amanda remarked off-handedly, reaching to untie the bow of her robe’s sash. Chase brushed her hands away and, grabbing the knot, pulled her to him.
“Oh yeah, I’ve got you all figured out, baby. I can’t believe how enchanting you are,” he said after kissing her and pulling at the bow until the sash untied and her robe opened.
“I needed figuring out?’ she queried innocently as he shrugged the robe down her shoulders and completely off, kissing the hollow of where her neck met her shoulders. He took a moment to admire her naked before reaching for the knot on his own robe. As he took both robes over to hang them on hooks on the wall designed specifically for them, she waited, taking a few moments to do some admiring of her own before lifting up the sheets and blanket and lying facedown on her table.
“You think I’m not going to be able to keep from getting turned on by another woman touching me,” he said confidently after hanging up the robes. “I promise you, it isn’t going to happen, but I dig it when you turn on the jealous.”
“You haven’t seen Kelly yet,” she hedged, testing her head’s alignment into the cushy face cradle.
“Bobbi, Kelly, Megan Fox, it doesn’t matter who you throw at me. I only have eyes for you. All my other parts, too,” Chase remarked, also lying his bulk down beneath his own sheets on his stomach, adjusting them to the middle of his back.
There was a soft rapping on the door and Bobbi’s soothing “We all good?” from the other side of it.
“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Amanda replied wistfully. “Enjoy your massage.”
Amanda blew him a kiss before calling out, “Yes, we’re ready,” and placing her head into the hollowed-out oval pillow. The door opened and the two masseuses entered the room.
She could feel the energy shift in the room with the very masculine “How we doing today, Amanda?”
“Very well, thank you, Kelly. My shoulders are a little tight,” she replied with familiarity, her face still fully into her face cradle. Was it her fault Kelly happened to be a unisex name and that Chase would lean toward the feminine? If nothing else, she just managed to catch him unaware. She listened carefully to the movement about the room and for any signs of protest from a certain Chase Walker. He didn’t want to hear her even mention other men; certainly one touching her was bound to get some reaction out of him. What would he do, cause a scene by demanding that Bobbi and Kelly switch clients? She felt the warm lotion followed by the firm hands that couldn’t possibly belong to a woman begin to rub her right shoulder. Too late on the switch, she noted; their treatments had begun.
“Mr. Walker, is there any area you want me to specifically work on?” Bobbi asked, sounding as if she knew she had her work cut out for her.
“Please, call me Chase,” he responded politely. “Anything you can’t break up, my trainers will take care of.”
He didn’t sound upset at all, she thought, a tad disappointed. He sounded more like he was talking to a reporter than a naked man with a pretty woman’s hands all over him. His self-confidence foiled her again. She had spent nearly a week avoiding his hard-core attention in an effort to keep her skin free from the occasional bruise and it was all for naught. But if the end result was they would share a nice massage, enjoy a tasty lunch, and go back to his place to spend the rest of the day in bed, the day was still hardly a failure, even if she did end up having to put on a costume.
“Chase, your shoulders are pretty tight, too. Would you like me to try some deep tissue?” Amanda heard Bobbi ask several long minutes later, and suppressed a giggle. Her shoulders weren’t really tight when she said it, but his obviously were.
“Do the best you can, Bobbi,” was the response, stiff and monotone. It had taken a turn from accommodating and friendly. Maybe he wasn’t relaxed at all. Maybe he’d come to his own conclusion about her intentions, and there was a real and imminent danger. Maybe there was a chance that he would enjoy another woman’s hands on him, a little too much even? He’d be getting a taste of what he’d been missing. And now he had to focus on not reacting to the woman’s touch in a very manly way. What a colossal misstep on her part. She had just handed him the keys to the candy store. And if that were the case and there was the slightest evidence of arousal, she was going to kill him. Completely intrigued and unable to resist any longer, with Kelly moving farther down her back, Amanda picked up her head to sneak a peek in Chase’s direction.
Chase wasn’t looking at Bobbi. His head wasn’t resting snugly in his oval pillowed face cradle while he enjoyed his massage, either. His eyes were glued to the pair of hands now reluctantly swirling over the skin on the small of her bare back.
And then he blinked and his eyes were on hers. Dark green peeked out from around fully dilated pupils as they bore into her from four feet away. Chase Walker was furious. He was practically vibrating in anger. She blinked at him, wide-eyed and apologetic, but he just continued staring. She couldn’t bring herself to look away. A shiver started at her toes and worked its way up and out
through the top of her head. As soon as he broke the stare, returning to watch Kelly move on to pulling at the blankets to reveal her full leg, unable to keep from torturing himself with the sight, she quickly placed her head back into her pillow.
“My glutes are tight, too, Kel.” Amanda didn’t know what possessed her to go into overkill, but she didn’t see the point in being half-assed about it. He couldn’t get much angrier.
“Too many squats at the gym?” Kelly laughed uncomfortably, the kind of stilted laugh that came from the discomfort of being watched. Chase wasn’t making much of an attempt to hide it. Amanda thought how grateful he must feel that there were other people in the room, because she felt the same way. She wanted to warn him: If the behemoth on the table next to you makes any motion to rise, make a run for the door. She’d be right behind him.
“Stairmaster,” Amanda murmured and she felt the cool rush of air down the left side of her body when Kelly folded the bedding so that nearly the entire left side of her body was uncovered. She could almost feel the stinging slap on her now-bare flesh that she was certain Chase itched to deliver. What she got instead was Kelly’s normal, almost dainty hands by comparison, followed by his elbow and forearm trying to act as clinical as possible as the barely contained nuclear energy took over the room, threatening to suffocate them all.
Amanda kept her head in the face cradle, completely daunted by the glare Chase had given her. It was impossible to enjoy the massage, but she relaxed a little, resolved that even if the consequences were more than she’d bargained for, she had set things in motion and was prepared to accept them. The masseuses finished their legs in unison and Bobbi requested they both turn over before presenting her back and lifting the sheet and blanket to keep her client from getting tangled in the transition. Kelly had already turned around and lifted Amanda’s, trying to hide the deep, centering breath he was taking. It gave them a moment of relative privacy, and she could feel Chase staring at her again the second he was given the opportunity. She afforded him the look, trying once again for apologetic, but probably overshot. Chase was leaning on his elbow, an eyebrow fully raised, his face otherwise impassive. He continued staring until she blinked; then he shook his head slowly and lay back down on his table. Amanda took a quick glance down at Chase’s torso and gave a little smirk of satisfaction. His sheet and blanket were flat against his rock-hard belly; Bobbi’s touch meant nothing to him.
The Sweet Spot Page 12