“Just say my name. I’m sure they will have a sudden opening in their schedule.”
“No way! I’m not name-dropping. Is that how you get everything you want?”
“Not everything. Look, if you really want a massage, I can do it.”
“Nice try.” I laughed.
“No, really, I took classes and shit before I played Nolan Lee in Olympic Ties.”
“I must’ve missed that one.”
“It was an independent film based on the work of Nolan Lee, the therapist who worked with Olympic swimmer Jim Freeman. It was a really good film.”
“I like you better in action movies and romantic comedies.” I smiled. “But back to the most shocking part of that statement: You took masseur classes?”
“Yeah. Why is that so hard to believe?”
“I don’t know. It’s just weird. It doesn’t seem like something you would do.”
“Believe it or not, I do actually have to prepare for the roles I play.”
“Well, are you any good at it?”
“You tell me…”
I twisted my lips to the side, considering him. “Okay, let’s do it. I’m really tense in my shoulders, and my lower back aches. Think you can help?”
“I guess we’ll see.”
“We don’t have a table or anything. I guess we can use the couch.”
“I’ve got it covered. I don’t mind name-dropping. Now go get undressed.”
“Wait, what?”
“Take off everything but your undies.” He wagged his eyebrows.
“If this is going to be too much fun for you, then forget it.”
“I’m joking! You’ll have a sheet covering all the good parts.” I threw a couch cushion at him on my way into the bedroom, but I went anyway because I made it a point to never, ever pass up an opportunity to get massaged, even if it was by my ex-best friend who happened to be an attractive man. He was working his way back to best friend status fairly quickly.
I undressed and wrapped myself in a towel, laughing. This should be interesting. I was no stranger to a good massage, so if Jake wanted to impress me, he’d better be fantastic. I heard shuffling in the living space of the suite, so I peeked out to see a woman setting up a professional massage table. Total overkill. We could’ve just used the couch or bed. Well, maybe not the bed. I sat on the edge of the bed waiting to be beckoned, trying to ignore the nervousness I felt at the thought of me lying naked in front of Jake. This was a stupid idea. Wouldn’t it be awkward? Yep. I opened the bedroom door to tell the woman to forget it, but she’d already gone and the scene set before me made me forget about any awkwardness.
Jake stood there, rubbing lotion on his hands, his features accented by the flickering candlelight. I couldn’t help but notice how much more attractive he was in person. The silver screen hadn’t captured his full lips, the slope of his nose, or the beautiful contrast between his dark hair and the rare tint of his blue eyes. Hollywood hadn’t done him justice.
“What?” He broke my trance. “Do I have food in my teeth or something?”
“Nothing.” I shook my head, looking down.
“Lie on your stomach first,” he ordered. I lay down placing my face in the round pillow at the top of the padded table, which had been made up with the softest of sheets. Jake pulled a single sheet over me up to my shoulders. “Lose the towel, babe.”
“Babe? No one’s called me babe since they were doing construction out in front of the diner.”
“Why not? You’re a total babe,” he said casually, not a hint of flirtation in his voice.
“Yeah? I’m also totally naked here, so save the jokes for when I’m dressed, huh?”
He laughed. “Okay, so your shoulders?”
“For starters,” I told him. He greased up his hands with oil that smelled of eucalyptus. I felt his warm hands glide up my shoulder blades and across my shoulders. He covered the same route over and over until those muscles were relaxed.
“You really are tense.”
“I told you. Don’t try to work any knots out though. I don’t want to be sore.”
“I’m not that skilled,” he snorted, but his movements proved otherwise. He worked my shoulders, neck, and back down to my fingertips on both sides. “Is that okay?”
“It feels great,” I managed through my relaxed state. So good, in fact, that I had almost dozed off until I felt the cool air of the room across my back. “Whoa!”
“You said your lower back, right?”
“Oh, ah, yeah.” I was totally aware that he’d gotten a full side boob visual, but I really didn’t care. He wouldn’t look anyway. The man had probably seen more tits than a porn star, and mine were nothing spectacular.
He stepped around to my head, so I could see his bare feet through the face pillow. I felt him run his hands from my shoulders all the way down my back as he leaned over me then back up again. When he did it again, he brushed the sides of my breasts with his fingertips, probably by accident, but my body reacted.
The butterflies fought with a flit of shame when warmth pooled in my lower belly. Just an accident! I told myself, but when he did it again, I almost moaned. He went around me, tucking the sheet into my underwear and started working on my lower back. I felt his thumbs rubbing pressured circles, slipping under the elastic of my panties here and there.
I tried not to let my mind go there, but it had been so long since a man had touched me. I felt suddenly hyperaware of Jake’s fingertips on my skin. I couldn’t help but be turned on, even though this was completely innocent to him. He lifted the sheet from my legs, leaving me completely exposed apart from the strip of sheet covering my bottom. He started at my toes working his magic fingers all the way to my hamstrings. He massaged each one, running his thumbs up the back of my legs and then back down the inside of my thighs as if he knew how hard I worked them.
My eyelids fluttered closed when I felt his fingertips brush the lower curve of my bottom as he moved his hands just a little too high. He covered my back up with the sheet. “Roll over.” My imagination turned the command into a heady, lustful wish instead of a request. I tried to get my wits about me as I rolled onto my back, keeping myself covered with him standing directly above my head, his eyes hooded and dark in the dim light.
He took my neck into his hands gliding over the skin gently. I watched his eyes, but he watched his hands as they crept over the top of my chest and suddenly to the sides dipping below the sheet so he was grazing the sides of my breasts again and down my sides. My eyelids fluttered briefly. He noticed. I thought he would redirect his hands, but he didn’t. He slid them down the same path, watching my eyes this time for reaction. He got more than he bargained for when my nipples puckered through the thin sheet. If his thumbs were an inch or two higher, they would slip right over my nipples which tingled to be touched. I wouldn’t have protested a bit. When he took the route a third time, coming just millimeters from my nipples, my chin tilted back and my legs rubbed together for friction. I didn’t mean to, but I arched my back up toward him.
Suddenly his hands disappeared.
I opened my eyes to see that he was staring at me with carnal ferocity.
“Don’t stop,” I said shamelessly. He didn’t move, so I closed my eyes, reached back, and grabbed his hands, placing them at the sides of my breasts. I was hoping he would grab me, fondle me, lick me…something! I was so turned on, and it had been so long I could’ve come…if he would’ve just touched me! But it was Jake. I shouldn’t have wanted this, but I was too aroused for reason.
His hands were unmoving on my skin. “What…what do you want me to do?” he stuttered.
“Just touch me,” I whispered. I noticed his erection twitch through his sweats. He was turned on too. “It’s okay, Jake. I want you to…”
“If you say it again—”
“Touch me.” I cut him off, and he dipped his right hand beneath the sheet between my breasts all the way down to my navel. He ran it back up to my neck, pre
ssing my head back against the pillow. The move so sensual I arched my back up, pressing my body into his palm. He cupped my breast, and I moaned.
Suddenly he lifted me off the table, sweeping me into the bedroom. I held the sheet up as he laid me down across the foot of the bed. He didn’t lie down beside me, just stood there taking me in with his eyes. Warmth pooled in cotton between my legs in anticipation. I didn’t know what we were doing. I didn’t care. I needed this. I needed a man’s touch. I needed him.
“Jake…” I reached for his hand.
His stare was intense on my body, but when I spoke, he blinked and looked away. The spell was broken.
“Get dressed,” he said, walking out of the bedroom, leaving me lying there unsatisfied and embarrassed.
I brought a pillow to my face, biting into it as I chastised myself. “So stupid, Kate!”
Jake burst back through the door. He gave me the once-over with those eyes but didn’t come to me.
He laced his fingers behind his head and started to pace. “What is this, Katie?”
A shame came over me that pissed me off more than anything. I’m allowed to get aroused!
“What do you mean?” I played dumb.
“I mean…You know good and well what I mean! Did I fuck up? I mean I’m trying so hard to just…but you’re…and I don’t know if I should…”
“Hmm…Did you fuck up? I don’t know. Were you trying to turn me on?” I let out a humorless laugh, trying to make light of the situation.
“So you are then? Turned on?”
I wanted to bite the pillow again, but instead, I decided just to be honest. “Aren’t you?”
He rubbed his face, “Not on purpose. I wasn’t trying to…”
“I know. Me either, but it’s okay.” I sat up. “It’s not a big deal.” In a bold move that I knew I would probably regret I said, “We could…”
“Yeah? Then what? You go back to your life and I go back to mine, no harm, no foul?”
“If that’s what you want.”
“That is exactly the opposite of what I want, Katie. I want to be close to you again. I came here to make things right.”
The moment had passed, and I felt exposed and humiliated. “Right, well, I’m just going to get dressed and forget this ever happened, if you don’t mind.”
“Will you tell me how that works, because I would love to know how you forget things so easily,” he spat.
“It’s easier to forget than it is to hurt, Jake! Are you trying to hurt me again? I mean I’m humiliated as it is.” I tugged at the sheet around me. “You don’t have to add insult to injury.”
“Humiliated?”
“Of course I am! I can’t believe I almost…”
“What?” His tone was dark as if a switch had been flipped. I glanced up at him to see the same look I’d seen when his hands were on me, rubbing me, feeling me. He looked needful, sexual. “You almost what?”
I looked into his eyes and pushed away the shame, determined to just let myself say what I felt. “I almost came when you were touching me.”
“Is that what you want? Do you want me to make you come?” He spoke without hesitation or embarrassment. The sound of him saying it made me hot all over again. I sat there wondering what it would be like. “Show me.”
“Show you what?” I asked.
“Show me how much you need me.” I was confused until he forcefully pushed my knees apart, revealing my soaked pink underwear. “Oh my G…” he stuttered. “Lie back.”
“It’s fine, Jake, really. You were right. This isn’t—”
“Lie back,” he commanded, his tone laced with lust. He wanted to. He just didn’t want to admit it. He was so sexy. I had never experienced Jake like this.
With this demanding, sexual man in front of me, I couldn’t help but do what he asked. I leaned back, still covering my midsection with the sheet. I was throbbing below and blushing all over from his gaze on my wet panties.
When he slid up beside me, I waited for his kiss, but instead, I felt his hand between my thighs. “Jake.” I jolted, suddenly nervous, but he didn’t stop, and I didn’t want him to. He slid his other hand behind my head and looked into my eyes. He slipped his finger under the elastic of my panties plunging it inside me, the feeling so foreign I squirmed upward in the bed, but he resisted me, pushing me back down.
“Fuck,” he whispered, letting his head fall into my hair, which only heightened my urge for release.
He pushed his finger inside me again, this time circling my clit with his thumb, and it was over. I was done. I clenched, crying out with release. I realized as I was coming down that I had grabbed my own nipple through the sheet. Jake’s eyes lingered there, and I felt his own urge against my leg. He’d caught his bottom lip between his teeth as his eyes devoured me with his finger still inside me.
I wanted to touch him too. I reached for him, but he slid his hips back, out of my reach. He gently pulled his finger out of me and did the single most erotic thing I’d ever seen. He slipped it in his mouth. His eyelids fluttered closed when my taste hit his tongue.
When he opened them again, he was different, as if he’d just awoken from a dream. “Katie, I’m so sorry.” He got to his feet, his erection clearly visible through his sweatpants. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I shouldn’t have spoken to you that way. I didn’t mean to pressure you into—”
“Jake, stop it. I’m a grown woman. You didn’t pressure me into anything.”
“You wanted that?” He spat the word that like a bad word.
“Yes, I did,” I said sternly.
“You wanted me to just get you off?”
“Yes.” I paused. “I’m not ashamed to say that, Jake. We’re adults. Do you want me to get you off?”
“No! I mean, no thanks. I’m good.” He paced with his hands laced behind his head again. “I’ve had too much to drink I think.”
“Really? You’re going with that line?” I said, pulling the sheet tightly around me so I could get up.
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Maybe you’re the one who doesn’t know what he wants. I’m sorry if I pressured you. I was just going with the flow.” I pulled on my clothes, facing the wall, feeling angry with him but mostly with myself for thinking he could see me as sexy. I grabbed my purse, walking toward the door.
“Where are you going?”
“Out,” I yelled. “I know my way around. I’m going to give you some space since you’re too drunk to make big-boy decisions.”
I walked out, letting the door slam behind me. I heard footsteps coming toward me from the room, so I sprinted down the curved hallway. He was coming to talk to me. I didn’t want to talk to him after that. I shouldn’t be made to feel ashamed for getting aroused or having an orgasm. I mean it was Jake! It wasn’t like I had picked up a stranger in a bar.
I found myself boarding the tram to Bellagio thinking again, it was just Jake. Exactly, it was Jake, my subconscious reminded me. My best friend. He was confused, and I made it worse by walking out. I was sure he wasn’t a stranger to being used in his line of work.
I wandered around the streets of my home away from home. I ran my fingers along the edge of Bellagio’s famous fountain as it danced to “Singing in the Rain.” My mom loved coming here. We would eat at Picasso’s and watch the fountain’s show while Dad played poker.
Jake may have been away when I needed him, but he’d brought back a piece of my mom to me just by being here now. I was happier than I had been in a while, and not just because I was in Vegas or because Jake just gave me something I had been holding in for years. It was because he’d brought back memories of who I used to be before I crossed over from the sunny side to the lonely side of the street of life.
Also, he loved my mom and she him. He held the only other piece of her left in this world. Having him in my life could only be a good thing.
I was startled by arms snaking around my waist. “Jake, you scared me!”
&n
bsp; “I knew you would come here,” he said, and that was all. He pulled me close, and we watched the show until the water deflated back into a shimmering pool.
He took my hand casually and started walking back toward the Bellagio. We walked along the marble flooring, admiring the sparkling chandeliers silently until we reached Picasso’s. I stopped in my tracks. He tugged my arm, but I held firm.
“We already ate,” I said, not wanting to divulge the real reason I didn’t want to go inside.
“She loved the artwork,” he said, peeking inside. “We’ll just walk around, okay?”
“I don’t want to.”
“You don’t want to remember your mom?” I felt the urge to slap him, but I was too shocked by his words. “That’s a shame because I do. I want to remember her. I think of her every time I see one of Picasso’s pieces. I think of her every spring when the flowers bloom. I just think of her, don’t you?”
I nodded, holding back the emotional outburst that tried desperately to claw its way out. “I think of her every day,” I whispered.
“Let’s walk through. Then we’ll go back to our hotel, okay?” I gave a reluctant nod.
“Sylvette was her favorite, until you found fame,” I remarked. “Then she fell in love with The Actor. She nicknamed him Jake.” He laughed so loud restaurant patrons turned to stare at us. Then a bit of a ruckus ensued as people snapped photos of us.
“Let’s go back,” I said feeling as if we disturbed the peace wherever we went.
We got back to the room at about six. I was glad we’d gone there. It felt nice to talk about my mother with someone who had actually known her. It wasn’t like I didn’t talk about her. On the contrary, I spoke of her often, but it was different to talk about her with someone who never knew her than it was to talk about her with someone who had loved her. Instead of getting a tight smile and a “She sounds lovely”, I got a sense of wholeness because Jake knew that she was lovely. I missed her. I could tell Jake did too.
I tossed my purse on the couch and walked into the bathroom. When I came out, Jake was standing there.
Love Reconnected (Hollywood Series Book 1) Page 6