Stephanie Evanovich - The Sweet Spot

“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 replied.

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.

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.