Bodywork (7 page)

“Yeah, it does.” Unfortunately, Buns of Steel hadn’t called or said anything after she’d practically driv
en him from her shop
.
“
So it was weird. St
ranger things have happened.
And let’s be real. He
was
n’t
naked in my bedroom.
”
Not entirely.
More’s the pity.
“
He was covered with a sheet and getting a mas
sage
,
for heaven’s sake
.
”

“So tell me again what he looked like au natur
e
l
.
Was he more muscular than he’d looked through his wet, white shirt?”

Shelby s
ighed and chewed on some ice
.
She’s already dug her grave, might as well get comfortable.
“
He
had a
great
body.
Really muscula
r,
but not overly so.
He’s a runner.”

“The thing that gets me about all this is you.”

“Me?” Shelby frowned. “What did I do?”

“It’s what you didn’t do. Why didn’t you set him straight about Denise?
”

“I didn’t want him to get all crabby with me
.”

“
Uh huh. Or maybe you liked him after all, and you think he liked you. But you didn’t want
t
o
chance it. Better to love from afar than he know
you had those magic hands all over his yummy buns.
He might have felt taken advantage of.
”

A few men at a table nearby looked over at them.

“Would you lower your voice?” Shelby hissed.

“Fine.” Maggie whispered, “
I think you should
look him up and
use him
. Just for sex. Keep it simple.”

“You’ve got to be kiddin
g me.
” Shelby star
ed
with amazement.
“Didn’t you learn anything with
Yeats
?
And he seemed normal
.
This guy’s clearly obnoxious
. He stared at my boobs,” she added, careful to keep her voice down.

“I’m staring at them. They’re nice boobs.”

The guys at the table near them looked more than interested. They were grinning ear to ear.

When Maggie turned and asked them, “Well, aren’t they?” Shelby dragged her friend up and away from the table and out of the deli.

Maggie yanked her arm free as they walked toward Shelby’s
s
hop. “Come on, Shel. He’s
perfect.
He’s the type who
probably
won’t want a relationship.
And you said it yourself that he’s got a killer body.
Use him and lose him.”

Shelby
hated that she really liked the idea.
“No way.
I’m not that desperate.”

“Not yet,” Maggie muttered
.
“
Oh hell. Fine. Now neither of us has any prospects of a nice weekend. So what’s the plan for
this
Fri
day night? Funny, sexy or scary
? Your call.”

“
Scary
.” I
f Shelby had to watch one more romantic comedy that ended in a happily ever after, she might shoot her TV.

*
*
*

Wednesday afternoon
,
Shane entered Bodyworks, not sure how seeing Denise would affect him.
He’d kept putting it off all weekend, and his workload had made it all too easy to ignore the impulse to call her.
Determined to
stop avoiding the situation, he’d decided to come down and talk to her in person.

To his good fortune, Denise sat at the front desk with a large smile on her face. She was pretty, petite, and seemed nice enough. He drew closer, looking for that same spark he’d felt a few days ago. Her grin widened upon seeing him
,
and she finished talking on the phone.

“Hi, Shane. How are you?”

He
’d planned to
use the excuse that he’d left something behind
on Friday,
something that would lead him to return.
Then he’d apologize for cutting
his
appointment short and ask her out.
But before he could say anything Denise s
poke again.

“
I’m so sorry I had to
leave yo
u
Friday
.
If it wasn’t an emergency I would have stayed. But
I left you in good hands with Shelby
.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t follow you.”

Denise
sighed.
“A car hit
my dog Friday night,
which is the reason I had to leave you after I heard.
Sounds silly, but he means the world to me.”

“No, I get it. My mom’s dog is like part of the family. I swear he’s in the will and I’m not.”

The shared a grin.

Denise reached over the counter to touch his hand. He felt nothing. No spark, no heat. Just the comfort of another person. “Thanks for understanding.
Shelby told me she finished you up with no problem.
It felt good, right?
The massage?
You
r cal
ves
aren’t still hurting, are they?”
she asked with concern.

“Shelby?”
The only other woman in the place had been the angry Amazon, the one who
’d
tried to pretend she didn’t know him. The same woman he’d been jacking off to for the past three days.

Denise stared at him in puzzlement
. “Was there a problem?”

“
I thought her name was Shirley
.
” he said
,
thinking quickly
, gratified when the worry left her face
.
“The tall woman with the light brown hair
and eyes
?”
And killer hands
.

Denise nodded.
“That’s her.
She owns
the place.” She
handed him a brochure
.
“I meant to give this to you after the appointment. So it was all good, right? No problems?”

Shane gripped t
he brochure tightly in his hand
and forced a smile.
“No problem
s
.
”

“So
what can I do for you?
”

“
What?”

She gave him an odd look. “
Did you want to book an appointment?
”

“Oh. No.
” He sucked at lying. “
I think I left something in the back office.
Sorry, it’s been a long week, and it’s only Wednesday.”

She chuckle
d
. “I know just how you feel. Go on back. There’s no one in there, but I have to tell you I didn’t see anything out of place. What exactly are you looking for?”

“An
important business card
. Has a contact number I needed for work.” Sounded plausible to him. “An
d since I was in the neighborhood…”

“No problem
.” The phone rang, and Denise waved him toward the back before taking the call.

He
hurried into the back, entered the room where he’d had his massage
,
and closed the door behind him, not sure what to think.

A
ll his lusting after Miss Annoyed all weekend had been justified. The angry Amazon from the front desk, the woman he’d run into Friday morning, and the sexual dynamo who lit
h
is body on fire were one and the same.

He frowned.
S
he’d acted like she hadn’t known who he was!
S
he’d run her hot little hands over his body
, gave him the hard-on from hell, and pretended not to know him?

Though aggravated with her, at least he now knew he wasn’t losing his mind. Denise hadn’t done a thing for him, Shelby had. O
n some level his body
kne
w her.
H
ow else to explain the connection he had ever
y
time he saw her?

The realization
both complicated and eased matters.
He
felt attraction for just
one woman. No
soul searching about dating one woman at a time or being fair and open about a sexual liaison with Denise when he secretly lusted after the Amazon—Shelby.

But how to make
Shelby
respond to him with anything other than anger?
He left the room and said good
bye
to Denise while
trying to think of a way to get into Shelby’s good graces
.

Later that night Shane sat in his living room
and
stud
ied
the brochure for Bodyworks.
Shelby’
s picture stared at him from the inside of the pamphlet, telling him about her experience and qualifications
while not giving him the information he really needed
.
She
’d
graduated from massage therapy school
and
specializ
ed
in deep muscle work, Swedish and
Shiatsu
techniques.
But what did she do for fun? Did she like to run, to read, to
visit
museums? Was she a road trip kind of girl? A partier or a homebody?

Hi
s gaze
continued to shift
from
her professional qualifications to
linger on her
physical
features.

In the photograph, her eyes smiled at the camera
. She looked happy with a genuine smile, not one faked for a picture. Her long hair settled over her shoul
ders, glints of gold mixed with
brown. Her lips were full, her cheekbones and chin framing an intelligent face
. She had
character
, one he’d
like to know better.

Hell. There he went again. His quest for sex and a no-strings attached hook up w
as
lost
in fantasies
of dating. God forbid he t
old
Mac he entertained ideas of getting to know the woman.
And
after nearly running
her
over, did he really think
Shelby would
be excited to sleep with him?
The doorbell rang and shook him out of his reverie
.
He
crossed to the backdoor, looked through the window, and seriously considered keeping it closed.

“Come on, Shane. Lemme in.”

With a groan, he opened
the door and stared into familiar green eyes crinkled in a
musement.

“H
ey
,
big brother.
” George
angled past him into the kitchen, turned and smiled. “So what’s this I hear about you having woman problems?”

Chapter Five

Shelby studied the book in front of her and tried to stop envisioning
herself and
Shane Collins as the
sexy leads
.
She tossed the
steamy
novel to the table
and resolved to give up reading for a while.
Too bad this particular book
revolved around a hero with muscles, dark hair and green eyes. She’d
fallen for the hero when she’d first read about him
, but now after meeting Shane, she couldn’t read about the warrior bent on conquest without envisioning Shane Collins in his place. She could
too easily
see him calling her
a
slave girl as he tied her to his bed…

“Oh hell. I need to get laid.”

Life was so unfair. Shelby had a real thing for muscles. And M
r. Tall, Rude and Clumsy had a
captivating
grin to
go with his killer abs and rock hard thighs.

She
needed to forget how he’d felt
under her hands.
Thank
God he hadn’t turned over and seen her ogling him from head to toe. With her luck, he’d have taken her pert nipples and wide eyes as an invitation. No way would she have said no, and she could have kissed her sterling reputation as a therapist good-bye. Sex and work didn’t mix, not in her particular field. But man, for a few moments during that massage, she’d wished she wasn’t so moral.

She
lby
had to get out of her stupid apartment.
She couldn’t concentrate on reading, there was nothing on the television
,
and she had th
at familiar, disquieting sense
that her mother would soon
m
ak
e
an appearance to talk about
destiny again
.
Inspiration struck, and a half hour l
ater, dressed in workout gear,
she met Maggie by Green Lake.

“I’m so glad you called
.
”
Funny, Maggie didn’t sound happy.
“I hope you know I’m missing
a brand new
Jack the Wonder Mutt for you.”

“On the animal channel?” Shelby
snorted
.
“You should be thanking me for saving you from the ravages of bore
dom.
”

“Whatever.
I just hope my body can take an extra dose of exercise on an unscheduled walk night
.
”
Maggie groaned as she bent over to stretch. “Then again, i
t’s not like I’m getting any
other
kind of exercise
.” She mumbled something else.

“What?”

“I said I’m
on the verge of becoming a born-
again virgin. Hell, I’m becoming
you
.”

“You’re so not funny.”

“Really? I thought that was
clever
.” Maggie chuckled.

As they started around the lake, Shelby was
n’t
surprised to find
several
late night runners and walkers populating the path.
Seattle was full of freaks, especially of the fitness variety.
“
You know, blondie, y
ou’re not as loose and exciting as you like to
think.
”

Maggie sighed. “I know.
But now
you
know.
That means my life is in virtual decline.
I wish all of my dates ended in
groans, moans and prayers for more.
Unfortunately
,
it’s been
more than six months
sinc
e I’ve seen any real action.”

“Try again, Wonder Woman.
If I recall, t
hat action was on stage stripping for Barbara Woodly
’s engagement party.”

“
Now I’m really depressed. You remember that night?”

Shelby tried to smother a grin. “I think so.”