Flirting With Fire (Hometown Heroes) (6 page)

“Not always. I
did this at work,” he said, his voice strained.

I might have been
tempted to ease up on the pressure if I hadn’t felt the biggest knot begin to
dissolve. Torrunn was simply going to have to endure a little abuse—no pain, no
gain. I just hoped my arms wouldn’t wear out before I’d finished!

“You’ve been
like this since you got off work? Wow, it must have been a long weekend for you.”

“Oh, no. I
worked this weekend. Our schedule is twenty-four on, forty-eight off.” He
sucked in a sharp breath as I hit a sensitive spot. “Yesterday I was on, and we
had a run. That’s why it’s bad today.”

“Gottcha.”

I kept working,
trying to smooth out as much of his back as possible. But it was hard work, no
doubt about it. He squirmed beneath me, and I backed off on the pressure once
more. Maybe a little humor would help take his mind off the pain.

“So, were you
carrying a house full of furniture out on your back, or what?”

“No, just the idiot
who fell asleep with a damn cigarette in his hand. And he was a big boy, if you
know what I mean. It’s runs like those that keep me coming back to have the
kinks worked out once or twice a week.”

“Once or twice a
week?” I asked, shifting my work to his right shoulder. “Clearly someone isn’t the
spring chicken he once was.”

“Hey, now.”

“Kidding! Sorry,
I should have mentioned that’s in my nature.”

His dark hair
shifted slightly atop his head, a sure sign he was grinning. A corresponding smile
snuck out across my face. The two of us were clicking, something I hadn’t
necessarily felt with a few of Dawn’s other clients. No, this was the kind of
client I looked forward to working on—the ones you could banter back and forth
with. It always made the time go by a little faster, and work feel much less
like work.

That he was
smoking hot was just a nice bonus.

“I hope they’re
paying you well to cover all these appointments,” I said after a moment.

“Well enough. Though,
it doesn’t hurt that I’m dating one of the nail techs, either. That discount definitely
comes in handy.”

Ah, he’s already
taken. The good ones always were.

Though, in this
case, that was probably a good thing. Where I came from, Torrunn was automatically
off-limits because he was my client—a rule that’d I’d grown to live by, and was
determined to follow. Either Xavier didn’t hold his employees to that standard,
or it didn’t count since Torrunn wasn’t getting his nails done. At least, I
couldn’t imagine he would.

The image of him
with pink nails had me biting back a giggle. Still, curiosity was starting to
kill this cat. Was he seeing Kim? Or Andrea? I couldn’t picture either with
him.

“So, which one
are you seeing?”

“Bernadette.”

I had a new knot
in his shoulder on the run now, and leaned in for the kill. “Bernadette? I…don’t
remember meeting that one.”

“Well, at the
spa she goes by Bunni.”

No. Freaking.
Way.

* * * *

My hands froze
on his back. Surely I’d heard him wrong. Or he was kidding.

I waited for the
snickering to follow. Or the laughter. Instead, he remained still. Wow, that
took off-limits to a whole new level.

“Really.”

He shrugged. “Yeah,
we’ve been seeing each other for a few months now.”

I scowled,
hating to see him bunch up his back after all the work I’d done to get it
loosened up.

“Please tell me
you’re not just seeing her to get that discount.”
That you hit your head
really hard would be a better possible explanation. Or smoking cessation
hypnosis gone wrong. But not by choice. Man, who would pick her by
choice
?

“Of course not.”

“Good.” The word
came out as an auto-response, not an agreement. I scrambled to come up with
anything more to say. “Because that’d be a really crappy thing to do. Besides,
she seems nice enough.”
If you’re a barracuda.

“Actually, when
you get her away from the spa and other women, she’s great. Pretty, loves
watching sports, fun to be with.”

I rolled my
eyes. Obviously he hadn’t fallen for her intellect. “Well, as long as you guys
make each other happy, that’s all that really matters, right?”

“Something like
that.”

Hmm. Perhaps all
was not as peachy-keen in paradise as he’d first implied? Maybe their
relationship was starting to deteriorate? And maybe I could look him up, after
my temp job at Spa del Sol had ended?

The image of
Bunni came to mind, and I squashed that line of thinking before it went any further.
No way was someone this hot gonna move on from a woman that hot—compliments of plastic
surgery and tanning beds or not—to little ‘ole me. Nope, I wasn’t hot guy
material.

* * * *

Silence
descended upon us for the next few minutes as I was out of polite things to say
about his girlfriend. I simply couldn’t picture the woman he’d described as
being the Bunni I knew. She’d spent the entire day either pretending I didn’t
exist, or looking me over like I was some rag doll retrieved from the top of a
garbage heap. He remained quiet as well, which was fine with me—it let me focus
on my work, which shifted to his beautiful upper arms, and then his large,
calloused, but gentle hands.

“I know you said
you’ve been coming to see Dawn about your back, but usually I try to do at
least an abbreviated full body routine on my clients. Do you mind if I work on
your legs, too? Then I’ll have you flip over so I can work on your front side
as well.”

His hairline did
that cute shifting thing again. Had I said something funny?

“That’s fine. My
calves can always use some stretching out.”

“Alright.”

I set his right
hand down, then made my way to the foot of the table. My hand grasped the lower
right corner of the thin, white sheet and peeled it back to reveal one nicely
defined lower leg. It, like his arms, was lightly dusted with fine, dark hair.

I swallowed
hard, set my thumbs in motion, and forced my gaze back up to the clock.
Off-limits, I reminded myself. Totally off-limits.

His calf soon in
good working condition, I reached with trembling hand to shift the sheet over
his right leg higher. Happy birthday to me, the new view did not disappoint.
But it sure as hell battled with my concentration. The clock no longer held my
gaze, so I started in on his hamstring and forced my eyes shut.

Good grief!
When was the last time I’d reacted to a client like this?

Um, let’s see.
That’d be…never.

I moved up a few
inches on his thigh, eyes clamped shut, and focused on keeping a steady tempo
going. His leg shifted beneath me, and I reopened my eyes.

“Sorry, did I
hurt you?”

Torrunn shook
his head. “No, just tickled a little.”

“I’ll try and make
a mental note to avoid that spot.”

Silence
descended upon us once more, and I snuck a peek at the clock. And his leg.
Damn! One more minute on this one, then I’d switch to the other.

“Do you do that
a lot?”

“What’s that?” Drool
over my clients? No, never. “Tickle people?”

“No. Make mental
notes about people.”

I pulled the
sheet back down over his right leg, went around to the other side of the table,
and exposed his left calf. “Sure. I mean, I wouldn’t be a very good massage
therapist if I didn’t.”

“Huh. Guess I
never thought about it like that. Don’t you ever get people’s preferences
confused?”

I’d found a knot
in his upper calf and leaned into him, intent on vanquishing it. “Preferences?”
I mumbled, wishing Torrunn would stop shifting away from the pressure.

“Yeah, you know.
Sally has a tickle spot here, Joe has a sore spot there. I mean, how do you
keep it all straight?”

The knot finally
dissolved. I shifted the sheet higher on his leg and inched my hands north
toward his hamstring. “Ah, now you’re asking me to divulge my secrets. Do you
corner magicians after magic shows as well?”

He laughed
softly. “I didn’t realize massages were masked in mystery.”

“Absolutely.” I
drew my fingertips feather-light down the back of his red, angry calves, then
repeated the motion quickly three more times. “The mystery is all part of our
appeal, you know.”

“Oh?”

Crap, why had I
said
that? “Uh, yeah. It’s kind of an inside joke.”

I forced myself
to shut up, then, and finished the abbreviated lower body routine. Talking with
him was way too easy. So was flirting. I’d have to think a little harder before
I spoke around this one next time.

“Okay, big guy,”
I said, coming to stand beside his right shoulder. “I’m going to lift the sheet
and let you turn over so I can do a little work on your neck and shoulders.”

“Alright.”

I reached out
and lifted the sheet up with care, then turned my face away to offer him a bit
of privacy while he rotated beneath it. As he moved, I watched the other end of
the table, to make sure his legs didn’t get tangled in the sheets.

Tangled in the
sheets.

Oh, that was the
wrong
thought to be having. I felt my face flush with guilt and gulped
down a few deep breaths. Maybe he wasn’t as pretty from the front. Great body,
ugly face. A butter face. Yeah, that might cure me from having these devious
thoughts.

“Okay.” His body
stilled. “I’m good.”

Please be
ugly, even just a little?

“Great.”

I lowered the
sheet and centered it across his chest, then snuck a quick glance toward his
face. Chin peppered with day-old stubble, thick, full lips, a perfect Roman
nose. Uh, oh. I forced my gaze higher to his eyes, which were the color of
melted chocolate and fringed with those all-too-familiar dark lashes.

“Well, well,
well,” he murmured, his eyes drifting shut. “Had I known Dawn’s replacement was
the one going around town stabbing innocent men at gas stations, I just might
have cancelled my appointment.”

CHAPTER
6

Torrunn had hung
around the salon for a short while after his massage Monday, waiting for Bunni
to finish her last pedicure. She’d been thrilled to see he had survived my
massage, yet still glared at me as I walked by on my way out. I ignored her as
best I could—obviously she was still ticked that Dawn had chosen me over her.

But as I flopped
down onto Sarah and Ron’s overstuffed loveseat Wednesday night, I couldn’t
quite get that glare out of my head. It had nothing to do with Bunni, though,
and everything to do with my own guilt. Guilt that I found her boyfriend incredibly
hot, and more guilt that my surrogate nieces and nephew had caught me
daydreaming about him this evening not once but twice.

Okay, maybe more
than twice…

Thank goodness
no one had gone and gotten hurt while I was in one of those Torrunn-induced
trances—I never would have been able to forgive myself for being so careless!
But now that the kids were tucked safely into bed, I could let my imagination
run wild and free. And why not? It wasn’t like anything would ever come of it.
He was my
client
—that alone made him one hundred percent off-limits.
Throw in the fact that I worked with his girlfriend (who always looked like she
wanted to claw my eyes out) and that pretty much sealed the deal.

But oh, was he
fun to look at. I’d had a hundred clients before him, more if you counted the
brave souls who volunteered to be our guinea pigs down at Ball State, and none had looked anywhere near as delicious as Torrunn. I closed my eyes and replayed
his appointment over in my head.

Smooth, sleek
back. Fine, dark fur on his arms, legs, and chest. Ticklish stubble on his chin
and cheeks…

The back door
slammed open, and I about jumped out of my skin. My eyes flew open as both
hands went to my cheeks. Yep, burning from the eye candy recap.

“We’re home!”
Sarah called in a harsh whisper, as if their return hadn’t already woken the
dead.

I tried to think
solemn thoughts to put the fire out before she walked in and found me like
that. Because goodness knows she’d read me like a book, and demand to know
details. Details I sure as hell didn’t want to give, because an admission now
would just compound my guilt.

“So? How’d they
do?” She paused just inside the living room and looked toward the stairs.

“They were
perfect angels. How was bowling?”

Sarah scowled
and waved toward Ron as he walked past. “The usual. I stunk, barely broke a
hundred all three games. Ron was right around two hundred all night. Lucky bastard.”

He looked over
at me and winked.

“Well, maybe if
you’d finally let him teach you how to throw a fingertip ball, you’d start
scoring better.”

“Hell no, I’m
not switching to a fingertip ball. I’d probably break all my nails and drop the
stupid ball on my foot!”

I shrugged but
didn’t push the issue. Ron had convinced me to switch two years ago, and my
average had shot up thirty pins within a matter of weeks. Sarah wasn’t a fan of
change, though. Not in bowling, or much of anything else. Maybe that’s why she
still hadn’t fessed up about being pregnant again.

If there was
anything that changed your life, it was pregnancy. Or so I’d been told.

“Well,” I said,
and faked the biggest yawn I could manage. “I really should be getting home.”

“Are you sure? I
was hoping you could stick around for a while and tell me all about your new
job. We’ve barely had any time to talk about it!”

“I know.” I
walked over and gave her a gentle hug. “But I’m beat. I’ve had more clients
crammed in each day so far this week than I used to have in two days combined
at Sally’s.”

“Well, okay,”
she grumbled, and hugged me back. “How about you come over for dinner Friday? I
think Mitch is coming over to watch the ballgame. We can toss the kids into the
basement with the guys and have a little girl time up here.”