He was facing the opposite direction, and she took in his thick, roguish long and shaggy hair. Those textured, unruly strands, coupled with that amazing body, stirred an undeniable awareness and familiarity inside her. She walked around the table and confirmed her suspicions when she was met with vivid blue eyes and a positively sinful grin that gave her a thrilling rush of pleasure.
The tempting, fully naked body laying on her massage table was none other than Joel Wilde.
Chapter Four
LORA tipped her head, lifted an inquiring brow, and regarded Joel with an amused smile. 'John Smith, I presume?'
He chuckled, the sound as intimate as the blue-eyed gaze traveling down the length of her body. 'I wanted to surprise you.'
'You definitely accomplished that.'
His gaze slowly, gradually returned to her face, making her all too aware of how drab and sensible she looked compared to how he had seen her at her night job at The Electric Blue. Per the spa's rules for female employees, her hair was pulled back into a neat and tidy ponytail, and she had on a white smock, matching cotton pants, and rubber-soled shoes she wore more for comfort than style.
The outfit certainly wasn't something to inspire a man's lust, yet the spark of desire darkening Joel's gaze was as real as it got. And seductive as hell.
She turned away for a moment-to check the heat setting on the massage stones and make sure they were ready, as well as to compose herself and her response to him-before glancing back at Joel. 'I don't know if I'm more surprised to see you here, or more surprised to find out that Ashley St. Claire made special arrangements to fit you in at the last minute.'
'It's great to have connections,' he said, and grinned shamelessly. 'I never know when I'll need to pull in a favor, but it comes in handy at times like this.'
'Times like this?' she asked as she picked up one of the warmed basalt stones and placed it on his upper left thigh.
'Yeah. Getting-to-know-you time. You're so busy that I figure I ought to take whatever time with you I can get.'
She laughed, truly flattered that he'd call in a favor in order to pursue her. 'You didn't have to go to this extreme.' She added another stone to the middle of his hamstring, one to the back of his knee, and a smaller stone on the center of his calf.
'Yeah, I did.' He let out a low, pleasurable groan as the heat of the stones penetrated the corded muscles along his leg. 'I wanted to find out for myself just how good those hands of yours really are,' he teased.
Despite the cheesy pickup line, her pulse raced a bit faster. The conversation had definitely taken a turn toward the kind of sensual banter they'd indulged in the night before, and while she enjoyed flirting with Joel, she was at work and wanted to keep things on a purely professional level. If that was possible when she was about to touch, caress, and massage nearly every naked inch of the man.
She placed a new set of heated stones down the length of his right leg and turned the discussion back to something less tempting. 'You seem to have connections all over town-last night at The Daily Grind, and now today, with Ashley St. Claire.'
'Actually, Ashley St. Claire is really Ashley Wilde,' he said in a low, relaxed tone of voice. 'She's married to my older brother, Scott, but keeps the St. Claire last name for business purposes.'
Lora had no idea, and was intrigued by that bit of information. 'Are you serious?'
'Yep.' He exhaled a seductive sigh as she set a pile of hot stones on his lower back to warm the muscles there. 'So far, most of my connections are among my brothers' and cousins' spouses. That means lots of perks for me.'
She heard the lilting humor in his voice and wondered just how large his family was. But instead of asking, she answered with a soft, soothing, 'Ummm,' and let the moment segue into a comfortable silence.
'Ummm?' He murmured back to her. 'What's that supposed to mean?'
She smiled to herself and placed more of the therapeutic stones on his wide shoulders, around the nape of his neck, and down along the slope of his spine. 'I'm trying to be quiet so you can relax and enjoy the experience.'
'I'm enjoying it very much,' he assured her in a sexy, rumbling voice that had the same effect as if he were stroking his fingers along her bare breasts and belly.
'Good. Now be quiet.' She returned to his left leg, grateful that Joel's eyes were, closed, because her nipples had tightened against her bra, and her body's reaction to him showed through her white work blouse. God, if the man's voice alone could elicit such a searing response, she could only imagine what a kiss, or a slow, deliberate caress of those big hands along her body, could do to her. Make her melt and unravel, she was sure.
'So, what if I want to talk and relax at the same time?' he asked, and groaned as she began massaging his calf and thigh with the warmed stones in firm, upward strokes. 'Does that cost extra?'
His humor got the best of her, and she laughed. 'No, but most clients would rather take in the music, along with the scent of the aromatherapy candle, and just destress.' She moved around to his right leg, and gave it the same massage treatment with the stones.
'Well, I can do all that and talk, too,' he assured her. 'I'm multitalented that way.'
Lora just bet he was. His tone was infused with pure male confidence, hinting at other, more provocative, talents he possessed, as well. 'Pleasing the client is my job,' she said, and before he could turn that innocent statement into something more suggestive, she added quickly, 'What would you like to talk about?'
'You name it. I'm an open book.'
And she had to admit that she was way too interested in, and fascinated with, Joel. Picking up two larger, newly warmed basalt stones, she glided them up the sides of his muscled back, all the way up to his neck, then repeated the process again.
'Okay, Mr. Open Book,' she said, smiling, 'tell me, just how big is your family, anyway? I'm curious about all those perks you get to take advantage of.'
'In my family, there are four of us. I have two older brothers, Scott and Alex, and a sister, Mia.' He groaned deep in his throat when she hit a particularly tense set of muscles along his neck, then added just the right amount of pressure to ease the taut group of muscles. 'Mia is the only girl and the youngest in the family, including my three male cousins, Steve, Eric, and Adrian.'
'So, there's seven of you in all,' she mused, thinking that there must have been a helluva lot of male testosterone running rampant in the Wilde family, considering six of them had been boys. 'Is everyone married or single?'
'The funny thing is, we all were single until a few years ago. And then one by one, my cousins got married and settled down, then my two brothers.' His voice was as relaxed as his body, a lazy, deep-timbered sound that told her the massage was doing its job. 'Just recently, my sister, Mia, got engaged to Cameron, who is my cousin Steve's business partner. He's a P.I.'
Finished using the therapy stones, she removed them from his backside so she could begin the second part of Joel's treatment. 'Ahh, one of the perks you were talking about earlier?'
'Definitely,' he murmured. 'Being a security agent, there are times when certain things need to be investigated or looked into, and Steve and Cameron are two of the best in the biz, with some great connections.'
She poured massage oil into her palm and rubbed her hands together to warm the slick substance as she moved back down to the end of the table, to his feet. Wanting to know more about his sister, and the lone female in his family, she kept the conversation going. 'Where does your sister, Mia, work?'
'She used to work for the family tile business, as do both of my brothers, but she quit so she could concentrate on the stained glass designs she's been creating for some time now.' His toes curled as she kneaded the balls of his feet and pushed her thumbs along the arch. 'She's getting ready to open her own gallery here very soon.'
She heard the pride in his voice and smiled as she went to work on his other foot, then began kneading the firm muscles in his calves with her palms and fingers.
