Barefoot With a Bodyguard (18 page)

He gave her the warmest, most husbandly smile he had just as Orange Hat was next to them, making no effort to hide the fact that she was eavesdropping.

“I would never lie to you,” he assured her.

Orange Hat hadn’t moved, still taking it all in. Finally, Alec turned to her. “Can I help you?” he asked coolly.

She lifted a carefully drawn brow. “You appear to have your hands full, young man. And the couples massages are right there in cabana three,” she added with a quick smile. “And it’s not good that she thinks you might be lying.”

Alec fought the urge to let his jaw open in shock and give the orange busybody a piece of his mind. Instead, he just nodded, using Kate’s own moment of being off guard to wrap his arm around her and lead her across the sand.

“Let’s go, baby,” he said sweetly. “This should be fun.”

“Hello there!” A young woman stepped out from the linen-enclosed cabana and waved Kate and Alec closer. “You’re Tilly and Ben, right? What’s taking you two so long out here? Hailey and I were starting to think we heard an argument.”

“My wife thinks she can teach me a thing or two,” Alec said quickly.

The therapist’s eyebrows raised. “Is that so?”

Damn it.
Kate
had
to get in this game. She shook off the last argument and jumped into her role. “And my husband has never had a couples massage, so I was trying to explain what to expect.”

“Expect the unexpected,” the woman said, making a grand gesture toward the opening of the cabana. “Expect to relax and fall even more in love than when you walked in here.”

They shared a look that would have been funny except…it wasn’t.

The cabana was cool, thanks to what looked like a special sun-blocking material on the top and privacy drapes all around. Inside, it was filled with brightly colored pillows, a table with cold drinks and fruit, and two white-draped massage tables not two feet apart. New Age music played from tiny speakers, and the scents of spices wafted through the air.

“I’m Brenna, and I’ll be massaging Mrs. Carlson.”

“And I’m Hailey.” From behind a curtain in the back, another woman appeared, dressed similarly in clean white scrubs. “Unless you prefer a male therapist, Mr. Carlson.”

“No, I’m…fine.” But he didn’t sound very fine.

“And, of course, there’s Madame Valaina.” Brenna swooped in and directed them to the massage tables. “She’ll be joining you after we’ve finished.” She added a sympathetic smile. “You two sounded like you could use an hour of Vibes.”

Kate didn’t dare look at Alec to get an
I told you so
warning.

“It’s not unusual,” Hailey added. “After the stress of the wedding, and all. Madame Valaina is just what you need.”

“What exactly does she do?” Kate asked. The description in the resort brochure had been brief and left plenty to the imagination. And, of course, Kate’s had gone wild.

“Vibes,” Brenna said, laughing. “Really good vibes.”

“Valaina’s Intimacy Breathwork for Enhanced Satisfaction is what she calls it,” the other woman said. “She’s one of the foremost breathing experts in the country.”

“Breathing,” Kate and Alec said in near unison, both sounding relieved.

“Is that all?” Kate asked.

“We know how to breathe,” Alec said.

“Not like this,” Brenna said with a wink. “She specializes in intimacy, ecstasy, and, of course, Tantra.”

Tantra
.

“You’ve heard of Tantric sex, of course.”

They both just stared at Brenna, silent, making her laugh.

“Trust me,” she said. “You will love her. And each other even more.”

“We really don’t need…that,” Alec added. “Thanks, but a quick rubdown is all we want. Just the basics. In fact, I can wait while—”

“Dude!” Brenna gave him an easy punch. “You’re here to have fun and chill with the love of your life.” She turned to Kate, who was trying to balance her reaction to the breathing coach and her disappointment that, of course, Alec wanted nothing that would require them to get closer than five feet to each other unless Gabe might be looking.

“Typical man,” Hailey said with a laugh. “They all think they know how to breathe and have sex, but after an hour with Madame Valaina, you will realize just how wrong you’ve been doing it. And by it, I mean
it
.”

Kate’s mouth went completely dry.

“Why don’t we leave you two to get undressed?” Brenna asked.

And then Kate’s legs went a little weak.

“Anything you like,” Hailey said. “Down to suits or nothing at all. Though”—she turned to Kate—“I do recommend at least taking your top off. We’ll be right outside, and all you need to do is reach out of the drape and drop the yellow flag that’s there. We’ll know you’re comfortable.”

Alec looked like
nothing
could make him comfortable.

Brenna gave him one more compassionate smile. “You’ll love it, trust me.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” he murmured as they left and closed the front drape, but Kate caught the comment.

“What are you afraid of?” she asked.

He met the question with a direct gaze, taking a few seconds before he replied. “Not much,” he admitted. “I face killers in the cage and fighters in the ring. I marched around Baghdad on patrol and picked up a few IEDs with my bare hands.”

“But you’re afraid of me,” she said, suddenly realizing what had been eluding her.

“I’m afraid of…” He closed his eyes. “Yeah, let’s go with you.”

There was more to it, much more, but she wasn’t going to find out here in this cabana with two massage therapists waiting for them to strip. And the way he looked at her, the little bit of vulnerability that darkened his eyes, was not only so out of place on such a big man, it was endearing beyond description.

“Let’s make a deal, then.”

He laughed. “Always the dealmaker, aren’t you?”

She smiled. “A good lawyer can compromise.” She took a step closer and lowered her voice. “Let’s play the game they expect us to play. How hard can it be?”

His eyebrow twitched, and he nearly smiled. “How hard?”

Then she realized what he meant, shooting a blast of heat through her. “Oh, I get it. A double entendre.”

The corner of his mouth lifted. “It only gets worse when you use those big words, Smarty-Pants.”

She bit back a laugh, still heated from the thought of what he’d meant. “So instead of us being all weird and uncomfortable around them and making them jump to a million wrong conclusions, which would only incur the wrath of Gabe Rossi, let’s just…”

“Get our fakeness on and our clothes off?”

She nodded.

“Okay.”

For a long second, they stared at each other, neither one moving.

“I guess I could make this easy and turn around,” he said, a thin note of resignation in his voice. He pivoted slowly. “Go ahead and get on your massage table and cover up, and when you’re ready, I’ll take my T-shirt off and let them know we’re ready. That ought to satisfy them.”

Kate stayed right where she was, pulling down her strapless sundress and untying the bikini top before climbing onto the massage table and pulling the sheet over her bottom.

“Okay,” she whispered, lying flat.

Slowly, he turned, and even more slowly, his gaze drifted over her prone body. Staring at her, he grabbed the neck of his T-shirt and yanked it over his head, revealing his hard, hot, muscular body.

As he walked by her to go to the drape and drop the notification flag, he put a light hand on her head.

“Now all we have to do is relax.”

She snorted, because they both knew that was impossible.

*

Alec pretended to sleep, or at least be in a Zen state, but the little massage therapist hadn’t even come close to untying his knots. Kate, on the other hand, drifted off fairly quickly, allowing him to stare at her through nearly closed eyes and watch her body be oiled, rubbed, pressed, and caressed.

And through an act of God and the world’s most incredible willpower, he did not sprout an erection against his massage table. But for fifty minutes, he didn’t turn his head—if the massage therapist thought that was weird, then too fucking bad—but used the time to do what he’d done for days: watch Kate.

But something was different now. He couldn’t put his finger on it, or maybe he didn’t want to, because she let some kind of wall down that really was better, safer, saner, and easier left up.

The sheet was pulled down to her waist, giving him a view of her bare back, her arms at her sides, denying him a chance to see even a glimpse of her breasts. But he could imagine—and did, way too often. As always, his gaze shifted back to her face, making him think about what it had been like to hold her cheeks in his hands out in the sun and how much he’d wanted to kiss her to quiet her. And just kiss her again.

Her eyes popped open, and she caught him. But he didn’t look away. For what seemed like an eternity, they stared at each other, playing the game, of course. They looked across the small space that separated them like lovers would, unblinking, unsmiling, all the walls down.

A very, very dangerous place for Alec Petrov to go.

“And we’re done,” Hailey whispered, keeping the mood calming in the cool cabana. She pulled up his sheet at the same time the other woman completely covered Kate. “Rest for a few minutes, have some coconut water and fruit. Madame Valaina will be right in.”

“I’m already here.”

Alec lifted his head and squinted into the light pouring into the open cabana, the sun nearly blinding him. No, wait. That wasn’t the sun.

It was a big orange hat.

Swearing under his breath, he turned to Kate and watched her come to the realization that the woman who’d witnessed and commented on their argument on the sand was their own personal sex guru.

They shared a long look, and Kate bit her lower lip, her eyes lighting with a laugh.

“All right, ladies, scoot.” Orangie dragged the curtain across the front, closing off the view. “Let me have my darlings all alone.”

The two massage therapists scurried away, offering hasty good-byes and thank-yous and disappearing off to the beach.

“Hello, Mathilda and Benjamin!” The new arrival swooped in like a tangerine hurricane, swooshing through the little area to place herself right between their heads, blocking any chance for Alec and Kate to silently communicate.

“Well, well, well.” She looked from one to the other, flinging off her hat and tossing it to the floor, shaking out a mass of thick black curls. “I guess I have my breathwork cut out for me today.”

Alec turned enough to lift his head and get a good look at her. “We know how to breathe.”

A black eyebrow angled north. “And you know how to fuss, fight, and fume, too. You’re quite good at silencing her in the middle of a sentence, and she’s clearly holding in a lot of frustration where you’re concerned.”

Alec felt his jaw drop and saw Kate’s sheet rustle as she turned and sat up. “I don’t think you know what—”

“Oh, I know what,” she shot back.

“Speaking of cutting her off in the middle of a sentence,” Alec said, pushing up, too. The madame pressed him right back down with one sharp nail.

“I’m allowed. But you’re her husband, and after today, you will never interrupt her again, even with a kiss, as you were considering earlier.” She dragged that pointy talon over his shoulder. “Do you know why these beds have been placed only eighteen inches apart? Because during a couples massage, most pairs tend to hold hands and look lovingly into each other’s eyes.”

And they’d done neither during their massage.

“But we will fix that,” the woman said. “We will fix…
you
.” She pressed on Alec’s back, her fingers even stronger than the massage therapist’s, pushing him right back into the table.

He didn’t know if
you
meant just him or included Kate, but he suspected he was the one who needed fixing. But right now? Right here? Half-naked and already pretending to be something he wasn’t?

Alec’s stomach tightened as he braced for whatever was ahead.

Valaina put one hand on Alec’s head and the other, he assumed by her posture, on Kate’s, still standing in the small space between their massage tables. “As you may know, I am Madame Valaina Bonaparte. No relation to the famous one, I’m sorry to say. For the next hour, I am one hundred percent in charge of you. You cannot argue with me or each other, you cannot leave, you cannot say no to anything I request, and you cannot—this is of paramount importance—you cannot be dishonest.”

They were so screwed.

“In return, I am giving a gift, a wedding gift in your case, that will last a lifetime.” She fluttered her fingers on his back. “I am giving you the gift of tenderness, which I assure you will be what you will need in the fifty or sixty years ahead.”

Tenderness
. Jesus H. He did not
do
tenderness. He didn’t even know what it was.

“I feel you tensing, Benjamin. I feel you resisting, and do you want to know how? Your breathing stopped,” she announced before he could answer the question. “We will correct that.”