Bodywork (3 page)

Men could be so odd.
A vision of male perfection wearing a scowl and a stain of hot coffee lit her mind’s eye
—black
hair cut short to frame a masculine face, deep green eyes the color of shady moss, and a physique that would make a nun drool.
A pity he’d been such a jerk.
She wondered idly if he’d been having a bad day or if he was normally that aggravating.
She smiled grimly to herself and hoped that his bad day got steadily worse until he acted nice to someone, preferably a woman.

Chapter Two

Shane smiled and thanked Jo
nathan
Grace and his wife for their time.
The meeting had passed surprisingly well, and he thanked his lucky stars the Graces had gotten stuck in traffic.
Mac, true to his word, had dropped Shane at his office with two minutes to spare.
And with his clients running late, Shane had straightened up his
desk
,
had their secretary arrange the
prepare
d tray
of coffee
and pastries to look nicer,
and spread out his proposal,
acting
as if he’d been calmly awaiting their arrival instead of dashing a
round
the office like a madman.

He sighed and sank back into his chair just as Justin Harmon, senior partner at the firm, popped his head in the door.
Distinguished looking with dark hair graying slightly at his temples, Harmon had an easy disposition and
savvy
business acumen that made his company one of the best architectural firms in the city.
His brother Thomas held the creative side of things together, along with help from Shane and a few others in the
wildly successful fourteen-man
company
.

“How’d things go?
Grace seemed happy
.
” Justin leaned in the doorframe
, hi
s eyes sharp.
“I hear Mrs. Grace
really
likes you.”

Shane
groaned
.
“Mr. Grace liked the design
,
and he’s planning to talk to you about it after he consults his board
of trustees
.
I really like him, but his wife
…
”
Gloria Grace had married a much older man
,
and her roving eye led one to the impression that
her nuptials
had definitely been for his money.

“I know.
I’m just glad we have a younger crowd working here now.
I had to deal with her the last time she came in.”
Justin shuddered
, and
Shane laugh
ed
.

Just then Justin’s brother walked by.
He frowned
.
Shane prayed
the
clock watcher
hadn’t noticed
his
hurried entry this morning.

“So you were late again, eh?”
Thomas’s expression didn’t change when he added,
“Gloria Grace was in today, wasn’t she?”

“About this morning,” Shane
started
,
but Justin waved hi
s apology
aside.

“Never mind.
You arrived before the meeting, and
Grace
liked him,” he said to Thomas.
“I meant
Jo
nathan
Grace.
I think we might need to hide him the next time Gloria wanders in though.
He’s been limping. Too many pats on the ass, eh, Shane?
”

Shane
shot his boss the finger, not constrained by the typical employer/employee relationship. The Harmons had a loose working environment, which made Thomas’s straight-laced attitude odd in a sea of laidback
architects
.

“
I’ve dealt with Gloria in the past.
Thank God you’re here,” Justin said with evident relief.

“I’m glad to be here too.”
Leaving his uncle’s company in Philadelphia
three years ago
had been hard, but Harmon
&
Sons
allowed him to be near his parents
. Not to mention he worked for
an outstanding firm.

Thomas shook his head.
“If you weren’t so good behind the drawing board
…
”
The empty threat joined the others he issued weekly.

“But he is,” Justin reminded hi
m
.
“So cut him some slack.
We
don’t pay by the hour
.
And it was a known fact before he got here.
You remember what Brett said.”

“Not this again.” Shane
sighed
.

“Your
own
uncle
told us we wouldn’t want you because you were habitually late and had
no social skills to speak of,” Thomas was quick to reiterate.

Justin added,
“But then he explained that
despite your lack of
punctuality
, you always put in more than your
fair
share
of work
and could do magic
with design
.
He also said you could charm the pants off a client but that your mother despaired of ever becoming a grandmother, hence the crack about your social skills.”

“My mother has wanted to see me married since I turned five,
b
ut I’m quite happy being single.”

“Hey, you’ve got no
issue
from me.” Justin held up his hands.
“Not all of us long for the marriage noose.
I mean, look what happened to Thomas.”
Thomas replied with
an anatomically impossible suggestion
,
causing both men to laugh as he walked away.

“So what did happen this morning?
I’m curious.
” Justin
handed him a sheet of paper
.
One of the Cornell idiots in the back had been busy. Shane had attended Syracuse, where he’d had more to do than make stupid charts. He and the guys constantly bickered over which of their universities trumped the other, which made work fun, but at times annoying. Like now.

A graph
titled “Shane’s Reasons Y
” listed the days of the week on one axis and
Shane’s past
excuses on the other.

“Very funny.”

“I thought so.”

Good to know he was at least consistent.
“T
oday was
strictly legitimate
.
”
Shane
tried to
defend himself.
“Okay, so the alarm clock did happen to ring four times before I woke up.
Still, I was dressed and ready to go when I noticed my idiot brother had taken my car.
I had to run to the coffee shop to meet a buddy of mine for a ride.
And when I got there
,
this ditzy woman spilled coffee all over me
.
”
H
e pull
ed
out his stained shirt from the trashcan beneath his desk.

“Priceless.
I’ll have to add ‘lady throws coffee at me’ to the
list
.”
Justin laughed as he left the office.

Shane stared at his ruined shirt and wondered
how
he’d made it to work in one piece.
His
belly
still felt tender and was slightly pink, but he was for the most part unharmed by the hot coffee.
The same could not be said for his shirt
.
His head throbbed from the constant rush of the morning
,
and his stomach crave
d something to soothe the acid churning in his belly, courtesy of his caffeine addiction.

He checked his watch and blinked at the late hour.
His meeting with the Graces had taken the entire morning.
Then he swore
when he
realized he’d forgotten to grab his frozen entrée from the freezer at home for
lunch.
Leafing through the phone book until he found a familiar tab, he called
downstairs
to place an order for takeout.

As he waited on hold, he looked down at the white pages and noticed the name of a massage clinic above the restaurant’s name.

That’s exactly what I need
.
In fact, his younger brother had some work done at Bodyworks a few months ago.
George had been recovering from knee surgery and
at the advice of his physical therapist
had gone to the massage clinic for some relief.
Recalling his mother’s glowing recommendation, Shane knew they not only did clinical work but also the basic feel-good type of massage.

Just w
hat he needed.
The more he thought about it, the more he thought about getting one.
He placed his lunch order and hung up the phone.
He’d just clinched the Grace deal, a nice piece of business that would bring the firm a lot of revenue.
And after today’s hectic morning, he felt he deserved to give himself a treat.

He called and managed to
slip into someone’s last minute cancellation for later in the
evening
.
He wrote down the time, address and his therapist’s name
—
six o’clock, Bodyworks on Queen Anne with Denise.
Then he returned to work.

The day flew by
,
and before he knew it the hour had reached five.
Thriving on pressure, Shane did his best work when on constant deadline.
He knew he was an oddity, enjoying both the creativity Harmon
&
Sons afforded him as well as the strict guidelines fitting project d
ue dates
.
Structure and discipline, the foundations of Shane’s life. Which
explained his venture into the Marine Corps and his need to
stay fit.
Lately though, between travel, work and too many runs, he’d been pushing himself
too hard
. The massage would be more than a treat, but a much-needed respite from possible shin splints and muscle strain
.

H
e leaned back in his chair and
decided to forego his run
tonight
in lieu of therapy. No way he’d
forego his chance at a massage for
a hard r
ace
around
Green Lake
.
Oddly enough, his mind drifted back to the clumsy woman from that morning.

She’d knocked into him at Sofa’s, which sat directly across from the lake.
And she’d worn shorts and a t
ee
-shirt, as if she’d planned on some exercise.
He could still see the irritation in her whiskey brown eyes, could feel her soft curves that had jolted him as much as the hot coffee had.

He
grimly
accepted that the accident had been more his fault than hers.
She’d been walking calmly out of Sofa’s when he’d plowed into her like a freight train.
He must have seemed like a total ass this morning.

Now that he recalled the incident, he realized sh
e’d
been more than pretty.
Her almond-shaped eyes
had
widened in outrage,
and
brown hair streaked with gold
had blown across her
arresting face in a blast of wind
.

He frowned,
not liking that he recalled her so clearly. When his body reacted at the reminder of her
full breasts against his chest
, he knew he needed to get out. A hard-on at work was definitely a message he
suffered from
what Mac called,
the all work no play syndrome
.
Definitely time to get laid again.

God, he just hoped Mac didn’t mention the incident to George. Shane’s
younger brother was a seventeen-year-
old walking hormone.
Shane loved and respected women.
He believed in a serious relationship and felt that good sex was only good if you solidly cared about your partner.
Which explained his celibacy for the past eight months, since his breakup.

Mac and
George
pitied him because he refused to h
ook up
. From Mac he’d expect such
nonsense, but from
his younger brother,
it made him feel old.

Shane glanced
at a photo on his desk, a picture of
himself and bunch of buddies in camouflage utilities standing knee-deep in
sand in Iraq
.
Back in the day, he’d train hard and play hard when the opportunity arose. But those days seemed like a lifetime ago. Back when he’d been younger and naïve about life and politics.
And love.

Not liking the
maudlin
turn of his
thoughts, he took another look at his
newest sketches
for
the Grace project.
Good work deserve
d
a reward.
Time to treat
himself
to some
much deserved
relaxation.
Just imagining the hands of a skilled massage therapist
rubbing away his aches and pains urged him to get up and go.
He rechecked his penned appointment
and nodded.
He’d been scheduled with Denise.
Good.
He couldn’t picture getting naked under a sheet for some big guy named Bruno.