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Tucker woke up the next
morning with a smile on his face, until he realized Rachel’s side of the bed
was cold and empty. He sat up, listening for the sound of the shower or the
clattering of dishes in the kitchen, but the silence filling the house was deafening.

He looked for some sign of
her, clothes, purse, cell phone, but there was nothing. He picked up the pillow
beside him and buried his face in it. Thank God, her scent still lingered on
the soft cotton, so he knew he hadn’t been dreaming.

Why did she leave, and more
importantly, how did she get home without a car? The thought of her wandering
the streets alone, knowing that madman was still out there gunning for her,
made him sick.

He glanced at the alarm clock
on his bedside table. He’d forgotten to set it last night, but he still had ten
minutes before it was supposed to go off. He ran his hand through his hair as
he tried to formulate a plan. He didn’t intend to waste time with a phone call
when he could see her in person. He couldn’t skip the scheduled meeting at the
mayor’s office in an hour, but after that, his next stop was Rachel’s dance
studio. He prayed to God he’d find her there.

Tucker was still seething
from the meeting with his old man. Merle had been in fine form today, and
Tucker’s quick temper had done little to help the situation. He didn’t give a
shit about new squad cars this morning. He just needed to know that Rachel was
safe.

He breathed a sigh of relief
when he rounded the corner and saw the lights flooding her studio. Forcing
himself to draw a deep breath, he tried to diffuse his anger. He didn’t want to
unleash it on her, but she had put him through hell worrying about her this
morning.

He made his way through the
studio, frowning when he couldn’t see or hear her. “Hey, Rachel, you here?” he
shouted.
Please, God, please, let her be here.

A door opened at the back of
the studio and Rachel came out, wearing cut-off white sweat shorts, a white
tank top, and flip flops. Her hair was fastened in a plastic claw and her face
was scrubbed free of make-up.

She looked so damn beautiful;
it made it hard for him to remember why he’d been angry with her in the first
place. Suddenly he remembered when a shirtless man appeared behind Rachel,
standing too damn close to her for Tucker’s peace of mind.

“Hey, Chief,” the guy said,
putting his beefy hands on Rachel’s shoulders. “If you’re here for a massage,
you’re gonna have to wait your turn.”

Tucker glared at the guy. He
recognized him as one of the construction crew who’d been hired for the new
residential development project. If Tucker wasn’t mistaken, he was from
Lindsay, and his old man was a foreman on the crew.

Rachel stepped forward, and
for the first time, Tucker got a look at the hard on tenting the front of the
guy’s towel. He glared at him. “Get your clothes on and get the fuck out of
here, now.”

The color drained from the
guy’s face as he swallowed convulsively. “I… uh, but my time’s not up.”

Tucker reached into his
pocket, peeled a couple of twenties off the roll in his pocket, and tossed them
at the shirtless wonder. “It is now. Get out, before I throw you out.”

He looked back and forth
between Rachel and Tucker, obviously sensing the tension filling the empty
space in the room. “Shit. Sorry, Chief. I didn’t know she was your girlfriend.”

“Yeah, well, you do now.”

Rachel set her hands on her
hips as she glared at Tucker.

Tucker knew she wanted to
refute his words, but she didn’t want to make any more of a scene in front of
her client. He had no doubt he would hear about it as soon as the kid left, but
he didn’t care. Just the thought of her rubbing down some little punk with a
raging hard on while he wasted his morning worrying himself sick about her
safety was pushing him past the point of reason.

“Yeah, sure, I’ll get dressed
and give you guys some privacy. Thanks, Rachel. That felt great. Same time next
week work for you?”

She turned around to smile at
him when Tucker exploded.

“Don’t you fuckin’ speak
English? I said get out of here, now!”

The guy jumped back and
slammed the door when Tucker moved in on him.

Rachel stepped in Tucker’s
path, flattening her palms against his chest. “Are you insane? He’s my client,”
she whispered.

He looked down at her, trying
to ignore the urge to lean in and kiss her. He was mad as hell, but somehow
feeling her hands on him made him forget all about his anger. “Do all of your
clients leave here with a hard cock?”

She gasped as the color
flooded her cheeks. “It happens, Tucker.” She cleared her throat. “Some guys
get aroused during a massage, but it’s not because I do anything to provoke
it.”

Tucker remained silent while
Rachel’s client made his way around them and quickly crossed the studio,
practically sprinting to the front door.

Rachel tried, unsuccessfully,
to hide her smile. “You scared the poor guy half to death. I’ll be lucky if he
ever comes back.”

Tucker pulled her closer,
flattening her body against his as he linked his hands at her waist. “I don’t
want him to come back.” He nodded to the open door leading to the massage room.
“I hate the thought of you doing that shit to guys like him.”

She smiled as she shook her
head. “Massage is a legitimate form of therapy, Tucker. There’s nothing sexual
about it.”

 He rolled his eyes. “When a
half-naked guy is in that room alone with you and he’s got a raging hard-on,
you can’t tell me he’s not thinking about fucking you.”

She swallowed, looking
uncomfortable. “That’s why I was hoping to get a couple of other people in here
to do the massage therapy. That way I could focus on the dance.”

“Hey…” He tipped her chin,
forcing her to look him in the eye. “Has a guy ever come on to you in that
situation?”

She shrugged, looking down at
his chest. “It happens. That’s why most massage therapists work as part of a
team, or in a wellness clinic, safety in numbers and all that.”

He hadn’t been thinking about
her personal safety when he wanted to shut her down, but he sure as hell was
now. “That’s it. You’re not doing this anymore, Rachel. I don’t give a shit
what you say. I’m not going to let you take that kind of risk.”

She smiled up at him. “It’s
sweet of you to be concerned, but I can handle myself. Besides, my massage
clients are paying the bills while I get the dance business off the ground. I
can’t just stop offering the only service that’s making me money right now.”

He sighed, knowing she was in
an impossible situation. “Fine, but I will be coming in to check on you. You
can count on that.” Thankfully, the police station was right across the street
and he usually snuck away for some of Mavis’s strong brew at least a few times
a day anyways. This would give him an excuse to see her.

“You don’t have to do that. I
know you’re a busy man. You can’t afford to waste your time babysitting me.”

He leaned down to kiss her
cheek. “If I wasn’t over here checking up on you, I’d just be thinking about
you or worrying about you. Isn’t it better if I just come over here and put my
mind at ease so I can get back to work?” He smiled. “You’d be doing the good
citizens of Brant a favor. Wouldn’t want their chief to be too distracted to do
his job now, would you?”

She stood on her tip toes to
wrap her arms around his neck. “No, I couldn’t live with something like that on
my conscience.”

He picked her up so they were
eye-level. “I’m going to have an alarm installed and a panic button linked to
the police station mounted under the table in that goddamn massage room.” He
kissed her as soon as she opened her mouth to protest. “Don’t even think about
arguing with me, sweetheart.”

She closed her eyes before
leaning her head on his shoulder. “I don’t want to argue with you.” She sighed.
“It’s nice to see you. I’ve been thinking about you.”

He smiled. “Yeah, I’ve been
thinking about nothing but you all goddamn morning. Thanks to you, my
pig-headed old man nixed my proposal for the new squad cars. I couldn’t even put
up a decent argument. All I was thinking about was getting over to here to make
sure you were okay.”

She tipped her head back to
look at him. “Really? You were that worried about me?”

“Hell yeah. I knew you didn’t
have a car. What time did you get home?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know,
maybe three or four o’clock.”

“Are you crazy? You walked
home by yourself at that time of night, knowing that asshole is still out to
get you?” It made Tucker’s blood run cold when he thought about what could have
happened to her. “How’d you get to work this morning? Please tell me you didn’t
walk.”

“No, my next door neighbor
gave me a lift.”

He frowned. “Who’s your next
door neighbor? Do I know him?”

She rolled her eyes. “She’s a
little old lady with a walker and a blind cat.”

He chuckled. “That would be
Verna Smith. She’s a sweetheart. It was nice of her to help you out like that.
I’ll have to thank her when I see her.”

She kicked her feet in
mid-air, signaling she expected him to set her down. “You don’t have to look
after me, you know. I’m perfectly capable of looking after myself.”

He reluctantly set her feet
back on the ground. “Maybe I like taking care of you. You got a problem with
that?”

She looked up at him as she
drew her bottom lip between her teeth. “I should, but I have to admit, it’s
kind of nice having someone like you looking out for me for a change.”

He smiled as he watched her
hand travel up his bicep. “Someone like me? What does that mean?”

She licked her lips as her
eyes traveled to his gun. “Hmmm, a big, tough cop like you, all that power and
authority.” She wrapped her arms around his waist, above his belt. “Your word
is kind of like law around here. I’m not going to deny it; I think it’s kind of
sexy.”

He raised an eyebrow as he
drew her against his erection, flattening his hands on her ass. “Kind of like
law? Baby, my word is law. Anyone who challenges my authority is going to feel
my wrath.”

“Hmm…” She closed her eyes as
she rotated her hips. “I’m already feeling your wrath, Chief.” She licked her
lips. “I think I kind of like it.”

He smirked. “You
think
you like it? I seem to recall you loved it last night.”

“Hmm…I don’t really remember.”

He knew she was baiting him,
and he was more than happy to play along. He let her go so he could walk across
the studio to turn the lights off, lock the door, and turn the open sign to
closed.

“What are you doing?” she
asked.

“You’re taking a lunch
break,” he said, his eyes traveling up and down her body as he crossed the
distance between them.

“Is that an order, Chief?”

“Hell yeah!”

She smiled. “Since your word
is law around here, I guess I have no choice but to do as you say, huh?”

He licked his lips. “You’re
right about that.”

“What did you have in mind?”

He pointed to the room behind
her. “I wanna see what got that kid so turned on.”

She looked up at him,
seemingly surprised. “You want me to give you a massage?”

The thought of her hands,
covered in oil, traveling all over his naked body, was making him crazy. “I
don’t want a therapeutic massage, not the kind you give your clients…” He took
her in his arms and kissed her full on the mouth. “I want the kind of massage
you reserve for your lover.”

Her hands moved to his ass.
“I think that can be arranged.”

“Good. What are we waiting
for? Let’s go.”

Chapter Seven

Rachel knew she was crossing
the line with Tucker, yet again. She’d told herself she’d set him straight
today. She’d let him know they couldn’t see each other anymore, yet here she
was, watching, mesmerized, as he stripped naked and lay down on her massage
table. It should be illegal to look so damn sexy.

She poured some warm oil into
her hands and set the music to low.

He didn’t bother with the
towel. There was no point. They both knew this was going to be an erotic
massage.

Rachel licked her lips in
anticipation as she came up behind him. She didn’t know which one of them was
going to enjoy this more. If she could make him feel as good as he made her
feel last night, her years of training for this moment would have been time
well spent.

Tucker heaved a sigh as soon
as her hands come down on him. He allowed her to work her magic on his tense
muscles for a few minutes before he said, “Jesus, baby, I had no idea how much
I needed this today.”

He was right. He was tied up
in knots, and suddenly she started thinking like a massage therapist intent on
satisfying her client, instead of a woman intent on satisfying her man. She had
a special skill, and if that could help someone she was growing to care about,
she was more than willing to try.