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Avery shot him an exasperated look. ‘You need a massage more than all of us combined,’ she said and Claudia hid a smile behind her napkin at Avery in bossy mode. ‘You’ve been saving the world all morning on your damn phone, not to mention both you and Jonah have been doing some pretty hard physical labour these last couple of weeks. I’m sure there are some kinks that could do with some ironing out and I’ve booked it for you and you will have it and what’s more you better bloody enjoy it.’
Luke glanced at Jonah, who also seemed to be having trouble keeping a smile off his face. He held up his hands in surrender. ‘It’s a massage, man. There are worse ways to spend an hour.’
Luke shook his head in disgust. ‘You are so whipped.’
Jonah grinned back at him. ‘That I am.’
Luke rolled his eyes. ‘I guess I do have some kinks.’
Claudia almost spat her orange juice all over the table. Yeah, like groping and perving on sleeping women.
Avery beamed. ‘Atta boy,’ she said, reaching over and patting his arm. She flicked a quick glance at Claudia. ‘Just think, you’ll be all loose and limber for when you spin Claude around the dance floor tonight. Win-win.’
Luke sensed Claudia tense beside him. An echoing tension crept into his shoulders.
Looked like they both needed that massage.
* * *
When they arrived at the spa they checked in and were all given a tour of the facility. Then they were ushered into separate change rooms to undress and get into the robes provided in preparation for their massages. Jonah and Luke were shown the male change rooms. Luke’s phone rang the second his shirt was off.
‘You miss your massage and Avery is going to be very displeased,’ Jonah said as Luke reached for it.
Luke looked at the London number on his screen. ‘This won’t take long,’ he said. ‘Go on without me.’
Jonah clapped Luke on the shoulder. ‘You know she’ll come in and get you if you take too long.’
‘Two minutes,’ Luke said as he pushed the answer button.
Ten minutes later, Luke stepped out of the change room, swathed in soft white towelling. Despite his earlier protest he was actually looking forward to it. He was hyper-aware of the tension in his neck that had cranked up during the phone call and his muscles did ache from all the physical activity he’d been doing.
He’d become unaccustomed to that kind of heavy labour. Sure, he worked out at the gym regularly and jogged along London streets in the early morning most days—he loved the pavements that ran alongside the Thames, even in winter—but he hadn’t been this physically challenged in a long time.
An attractive brunette met him. ‘Hi, I’m Sherry,’ she said. ‘I’ll be doing your massage today.’
Luke nodded. ‘Nice to meet you.’
She smiled at him and Luke got the impression she wasn’t going to find his massage a chore in any way, shape or form. He smiled back. Jonah was right. There were worse ways to spend an hour.
‘This way,’ she said and gestured for him to follow her.
Sherry walked down a carpeted hallway with subdued lighting and opened a door to the right at the end of the corridor. She smiled at him again as she indicated he should precede her. A light floral aroma greeted him before he even entered and Luke noted the subdued lighting extended into the interior of the room as he put his foot over the threshold.
Then several things registered all at once. The presence of two tables, one empty, the other with a person—a female person. She was lying on her belly with nothing but a towel covering her butt and acres of bare, glistening skin exposed to his gaze. Candlelight glowed in the oil covering her body and a man worked said oil into the backs of her legs.
Claudia?
And then while his brain desperately tried to compute the images in those first few surprising seconds he heard, ‘Oh, dear Lord in heaven, that’s soooo goooood.’
Actually it was more a groan. She’d definitely groaned it.
Claudia had groaned it.
He watched the male masseur’s hands slide all the way up from the back of Claudia’s knee to the top of her thigh—a little too close to where it joined her butt for Luke’s liking.
‘What the hell?’
Even in Droolsville, the low growl yanked Claudia out of her bliss. She gasped as she half raised her chest off the table and then remembered she was wearing only a towel that wasn’t currently covering much of her at all.
Caught in flagrante again!
She lowered herself, looking over her shoulder at Luke looking better than any man had a right to in a white fluffy gown.
‘What are you doing in here?’ she snapped, heat in her cheeks—was she destined to suffer from a terminal lack of clothing around him?
