“Oh! I’m sorry, Ma’am.” Hunter nervously pushed his longish dark hair back, away from his face. He was obviously surprised to see Selena in her own office. “I’ll come back another time,” he offered, already backing out the door.

“No, don’t be silly.” Selena answered, deciding not to tiptoe around this any more. It wasn’t her style to be awkward, and she didn’t like how it felt to shy away from anything. She would, however, have words with Todd for obviously not complying with her wishes to not have an embarrassing encounter with Hunter.

The masseur stood in the threshold of the doorway, seeming uncertain about what he should do. She was used to people being intimidated by her, so she tried to put him at ease. “Get your stuff,” she waved her hand in the direction of his table.

“Sorry.” He apologized again, not looking her in the eye, as he shuffled quickly over to pack his things. “This has probably been in your way.”

“Not at all,” she tried to sound normal, despite feeling mortified by what happened the last time he walked into her office. “But you can’t make any money with all of your equipment sitting in here.”

“I do all right,” he said vaguely, making her wonder how he could earn a living without the implements needed to do his job.

As he bent over to fold his table, she couldn’t help noticing how long and lean he was. The man had the type of hard body that should be sculpted into a statue, and those marvelous hands. She became lost in thought for a moment as she remembered the glorious feeling of having him work his talented hands over her skin.

She feared that after he walked out of here, she would never find anyone that could relax her body like he had. He truly had a gift. As she pondered him, she decided that seeing naked people was a regular part of his job and that he probably looked at the human form in the detached way that doctors and other medical professionals do, unless they are in a sexual situation.

Unwilling to settle for another massage therapist, now that she’d had the best, she felt determined to smooth things over with him. “You really are fantastic at your job,” she started.

He looked at her and swept a lock of hair from his forehead. He tried tucking it behind his ear, but it wasn’t quite that long. She wondered why he didn’t get it cut, rather than messing with it all the time, but she did have to admit that it gave him a slightly dangerous and incredibly sexy look. “Thank you, Ma’am,” he finally answered.

“It’s Selena,” she told him, trying to bring some casualness into their interaction. People normally called her Ms. Chase, but she didn’t want to be that formal with this man. After all, he’d already seen her half-naked and brought more pleasure to her body than anyone else had bothered to do in a long time.

“Selena,” he said her name simply. She liked the way it sounded coming from him. His voice was deep, but he spoke quietly. She found herself leaning towards him, aching to hear what he would say next.

His movements were slow and precise. Before long he had his belongings packed and appeared ready to leave. “I’ll get going,” he offered, before adding, “I’m sure you have important business to attend to.”

She did have plenty to do, but that was always the case. She didn’t want to let him walk out the door without clearing the air between them. She hoped to be able to get more massages from him without both of them feeling anxious. “About earlier,” she started, before clearing her throat, sounding uncharacteristically bashful.

During her awkward pause, he jumped in. “I should have knocked. I’m sorry about that, but I didn’t think you were in here.”

“I know,” she assured him. “I hope I didn’t make you too uncomfortable.”

He shook his head, looking down at her plush off-white carpet. “I felt many things when I saw you, but uncomfortable wasn’t one of them.”

She was dying to know what he felt at seeing her, but he didn’t seem willing to elaborate. She wondered if his feelings were positive. They had to be, right? Didn’t all men like seeing bare boobs? Todd even admitted that he would like to see them, and he’s gay.

She licked her full lips nervously, trying to figure out a way to ask him if he would be willing to keep her as a client after what had happened. She would pay him well, of course.

He chose that moment to look at her. His gaze was intense, and she wondered if he might cross the room and kiss her. Instead, he said, “I should go,” took his gear, and quickly left her office, shutting the door behind him.

“Well, for someone who normally moves so slowly and gracefully, he sure hightailed out of here,” she said to her large, now empty office. “So much for that,” she decided sadly before turning on her heel and heading back to her massive desk. With a huge sigh of frustration, she sat down to begin the lonely task of catching up on her neglected emails.

It wasn’t long until she opened her drawer and dug into her secret stash of mini Hershey bars. Chocolate normally made everything better, but tonight it seemed that no amount of the sweet and delicious candy bars could ease her stress.