Chapter Six

Knox

“She’s back,” Leo whispered.

I pretended not to hear him.

Finn threw a pencil at my face.

I dodged it and added in another client for the following night — one of the normal ones who’d recently been dumped by her fiancé and just wanted to talk. I rubbed her feet, Leo gave a killer hand massage, and since Finn was a talker, he sat in front of her and said things like, “I understand, tell me more. All men should burn. You’re really pretty when you cry. Aw shit, did I say too much?”

It used to feel good.

Making them feel good.

Now it just felt like I was lying through my ass every time someone paid us to make them feel better. We were untrained therapists with too much charm; it was a damn dangerous problem to have.

“Ice, ice, baby…” Finn started singing then stood. “I think I’ll go get some…”

“Some.” Leo grinned. “You know what? I’m suddenly parched as well. Knox? Care to join us?”

I grunted.

And eventually caved by way of peer pressure and a shit ton of jealousy that they were going to be able to get close enough to smell her skin. What the hell was that? Lavender? I stood, praying to God she’d at least put on a baggy sweatshirt that hid her perfectly rounded tits.

Leo was out first, followed by Finn. It was how these things worked. We always sent Leo in first because the last time we all approached a woman at the same time, we’d had to call the paramedics; it had been a panic attack, not a heart attack, but it had freaked us out enough to make sure we didn’t just intimidate the hell out of whoever we were supposed to be sucking up to.

“Shower Girl…” Leo rubbed his hands together while I leaned against the farthest wall away from them. He towered over her, every muscle in his body tight. I didn’t miss the way she looked at his biceps like they were an ice cream cone, and he was offering her unlimited licks. He wore T-shirts for that very reason, and skinny jeans to show off his tight ass. Can’t make this shit up.

I waited while she gulped and tried to sidestep him.

It was amusing watching her inward struggle.

And I felt like an ass for wanting to join in the teasing just to see how far I could push her before she screamed my name and crawled back for more. It had been a while since I’d developed any sort of interest in someone of the opposite sex who wasn’t part of my job.

I would never admit it.

But maybe they were right.

“Hold up.” Leo reached out and grazed a finger down her arm as he cornered her. “You should moisturize after showering. It’s one of the rules of living in a dry environment.”

“We live in Seattle.” She crossed her arms.

Leo grinned. “I meant the dorms, but thanks for the geography lesson. I’ve always had a very serious teacher-student fantasy, and you just brought a sliver of that to life.” He leaned down until his face was inches from hers.

Her breaths came in small gasps. Her eyes were wide.

“I wouldn’t be a gentleman if I didn’t give you a proper thank you.”

Her eyes went from horrified to insulted as she really did sidestep him, grabbed two glasses from the cupboard, and attempted to get ice out of the freezer.

“Here, let me.” Finn trapped her on the other side, grabbed both glasses from her hands, and filled them up with ice then handed them back.

It was classic Wingman style.

Good cop, bad cop.

Compliment her, come on to her then the next guy sweeps in to make her feel like he was the safer choice, the guy next door. That was Finn. I knew what was next.

Showtime.

Slowly, I approached the three of them.

“What are you guys watching?” Finn asked, crossing his arms and leaning a safe two feet away from her, commanding her attention while Leo slowly braced behind her and started running his hands down her arms as if she was shivering.

Then she really did shiver. “You guys are bad news.”

“No,” Finn scoffed, “we’re the good ones. I can promise you that.”

“Well, the good ones are touching me,” she pointed out.

Leo laughed and stopped rubbing. “You looked cold.”

“I’m not.”

“So, would you say you’re hot then?” Finn asked.

“Why does this feel like a trap?” she wondered out loud, glancing at the full cups in her hands. “If I answer right, can I go back to my room?”

“Why would you want to do that?” Leo said from behind her. “I promise you’ll have more fun out here.”

“Yes, having an orgy sounds awesome,” she deadpanned.

Finn burst out laughing. “Honey, I’m sure it would be, but that’s not exactly what goes on behind closed doors. I think you’d be surprised how non-sexual what we do is.”

“Uh-huh, and the moans?” She tilted her head. “That’s non-sexual?”

“Can’t help it when we bring a woman pleasure without even touching her,” Leo said, dripping with so much sexual innuendo I almost rolled my eyes.

“Your loss, baby girl.” Finn winked. “Anyway, nothing wrong with making new friends. Let us know if you ever need anything.”

Leo walked around her, careful to graze her arm one last time as he and Finn moved past me. Finn whispered under his breath, “She’s all ready for you.”

Shawn was almost to her door when I approached her; she was doing her best to ignore me and walk fast enough that it didn’t look like she was sprinting to get away.

“One minute,” I said in a confident voice. “All I need is one minute.”

“So you can lecture me on microwave safety again?” She glared.

I liked her spunk.

Almost more than I liked her mocha skin. God, she was beautiful when she was annoyed. That might be my new favorite addiction — annoying her.

“Nah, I think we got that all out of the way last time,” I teased before I walked around her body as if I was memorizing her. “Like I said, one minute.”

“Fine, but you can’t touch me.” She smirked.

It was almost unfair how easy it was to read people, even her.

“Agreed.” I grinned. “And you don’t even have to set the glasses down.”

She rolled her eyes. “This I have to see.”

“Oh, that’s the thing. Your eyes have to be closed. I promise I won’t touch you; I’ll just give you an idea of what sharing with grownups is like.”

She gave me a disgusted look and closed her eyes.

“Fifty-nine seconds,” I whispered, holding my hands out in front of me, careful to keep them one inch from her body as I slowly ran them over her arms, her head, her legs. One of the first things I’d learned before signing up for this was Reiki work, or energy-field massages, and from my experience, they worked extremely well on stressed-out college students, especially women.

I moved the energy around her arms, her legs; her body gradually started to slump as her breathing slowed, while I stood behind her and took the negative energy swirling around her head and sent it packing. My fingers heated as I pushed good energy around her face, her lips, her mouth, concentrating on her eyes and the small scar on the right side of her cheek.

Ten seconds.

I moved to the front of her and cupped my hands over her ears, still without touching her, then ran one hand over her mouth.

Five seconds.

I stood in front of her, my mouth inches from hers.

And I sucked the air between us like the slow burn of a cigarette.

Damn it, she was like nicotine, wasn’t she?

“Open,” I whispered, still in front of her.

“What…” Her voice croaked as she swayed a bit in front of me. “…the hell was that?”

“You carry a lot of stress in your neck.” I touched her then, grabbing the pieces of muscle between my fingers and pressing as she moaned as she sagged forward. “A lot of athletes do. You need to be icing more, all right?”

She nodded against my chest.

Then, as if she’d just realized we were touching, she jerked back and narrowed her gaze. “That’s not fighting fair.”

“What?” I smirked.

“You.” She pointed at me with one of the glasses. “That’s like memorizing someone’s weakness then pouncing when they’re too tired to fight you.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I wanted to stay. I wanted to fight with her, to argue, to kiss her senseless. Instead, I backed away and nodded my head. “Have a good night, Shawn.”

She gaped.

She seemed surprised I wasn’t staying.

The struggle was real. After having my hands so close to her body, yet not touching her, my fingers had burned, so I’d broken one of the rules. I’d touched her afterward just to see if her body would respond.

And it had.

Fuck, it had responded beautifully.

She gave her head a shake as her door jerked open.

Slater gave me the same glare I’d been on the receiving end of since the incident freshman year.

I glared right back.

The memories came crashing in, like they always had.

Memories of her smell.

Memories I saw haunting his eyes too.

I looked away.

Backed off.

Because apparently, the universe hated me, and the one girl who’d piqued my interest just happened to be staying with the one guy who had a reason to hate me almost as much as I hated myself.

Wordlessly, he pulled her into the room and slammed the door in my face. I smiled the entire way back to my room and was stunned to find a shocked expression on both my friends’ faces.

“You broke a rule.” Leo tapped his finger against his chin. “Didn’t he, Finn?”

“Yup, sure did.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Bullshit,” Finn smirked. “You know you aren’t allowed to touch anyone who isn’t your client yet, and first-time clients don’t get touched after Reiki. They’re too vulnerable. So technically, you broke two rules.”

“I didn’t touch her,” I pointed out. “Well, I mean I did but—”

“Ah, and now he’s defensive.” Finn grinned wider. “Leo, I think I smell a bet coming on.”

“Are you twelve?” I spat.

“Fourteen.” Leo shrugged. “But he finally got his balls, so I think we should all celebrate the maturity level in this room.”

Finn gave him the finger. “A thousand dollars.”

“Make that two.” Leo grinned. “Two grand.”

“You’re both idiots.” I looked away. “Besides, I don’t need money.”

“Then do it because you’re bored as fuck and driving us crazy with your mood swings,” Finn grumbled.

“What am I even doing?”

“Oh, that’s easy. Get her to like you — actually like you — maybe kiss your ugly mug and sleep with you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Hell, I could do that half dead.”

“No tricks,” Leo added. “No Wingman tricks, no Reiki shit, no good touch, no manipulation.”

I stared them both down, opened my mouth then closed it again. Because it wasn’t something I knew I could actually do by being myself.

The last time I’d actually dated…

Fallen in love.

The last time I had actually been real with a woman…

She’d been taken from me.

They knew it, too.

“No!” I barked as pain filled my chest until it was hard to breathe.

Both of them were quiet as I backed out of the room and slammed the door behind me, feeling like shit and in dire need of a good workout to push the guilt away.