Chapter Seven
Serena
I stretched out my limbs, grateful of the extra hour or so in bed my day off brought. I showered, ate breakfast and read for a while before grabbing my gymsack and heading to the Spa.
“Morning, Serena.” The receptionist chirped looking as fresh as the sparkling countertop she stood beside.
“It’s my day off so I’m going to check things out for myself. I could do with some chill time.” I said. She handed me a toweling robe.
“Fresh towels are available in the changing rooms, you can use as many as you like and there are hampers around for the used ones. Showers are stocked with Bliss products. Fresh water with lemon is in the relaxation area, along with fruit. Anything else you need just let me know.”
“Thanks. I’m looking forward to it.”
Once inside the female changing room, I dressed in my swimsuit and placed my belongings in a locker. I placed the locker key chain around my wrist and went straight into the relaxation area. Not only was this an ambient temperature room where you could relax and read magazines and rest between using the steam and sauna rooms, but it was where clients waited both pre and post treatments. So, just as expected, Smith Henderson sat there, taking a slug of a tall glass of water.
His head turned toward me as I looked around for a place to sit. After pretending to deliberate, I sat directly opposite him. I made sure to cross my legs so that my robe opened to reveal a shapely thigh. My blonde hair was in a side pony this morning.
“Morning.” I said to him, barely giving him a glance before reaching over for a magazine. To my delight it was a copy of Revealed magazine I picked up.
“They shouldn’t stock that here.” His voice washed over me like an ocean wave, its cadence cool.
I looked up at him. “Why not?”
“This is a place for people to relax. It should be about emptying your mind of its poison, not filling it with more.”
I tilted my head at him and raised an eyebrow. “Interesting point.” I looked back at the magazine and started flicking through it.
“Suit yourself.” He said sounding like a petulant child.
I carried on ignoring him until he was called through for his massage.
Oh this was going to be fun. I just knew it.
I knew that Smith would be back out in forty-five minutes so while I waited I availed myself of the facilities. You don’t realize how tightly strung you are until you start to relax. I should come here on my days off anyway. I could feel my shoulders unknotting, the tension disappearing out of me and I reckoned as soon as I left here I was going to head back to my room and sleep for the afternoon.
Returning to the relaxation room five minutes before Smith was due to come out, this time I chose one of the recliners, making sure I had a vacant one next to me. This time I toweled off, took off the robe and laid out in just my costume. I closed my eyes and hoped to God I didn’t start snoring. I focused on the gentle background music to keep me awake and thought over what to wear to the party tomorrow. Serena Saxton would wear designer to a party, but here I was Serena Ripley. I needed to dumb the clothes down—to look good but not like I had any money, although even if I’d worn my best outfits, there was no way I was playing in the same leagues as the ones here in Carbon Beach.
I heard noises at the side of me and opened my eyes.
“Sorry to disturb you.” said Smith as he laid down on his lounger. He was wrapped in a robe; the back of his short pale blond hair glistened with oil.
I stretched out and yawned, then rubbed at my eyes. I waited a few minutes and then I turned to him.
“I’m just going to get a water. Would you like one?” I asked him.
“Sure. That’d be great.”
I returned and passed him the paper cup and he thanked me.
“I’m Smith.” He said. “Smith Henderson.”
“Serena Ripley.” I replied, noting a flicker of recognition of my name hit his features.
“Ah, the new Events Manager.”
“The very one.”
“So, shouldn’t you be arranging events?”
“It’s my day off, so I thought what better use of my time could there be than to relax in the spa?”
“Oh I can think of a lot of better uses for your time.” His pale blue eyes sparkled.
“Oh yeah? Such as.” Push, push, push.
“Well, looking at the views of the place. Seems a waste to have a day off here and spend it inside.”
Huh? Where was his game and why wasn’t he bringing it?
Then I remembered. They were having a woman rest. My God, even Smith?
“I have all day. I work hard, I needed to unwind. Do you like the place? Is there anything you’d improve?”
“More masseuse maybe. So I could choose who to book in with.”
“Hmmm, there seems to be a problem currently with filling our vacancies. We’ve had quite the turnover. Rumor is that there’s one client who tries to get more than his money’s worth. The vulnerable ones fall for his charm and then have to leave. Fancy abusing the place like that. What a jerk.”
For a moment Smith’s eyes widened and then he recovered himself. “Total jerk.”
“So, without it sounding like a cliché, do you come here often?”
“Every Thursday.”
“Is that to unwind from your job?”
He smiles. “I don’t have a job. I’m Smith Henderson, son of Bill?”
I fake a look of shock. “Seriously, your dad is Bill Henderson? Who owns airlines and small islands?”
“The very same. So I don’t work. I don’t need to. Instead I keep to a strict regime of pleasure, including massages every Thursday at eleven.”
“A strict regime of pleasure. Hmmm, is that why you think Revealed is poison? Has your pleasure been revealed before?”
His jaw set.
“Not by that particular trash, but by similar. They write crap they don’t know about, regardless of whether they have proof or not.”
“That’s why I like Revealed though.” I replied. “All of their stories are backed with facts.”
His blue gaze fixed on my own. “And that’s why I’ve never been in Revealed, but it’s still built on the same principles—to destroy people.”
“I’d argue it was the featured secrets and lies that destroyed the person, not the fact they were discovered and revealed.”
“So do you have any secrets, Serena? If I dug down and found yours, would you want me to sell them to that magazine? Revealed might be mired in ‘facts’ as you call them, but they’re often subjective.”
“I have no secrets. What you see is what you get.”
His eyes trailed the length of my body and I expected a smart retort, but none came. Still he’d looked. My nipples pebbled under his gaze.
“Are you not having a treatment?” He asked.
“No. I’ve been in the steam and saunas. That’s enough. I’m going to head back to my room in a moment. What do you do after your massage?”
“Go home and watch a movie.” He said.
I smiled. “Oh that’s not a bad idea. I might see what’s on the hotel menu. Curling up on my bed for a couple of hours sounds great.”
“I watch them in my movie room.” He says. “But for some reason your way sounds a lot better.”
“Well, I’m not inviting you to my room, Smith Henderson.” I laughed. “We just met.”
“Doesn’t stop most women.” He said.
“Well, it stops me.”
“It was a pleasure to meet you, Serena. I hope you settle in and enjoy your job. I’ll see you around.”
“You will.”
What he did next was bring his A-game, I’d give him that. Instead of walking straight through to the showers, he shrugged his robe off. Remnants of massage oil glistened down a tanned, taut body. I could have bounced quarters off those abs. I imagined him in the shower, droplets of water bouncing off them and then my tongue licking across his torso, capturing one of those small nipples in my teeth…
“Time to cool down, don’t you think?” He leaned closer toward me. “I don’t know if it’s just me, but it’s getting hot in here.”