Page 14 of Just One Night Together
“I have a kink in my right shoulder. Can you find it? Keep the circles going as you search. Don’t hurry. The idea is to make it feel as if you have all the time in the world.”
Haley leaned over Damon as she put more weight upon him and eased her way up to his shoulder. She went over the knot, then returned to it again. “It feels like a walnut under your skin.”
“You’ve got it,” he murmured. “Lean on it. Rub those circles into it. Come at it again and again, always sweeping outward. Don’t rush.”
“Like that?”
“Exactly like that. Now put your energy into it.”
Her hands froze on his back, the sudden stop as disruptive as every manual said it would be. “What?”
Damon braced himself on his elbow and looked back at her. “Your energy.”
She shook her head so that her ponytail bounced. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“There’s a psychic connection between healer and patient. You’re going to have more success in giving relief if you give some of your own energy, if you put your own energy into the equation. That’s what makes the difference with my mom. That’s what my dad taught me to do.”
Haley sat back, looking so defeated that Damon wanted to gather her up in his arms. “I don’t know how to do that. Maybe I don’t even have energy to share.”
“Everyone does. We pass it around all the time. Think of when you talk to someone who’s down in the dumps. You let them vent. Afterward, they feel better and you feel worse. They’ve passed their negative energy on to you and taken some of your positive, which helps them.”
Haley frowned. “I don’t know how to do that on purpose.”
“I think you do and you don’t realize it.” He sat up. “You’re a natural at this, so let’s take it to the next step. Come here.”
“What?”
“Your turn. You’ve shown me what you know, and now I’ll teach you more.” He saw alarm flash in her eyes so spoke soothingly. “It’ll be easier if you take off your shirt, but if don’t want to, that’s fine. We’ll work with it.” He moved out of the way and patted the towels on the floor, acting as if he wasn’t aroused at all.
* * *
Damon thoughtHaley would be afraid to take off her shirt.
He’d taken off his as if it was no big deal and she’d been glad his back had been turned to her. It gave her a moment to close her mouth and keep herself from salivating. No doubt about it: the photograph of him hadn’t been touched up for the billboard.
He really was that muscular.
That perfect.
He could have been a sculpture of Ultimate Man.
And the big tattoo was real, not added in a graphics program.
Touching him had awakened her, made her want, made her burn for him. It was uncharacteristic for Haley to feel such lust. She hadn’t felt it since Garrett.
But this was just desire. Biology. There was no emotional component to it at all. Her body was doing what it had been built to do in the presence of an attractive member of the opposite sex.
Haley turned away from Damon, blushing furiously despite her rationalization, and tugged off her top. She kept her back to him as she unfastened her bra, then laid down on the towels without him having any chance to see her breasts. She felt exposed and shy and silly for being so modest at her age.
It wasn’t as if she’d never been touched.
It wasn’t as if she didn’t see naked bodies all the time.
But very, very few of them were as perfect as Damon’s.
That made her aware of what she considered to be her own imperfections. She wasn’t tall and sleek, that was for sure. He might think she was fat. She wasn’t, but she wasn’t fighting trim, either. And she was curvy.
She closed her eyes, sure he’d be amused by the way she was blushing.
