Page 16 of Just One Night Together
“No one can always be improving or building. Sometimes things have to be taken apart or re-examined to allow for growth.”
Haley smiled. “Like knitting.”
“How so?”
“I tear back my knitting to start it again when there’s something wrong. I might have cast on the wrong size, or not have my tension right or have messed up the pattern stitch.”
“So, you start over to do it right. That’s exactly what I mean. It’s a good metaphor.”
His praise made Haley feel like a good student. “But what about sharing your energy?”
“When you find a knot—” Damon’s hands unerringly returned to the tightness at the base of her spine. “—it might mean that the chakra is stuck or moving very slowly. You want to help the patient move beyond that challenge and you can nudge the chakra with your own energy to do that.”
“I thought I read that practitioners were supposed to open the patient to the energy of the earth but protect their own.”
“That’s one school of thought. This is mine.” His hands bracketed her waist, his thumbs working circles against her skin. She felt him leaning over her, putting more weight into his movement. Haley closed her eyes as the heat of his touch flowed through her.
The effect, though, seemed to be on the lower chakra. She hadn’t been so aroused in years.
“Where did you learn it?”
“From my dad. The Marco Perez school of massage therapy.”
Haley smiled. “Where did he learn?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he invented it.”
“Did he really have a school?”
Damon laughed. “No. My mom was a ballet dancer. She always had aches and pains. He was a carpenter. He liked fixing things.”
Haley closed her eyes, liking the explanation and what it told her about his parents’ relationship. He didn’t say more and she didn’t ask, just enjoyed.
“This is called kneading,” Damon said as his hands lifted, squeezed and rolled one side of her waist in steady circles.
“That feels awesome.”
“It loosens the muscle at a deeper level, making it more flexible and supple.”
Haley felt about as supple as a wet burlap bag. She couldn’t remember that area not aching, but it felt a thousand times better. He eventually moved to the other side, lavishing attention upon her.
That was all new. Haley had never felt so pampered.
She really hoped Damon didn’t stop anytime soon.
One of his hands kept making circles and applying pressure, while the fingertips of his other hand pressed hard against the spot to one side of her spine. She felt them vibrate, buzzing against the muscle. The resonance seemed to go right through her, shaking the tension loose. “There are several percussion strokes,” he said. “Never use any of them against the bone. This is vibration. You’re liberating the tension, then smoothing it away with your other hand.”
“Yes,” Haley said, exhaling the word.
“There’s also cupping and hacking, which have similar effects.”
“Yes.” Haley hoped he’d use them all. Slowly. Repeatedly.
“I can pour my energy into you by making a connection with you,” he said, his voice low and soft. “That was my dad’s secret to healing with touch.”
“What kind of connection?”
“An emotional one.”
