29. Antigen
29
Antigen
Antigen: A substance that induces an immune response in the body.
OLIVER
“ W ait. You missed our exit.” Tessa turned her head to watch it roll by outside the window.
“No, I didn’t,” I said, trying not to sound smug.
“I’m pretty sure you did. The office is back there.”
“We’re not going to the office.”
“We’re not?” She cocked her head at me, a few of her freckles disappearing into her scrunched-up nose.
“The trials are going great. The results are strong. The team can handle it for a couple of days.”
Smirking, she rubbed her ear. “Wait. You must be a body-snatcher. Because the real Oliver wouldn’t trust something to the team. Not two weeks before we’re scheduled to wrap up the trial.”
Keeping both hands on the wheel, I shrugged. It felt performative, but if I focused on Tessa, I could keep my mind off work. Mostly. “It’s only going to get busier after this when we produce the final analysis and the regulatory approval submission. This is our last free weekend for a while, and work has been brutal. You deserve some relaxation.”
“So do you.” She reached across the console and squeezed my knee. The warmth of her touch radiated up my leg. Taking a short trip to spend time together and reconnect was a brilliant idea. True, we’d spent almost every night together for six weeks, but seeing her at work every day and having to pretend we weren’t together was hard on me. It had to be hard on her too. I could feel a brittle barrier forming between us like a snail’s shell.
Her hand slid up my leg, and the warmth turned into a tingle. The one place I didn’t feel that brittleness was in bed. I couldn’t get enough of her. And despite the fact that her best friends always asked before they hugged her, she couldn’t keep her hands off me either.
“Whoa,” I yelped as her fingers grazed my groin. “No feeling me up while I’m driving.”
“Spoilsport.” She moved her hand back to her side of the car.
“Distracted driving kills more people than plane and train crashes combined. Besides, there’ll be plenty of time for that at the spa.”
“We’re going to a spa? Like a day spa?”
“No, we’re staying through the weekend. I want you fully relaxed by Sunday.”
“But what about the girls? And I didn’t pack anything. This isn’t one of those nudist spas, is it?”
For once, I was the one reassuring her. “Savannah is taking care of the cats. Also, she packed you a bag. Though you can be as naked as you want in our room.”
“I guess you’ve thought of everything. As usual.” She leaned back in her seat. “Mind if I connect to your car audio? We need some tunes for a road trip.”
Tessa’s taste in music was a combination of ’90s emo rock, old-school hip hop, and more modern angry empowerment anthems, but I didn’t mind. My car had an entry for Tessa’s phone like we were a real couple. We were on our way to a relaxing getaway together. Maybe, if everything went well this weekend, she’d agree to an out-in-the-open relationship beyond her close circle of friends.
The spa was exactly like the photos on the website. The lobby was decorated in soothing beige and plum with white roses and purple lupine in vases. It smelled like sea sage even though we were a few miles from the beach. Sunlight filtered through a set of skylights, and something soothing and nonbiological, like wind or waves, played through hidden speakers.
“This is…” When Tessa’s voice trailed off, I held my breath. Did she hate it? Would she have preferred something in the city, wherever she normally went? Should I have gotten her a gift card instead? “…lovely.”
I breathed again and let go of her suitcase handle so I could tangle my fingers with hers. “Glad you like it. Let’s check in.”
After I gave our names to the woman at the desk, she said, “Ms. Wright, we understand you might be interested in some of our low-touch services. We offer a sauna, both traditional and infrared, light therapy, and ionic foot detox. We even have a float tank. We can also tailor our regular massage and body wrap services to fit with our clients’ sensitivities.”
Tessa blinked for a few seconds. I’d never known anything to stun Tessa into silence, but this did it. Then she whirled and kissed me hard on the lips. Finally, she turned back to the receptionist. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
I took a step away to give her space and, grinning, stuck my hands in my pockets. This was going even better than I’d planned.
When the door opened and closed softly, I glanced at the newcomer. A blond guy, about my height and good-looking in a Jude Law kind of way, sauntered into the room. His gaze traveled over me but fixed on Tessa’s red hair. He tilted his head. “Tess?”
She froze like a sparrow listening to the scream of a hawk. Slowly, she turned to face him. “Harry.” Her voice was flat. “What are you doing here?”
This was Harry? I scrutinized him from the gray hair at his temples to the lines around his eyes. I cursed the signs of aging that only made him look more distinguished. His clothes were that effortless kind of casual that communicated wealth and confidence.
“This is my favorite spa. I live down the road in Santa Cruz, but I’m sure you knew that.” He stepped forward. “What are you doing here, love?”
It sounded like a question he knew the answer to.
“I’m here with my…with my boyfriend.” Her voice wavered. “What are the odds?” Gently, she nudged me out of the way and took a step toward him.
I hadn’t realized I’d stepped in front of her. I wished I could do it again when he grasped her elbows and kissed her on both cheeks.
“Boyfriend?” He scanned me more closely. “I suppose he is a boy.” He stuck out his hand. “Harry Boseman.”
I gripped it as hard as I could. “Oliver Bond. Dr. Oliver Bond.”
His handshake was just as brutal. “A doctor? Well, well, well. I didn’t realize they were passing out advanced degrees in kindergarten these days.”
I took a deep breath to say…I didn’t know what. I hated to disturb the peace of the spa, but this dickwad was pissing me off.
Releasing my hand, he said, “We should catch up after your treatments. The restaurant is lovely. They serve the most refreshing cucumber martini.”
“I don’t think so,” Tessa said. “I’m here with Oliver, and three’s a crowd.”
Something big and bright expanded in my chest. It must have spread onto my face because Harry scowled at me. A second later, his expression turned bland.
He gave Tessa another two-cheek kiss, but this time, he lingered at her ear. Just loud enough for me to hear, he murmured, “Call me, love. We’ll catch up.”
“Goodbye, Harry,” she said firmly. Then, turning back to the receptionist, she said, “Do you have anything for couples?”
I stood up straighter. My weeks of planning had paid off. She loved it. And given enough time, she might love me too. Not bothering to give Harry the victorious smirk he deserved, I took in a lungful of the sage-scented air and rested my hand on her back as the receptionist resumed her review of the spa menu with Tessa.
D uring the couples’ massage she chose, she instructed the masseuse how and where to touch her. Once she sighed in pleasure, I relaxed too and melted into the table they’d set up in our room. I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew, Tessa touched the back of my hand.
“Hey,” she whispered.
I opened my eyes to find her sitting on her table, a towel wrapped around her. I felt the corners of my mouth curve up. She was so beautiful with her hair piled up on top of her head, secured with a clip. Russet tendrils escaped at her temples, and a few silver threads glittered in the candlelight. Her freckled skin shone in the dim light.
“Hey,” I murmured. “You okay?”
“I’m great. I feel so lazy.”
“Lazy is good. You deserve it.” I hated to bring it up, but his presence crowded into our private room. “Earlier…meeting Harry. Are you okay?”
A line formed between her eyebrows. “It was unexpected. But it’s fine. I run into him from time to time. Silicon Valley is small. Something I’m reminded of every time I run into one of my many former employees who still hates me for what happened.”
I regretted mentioning that douchebag and stirring up memories that made her smooth forehead wrinkle. My stomach tensed. If things went badly with the ovarian cancer test and we had to sell Discovery to Greenwich, she might despise me too.
Should I tell her about the possibility of a sale? I’d want to know. I craved information to soothe my worries. But Tessa was different. She rolled with new challenges. Besides, the clinical trials were going great. We wouldn’t have to sell. It wasn’t worth stressing her out. Not when she was this relaxed.
“Good,” I said. “Now, what can I do to help you feel even lazier?”
She traced a finger up her forearm. “I’m going to shower off the massage oil.”
I propped myself up on my elbow, careful not to move too suddenly since I was hard under my towel. “Okay. I can call the front desk and have them take away the tables.”
“Or…you could join me? Massages make me horny.”
I sat up so quickly the towel flopped to the floor. My erection bobbed in front of me. “Thank god. I thought it was only me.”
Grinning, she slid off the table and dropped her towel. “Race you to the shower. Loser gives head first.”
I lingered to blow out the candles. It wasn’t safe to leave them unattended.
When I made it to the bathroom, she had the water started in the shower that was large enough for six. “You didn’t even try.” She pouted.
“Getting on my knees for you is what I want to do.” I slipped my arms around her, resting my palms on her butt, which was the only part of her not slick with massage oil. I squeezed the lower curve of her ass. “Now get in the shower so I can have my wicked way with you.”
When she rose on her toes to kiss me, her stomach pressed against my dick and sent a surge of pleasure through me. “Let’s see who’s more wicked,” she murmured against my lips.
I followed her into the shower, where warm water enveloped me from all sides from six body sprays on the walls and a rain head from above. I poured the sage-scented body wash into my palm, lathered it up, and stepped behind her.
“Mmm,” she hummed, leaning against me. My cockhead slipped against the oil on her back. “That’s what I’m talking about.”
“Is it?” I stepped back and started at her nape, soaping up her skin and smoothing off the oil.
“I expected you to start lower.” She tried to scoot back, but I held her in position, rubbing the suds over her shoulders, her arms, and her hands. Her wrists went loose and floppy. “But this is pretty good too.”
I kissed the clean skin of her shoulder. “Exactly.” Then I started again on her back, stroking down toward her waist. Her butt was free of the oil, but I washed it anyway, teasing a finger into the valley between her cheeks. She hummed and widened her stance. Was she into ass play? I didn’t have much experience with it, but I liked the idea of exploring it with her, later.
I smoothed down the backs of her legs and kneeled. “Hold the grab bar and lift your foot.”
“Are you serious?” Her breathing was quick and shallow. “My foot?”
“There’s oil on your feet, and I don’t want you to slip. Hold on.” I waited until she grasped the handle, then I lifted one foot at a time to scrub the soles of her feet. “Turn.”
She did, which put her tempting pussy right at my eye level. “I’m ready to collect my winnings now,” she said. “I’ll even hold onto the grab bar.”
“I’m not finished.” I poured more body wash into my hands and started at her toes, then worked my way up her shins, over her knees, to her thighs, where I paused. “Hmm, I don’t think this is massage oil.” I scooped some of the shiny liquid from the inside of her thigh onto my finger and popped it into my mouth. “Definitely not almond oil.”
“My god.” Her cheeks were red. “If I’d known you were going to?—”
I brushed my knuckle over her clit, and she froze. “I think you need to learn some patience, sw—” I choked back the pet name. But with my finger on her nub, she must not have noticed.
“Antici…” She smoothed her hand down my cheek. “…pation. Am I right?”
“What?”
“Don’t tell me you’ve never seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
“Okay.” I squirted more body wash into my palm. “I won’t tell you.”
“Sometimes I wonder if you’re actually a millennial.”
“Is that really what you want to be thinking about right now?” I rubbed soapy circles on her hipbones, then smoothed my hands across her stomach.
“I guess…” Her breath hitched when my hand brushed the underside of her breast. “Not.”
The masseuse hadn’t touched her breasts, but I did, rising to rub circles over them as her nipples hardened under my palms. Moaning, she pressed into my hands. She’d never come when I’d touched only her breasts, and I’d always wondered if she could. Another time. Reluctantly, I moved away to her chest and neck.
“Want me to do your face?” I asked, pointing to the spots of oil where the masseuse had massaged her forehead and temples.
“Okay.” She closed her eyes.
I rubbed two soapy fingers over her forehead, down the sides of her face to her cheeks, then across her freckled nose. I finished with a brush across her chin. I rinsed my hands and went back over her face with my wet fingers, wiping the suds away. When I stopped touching her, she wobbled.
“Are you okay?” I asked, gripping her elbow.
“I’m really relaxed.” Her voice was low and sultry.
“Here.” I turned off the body sprays and guided her to sit on the edge of the bench. I kneeled on the tile, out of range of the drenching showerhead. Steam billowed around us. “Comfortable?”
“Yeah.”
“Hold onto the handles.”
As soon as she grabbed them, I pressed her knees apart and ran my hands up the insides of her thighs. She groaned when I grazed her lips with my thumbs. “Fucking finally.”
“What did you say before? Antici…” I teased her with my fingertips. “…pation?”
A string of curse words fell from her gorgeous lips. I spread her, then dived in to taste her, sucking, licking, and probing. Her breath stuttered out of her. She was close from the anticipation. Primal pride surged in my chest. I gripped the backs of her thighs, holding her in place, and fluttered my tongue around her vaginal opening.
She clutched the back of my head, pulling me to her. “Oliver. I need…”
“I know, baby,” I rumbled. I licked up to her clitoris and tapped it with the tip of my tongue.
She pulled my hair. “More.”
I gave it to her, gently sucking on her clit the way she liked until her shout echoed through the shower. Then I licked her down from her orgasm until she released my hair and melted against the tile wall.
I stood on shaky legs. I was close too, my dick leaking and aching from the pressure.
She gazed at it, licked her lips, then looked up at me. “Want to fuck me?”
“God, yes,” I groaned. “Let me wash off, then we can go to bed.”
“In here?” she said. She flicked her gaze around the shower like she was envisioning the best spot for it. “You can sit on the bench, and I’ll sit on your lap.”
“Condoms are in my suitcase,” I said. “I’ll wash off, then?—”
“I get tested at every physical, and I’m clear of STIs. I’ve got an IUD.” She bit her lip.
“I’m tested too,” I said. “Are you sure?”
“I know what I want. Now sit.”
A thrill ran up my spine, and my dick went even harder. I sat on the bench, and she rose on her knees to straddle my lap. I slid forward to give her knees space as she grasped my dick, then guided it inside her. We were both so slick from arousal that it was an easy glide until her ass rested on my thighs. She tightened around me, and my vision went gray at the edges. “I’m not going to last long.”
“Good, because neither are my knees.”
“Hold onto my shoulders.” I gripped the handles and rocked my hips up. She flung one arm behind my neck and dropped her other hand to where we were connected. Her fingers caressed the base of my dick for a moment before settling on her clit. Her muscles fluttered around me.
Electricity raced up my spine, and I rocked into her once, twice more before my release shuddered through me. A second later, her hand stilled, and she groaned as her orgasm milked the last drops from me.
I leaned my head back against the tile, gazing at the sexiest, most brilliant person I’d ever met. Today had been perfect, between the massage and the shower. She was so relaxed, and she’d let me into her trust. We could have so many more perfect days together if she’d keep her walls down. Hope bloomed in my belly.
I gazed up at her pleasure-drunk smile. “I love you.” I kissed her lips, then her cheek, then her jaw. “I love you.” I buried my face in her shoulder. “I love you.”
She hummed and kissed my hair. But she didn’t say it back.