Chapter Twenty-Three
mia
His legs bracket my body, one on each side, grounding me between him and the cushion I’m leaning against. I feel him everywhere—the heat, the weight, the sheer presence of him. It wraps around me like a promise. Or a dare.
The TV fades to static. I couldn’t recall what’s on the screen if my life depended on it.
My breath shortens. My thighs clench without permission.
My pulse is so high, an oximeter would file for early retirement.
He’s too close. This position is too intimate.
My body knows something’s coming, and it blindly wants to meet it halfway.
“I thought I’d come back and teach you a thing or two about massages.” He places his hands on my arms and gives them a gentle squeeze. Is there any chance he didn’t feel my body shivering?
“Yeah. I mean… sure. Why not? Right?” Urgh. Why does the English vocabulary fail me whenever I’m horny?
Preston slips a finger under the strap of the flimsy top I’m wearing and the chills make a comeback. I have no game. No hope whatsoever.
“Can I lower these?” he asks and I nod.
In one smooth go, both top and bra straps are down to my elbow. The surgeon is precise. “Hope you don’t mind I borrowed some of your oil,” he adds.
The one you said smelled like me and kept you company in bed?
“No, I don’t mind it at all.”
His masterful hands start kneading my shoulders and I melt. Then moan. It’s amazing and embarrassing. “Damn, Preston. Oh God.” My head falls back. “No way I was this good when I had my hands on you.”
He chuckles and lowers his hands, working around my spine next. “Believe me, Mia. It felt pretty damn good to me. But I’m happy to teach you everything I know.”
“Oh, really? So you want to get massages only from me and also become my teacher?”
“That is, in fact, exactly what I want.”
That makes no sense, but my bones have turned to liquid and I can’t quite formulate questions at the moment.
After who knows how long, enough for me to reach some kind of nirvana and learn nothing about massages, Preston asks, “Relaxed enough?”
“More than I’ve ever been. You have magic hands, Doctor,” I say, so relaxed I sound I little groggy.
“Good. I have a confession to make and I need you to keep calm while you hear me out.”
“Oh, no. All tensed up again.” I turn my head to him. “What happened? What did you do?”
“Mia, breathe for me.”
I don’t know why, but I do.
“On your first day here—”
I cut him off. “You saw me naked. I knew it. Just don’t. We agreed to never talk about it aga—”
He cuts me off right back. “I heard what you and Callie were discussing when you got home that night.”
“What are you talking abou—” It takes a beat for the unwanted memory to surface. “Noooooooooo.” I face away from him, horrified.
His fingers press deeper into my shoulders and still. He asks, “May I?”
I consent with a nod, hoping he’ll concentrate on that and not talking. His hands work harder on the hundreds of new knots of his own creation.
When my shoulders drop a notch, he tries to soothe me. “It’s okay, Mia.”
“Dr. Preston… I…”
“Let me stop you right there. There’s more.”
“Oh, no. Please, God. No.”
“But first, answer me this. Have you hired an escort?”
“What? No, and Jesus, fine, we crossed a few lines by rubbing oil all over each other, but there are still some boundaries. This is none of your business, sir.”
“I want to make it my business, Mia.”
My head snaps back to check if he’s there. He is. He really said that.
“I’m sorry, I don’t see how. Can we please add that moment to the fast-growing pile of things we pretend never happened? I don’t see how I’ll ever face you again if you don’t drop this subject now.”
He presses his thumbs at the nape of my neck, letting his fingers slide onto my chest. It rises and falls so fast it’s embarrassing. “Tell me if you want me to stop,” he says.
A staggered breath rips through me. I tell him nothing.
I try to control my breathing with a deep inhale. It’s no good. But when Preston brings his lips to my ear and orders, “Mia, breathe for me,” I follow without hesitation.
“I want to be your tutor, Miss Thorne.” He pauses to let it sink.
“Don’t hire a stranger. Pick me instead.
Let me show you how good I can make you feel.
Make me another color-coded spreadsheet, better yet, a list, this one with everything you want to learn.
I’ll be the best sex instructor you’ll ever find. ”
What is happening right now? “This is crazy,” I pant.
“Yes, you are. And you’ve made me, too.”
“Why? I don’t get it.” I shake my head, as if the pieces will fall into place and I’ll make sense of it all. “Have you seen yourself? Have you seen me? Don’t—don’t answer that. We know the truth.”
“The truth is that I’ve been dependent on a blue pill for the last several years of my marriage. And since my ex left, my dick hasn’t hardened once. That was, until you stepped through that door. And I can’t get the fucking thing down since I saw you, naked and dripping wet.”
“This can’t be happening… I’m—” I can’t sit still anymore. “Damn it, Preston. This was supposed to be, at most, a harmless, forbidden flirtation. I’m only human. I can dream.”
His hands are firm on me, and God help me, I love the feel of them. “Mia, you don’t have to answer me now.”
“I don’t think I can face you now.”
“Alexa, lower the lights.”
“Oh, Doc, that was smooth.” My head swims, then tilts forward.
I hear him chuckle.
But then he takes his hands off my body, and any doubts I had vanish into thin air. My decision is made. I’m ready to beg when his smooth voice issues another command. “Stand up for me, Mia.”
I do, and he follows.
Not facing him makes it easy to ask the hard questions. “I don’t understand. What’s in it for you?”
The straight white man with no self-esteem issues laughs. One second, I’m pissed. The next, he steps closer and presses his body into mine.
“Oh God,” I whimper. He’s hard, huge, and it feels so good. I take no responsibility for the full-body shiver that washes over me.
“I know this is wrong. I know I’m too old for you.”
I lean back, closer, letting my head lie on his shoulder.
“Nothing in you feels old, Pres.” I whisper into the dark, my ass moving slowly in circles, then up and down, as if I need further evidence that I’m not dreaming. He hisses, and I clench at the sound. “And nothing I’m feeling right now feels wrong.”
“Do you really want to know what’s in it for me, Miss Thorne?
” His hands land on my hips and pull me harder to him, locking me there.
“I get to feel like a man again. It doesn’t have to be complicated.
But it would be real. And right now, that’s more than I’ve had in years.
” His fingers dig deeper and my breath falters.
“You think this is just about teaching you? No, Mia. It’s about reminding myself I’m still worth touching.
” Preston presses his palm to my stomach, under my top, feeling my pebbled skin.
I’m so lost in the moment, I forget to suck it in.
“Don’t pay a stranger to touch you when I’d give anything for the chance.”
The room is so still, so charged, I could count the beats of my heart. Except I can’t count that fast.
“I can help you. You want a tutor? I’m right here.” He leans in, brushing his lips along one slippery shoulder, barely grazing. “You want to be touched? To feel confident in bed? Same offer applies.”
Please, legs, don’t fail me now.
“What you’re… suggesting.” I inhale. “Takes us way past inappropriate massages.”
“And yet, I’m still offering. But first, take a seat, Miss Thorne. There’s more.”
More? The timing is very convenient, because my legs do fail me then.