The Masseuse Read online

  THE MASSEUSE

  MARIANNE BRUN

  LYRICAL PRESS

  http://lyricalpress.com/

  KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.

  http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/

  For my husband, Matias.

  Chapter 1

  Although Kate approached the massage parlor with the awkward, frightened steps of a woman four times her age, she was determined to start living again, even if it meant becoming someone else.

  Squashed between buildings, the two-story house looked innocent enough, with its light pink paint and tall grinning window to her left. The Beauty Suite, written on a silver plate on the wall, could have been easily overlooked. She concentrated on the brightness of the building so she could pretend, as she rang the bell and the sound ricocheted in her ears, that it was a different kind of place.

  All illusion ended when the door opened and the smell of air freshener filled her nostrils. The blond woman’s smile did not ease her anxiety. “Hi, you must be Kate.”

  Kate stiffened. She would not use that name here. She would not be weak and fragile within those walls. “I’m Jade.” Even before she went for the interview, she’d thought of the name. Jade is a hard stone, beautiful and elegant—everything she believed she was not. Her tall, slim body, creamy skin, long, curly auburn hair and large hazel eyes had made her feel beautiful once but it seemed like a long time ago. Now, at twenty-six, little of her old confidence remained.

  “Well, come in, Jade. I’m Sasha, the manageress. Let me introduce you to the girls.”

  Sasha led her down a narrow, carpeted corridor past the office on the left, where Jade caught a glimpse of a tall counter and an arm of a soft red chair half hidden behind the door. There was a closed-off room further down, and she swallowed back her anxiety as she wondered what was happening in there. The wooden stairs on the right wall seemed cramped, as if put in as an afterthought, and broke off a row of pictures, mostly sketches of a dancing female drawn so well her body seemed to escape the gray outline to run off the page.

  A living room with sliding doors was at the end of the corridor, and a woman with long blond hair who wore knee high boots and little else was stretching inside. Her leg was on the couch and she reached her upper body toward her toes, the strap of her g-string lost in the movement.

  “That’s Arlene, the fitness freak.” Sasha paused at the door and laughed when the woman glanced in their direction and stuck out her tongue.

  Jade was glad when Sasha turned to the small square courtyard on their left. The brash certainty in Arlene’s movement seemed almost masculine and it unhinged her. It made her feel like she didn’t belong.

  In a way, she didn’t. She had a choice, not like most of the women. She imagined they grew up in the business, had it thrown down their throats so young they were more comfortable parading around half naked and competing for the next john than living outside in the world being the Mary, Sue or Jill they started as.

  The girl sitting in the courtyard was a prime example. She was small—five foot nothing—but had breasts to make up for it and a gorgeous face, large blue eyes and a wide mouth. Her dark hair flowed down her back and touched her bum. She sat in the courtyard with her legs crossed and her breasts peeking out of her tight tank top.

  Sasha walked into the courtyard and Jade couldn’t help notice the way Nikki’s eyes lingered on the blonde woman’s face.

  Once Sasha introduced Nikki to Jade, she took her leave abruptly. Jade’s gaze moved slowly from Nikki’s open-toe heels to the short legs barely concealed under a white skirt, the flat stomach and the pert breasts to the friendly, accepting eyes, as though she had always looked at people through the eyes of a full body masseuse.

  Nikki accepted it, as if working in the industry had obviously made her used to close inspection. It was part of the normal work day.

  Jade’s heart fluttered from her act of boldness. “Hi.” She wanted to stop hiding, or “open up,” as Colin so often put it. She tried to picture his face if he found out his precious wife planned to parade around in high heels and black lingerie.

  “So you’re the new girl?”

  Jade nodded and walked to the small square table with the notion that Colin would want to come and watch her with a client. “Yes. Have you been here long?”

  Nikki shrugged. “Only since I got dumped.”

  Jade dropped her bag by her feet. She didn’t want to put makeup on yet, or feel the air on her skin. She wanted to crawl under the table and just observe. She needed to get lost in someone else’s life. “Who dumped you”?

  Nikki leaned forward, her feet barely touching the ground, and started to talk about her sugar daddy, Louis. He left her the week before with nothing but empty promises and the idea sex would buy her way in the world. Now she was in the parlor, walking up and down with a tiny skirt and her breasts heaving in her halter top.

  Louis and Nikki met when she was twenty, but only during the past year did they start having sex. She told Jade about going to his villa and gliding around in g-strings while she cooked. He watched her, his hard-on in his hands. He only had to nod and she would go to him. She easily wrapped her short, toned legs around his waist as she sat on him and he cupped her breasts. Other times she would take him in her mouth. It was how they had lived their days.

  She said she liked being told what to do, as if all control was taken away. She liked being thrown on the bed and him pushing her legs apart as he tore off her top. With his hand across her chest—as if she’d even think of escape—he would rip her panties off and release his penis. She would feel him enter her while he moved his fingers to her warm edges. She would moan with her clothes in shreds and the man’s trousers hanging around his ankles. She talked easily, as if she were sharing details about her favorite holiday location, so Jade didn’t feel uncomfortable.

  Nikki insisted her sugar daddy wasn’t old—somewhere between thirty and forty—and she whispered he had the best cock she had ever seen and she had seen many. He pretended to be wealthy so her lithe body would service him. It didn’t bother her now, although maybe it had last week.

  She also told Jade about her ménage à trois with Sasha and Sasha’s boyfriend. Jade hid her shock well. The sweat lining her palms, tucked safely between her legs and the chair, was the only indication of it. She didn’t doubt Nikki’s words. When Sasha had introduced them, there’d been a charge in the air. It had let Jade look over Nikki’s body without apology.

  It was the boyfriend’s idea, of course, and the three made love a few times, but Nikki believed Sasha tired of it.

  “Why?” Jade asked, lost in Nikki’s life as if it was a new drug. She didn’t want their conversation to end. She loved that Nikki trusted her so well and so quickly, as if she’d known her all her life and Jade lived life was just like her.

  Nikki shook her head, about to speak, but Arlene’s appearance at the door stopped her.

  Jade noticed Arlene’s small breasts immediately. The nipples protruding from her black bra took attention away from her muscular legs and flat stomach. She was average height with straight blond hair and had the brightest blue eyes Jade had ever seen. Their gaze penetrated her and made her sit up against the wall, wishing she could disappear.

  Arlene’s attention stayed on Jade while she moved to the chair at the middle of the table between the two other women. She put her foot on the chair, and Jade could see right up her legs to the small fabric beneath. Jade’s gaze fell on that space, as if her eyes had minds of their own. Heaviness settled in her stomach with the notion that she was trapped between those legs, caught inside their muggy warmth with no room to breathe. She knew Arlene wanted to turn her on. She could see it in the woman’s slight, mischievous grin, and when she glanced at Nikki, the othe
r girl’s smile told her she was used to this kind of behavior and was waiting to see what Arlene would do next.

  Jade wanted to feel the heat the girls cherished. She wanted to have Arlene’s same visible moistness but she couldn’t. It had been too long.

  “How was your day off, Arlene?” The mirth in Nikki’s tone was unmistakable, and her sly look prepared Jade for what came next.

  Arlene took a bottle of moisturizer off the table and poured some of it into her hand. When she began to rub it onto her legs, the movement pulled Jade’s gaze. It was no great surprise when Arlene started to tell them about her seduction. Jade felt Nikki gave her history because she never thought of hiding anything about herself, but Arlene’s sharing was obviously an elaborate act to keep from boredom. She said she couldn’t resist her flat mate’s friend when he walked into her house with dark jeans and a t-shirt over a toned body. He had blond shoulder-length hair, green eyes and the best mouth she had ever seen, which is why she wanted him. She wanted his lips between her legs.

  “That’s what your days off are always about…” Nikki jeered.

  “And you have to know the details since it’s the only way you get any action.”

  Nikki raised her eyes heavenward. “What nonsense.”

  Arlene smiled as she switched legs, moving her hand down her thigh slowly. The silence heightened her gestures, tension filling the small space around them. Jade wanted to walk away but couldn’t. She was afraid any movement would bring attention back to her.

  “Well, did you get him?” Nikki urged.

  Arlene laughed. “Yeah, his tongue went right where I wanted it.” Jade tensed when Arlene leaned toward her. “It’s easy. All you have to do is work them up until they are about to burst, then spread your legs.”

  Jade wanted to laugh. It wasn’t that easy to seduce her husband now. Colin used to want her body, but not anymore. Not in the last two years.

  Arlene winked at Nikki. “I was wearing my usual attire for visitors.”

  Nikki gave a short, cute laugh and told Jade, “A g-string and dressing gown. I don’t think she wears anything else.” If she noticed the effort in Jade’s smile, it didn’t bother her.

  Arlene shrugged. “What’s the point?” Her foot was still on the chair and she rubbed her leg, her gaze on a distant point ahead. “I bent toward the TV and the gown lifted. When I touched myself, he came straight for me.”

  Jade knew Arlene pictured her touching her breasts and stomach, then the space between her legs as she described it. “His hands were warm and soft. I pushed backward, and he was like putty.”

  “Yeah, ’cause he was fifty and hadn’t got anything in years.” Nikki’s ease allowed Jade to relax a little.

  “No, you jealous cow, he was young, early twenties.” Arlene moved her hand perilously close to her crotch. “When I touched him through his jeans, he was hard. I opened his button and zipper. He couldn’t believe his luck.” With raised eyebrows, she looked at Nikki. “And before you say anything, he wasn’t small either. He was perfect.”

  “I’ll take your word for it.”

  “Yeah, well, I wasn’t complaining yesterday when I had him in my hands.”

  Jade’s breath caught. Arlene described exactly what she would have to do in the parlor’s small, dark rooms. She wanted to get sick. How could she take a stranger’s penis in her hand and make him come? She tried to banish the massage table from her mind.

  “I went down on my knees and stroked him.” Arlene’s eyes twinkled as she rubbed the sparse fabric of her g-string.

  Jade couldn’t believe it. If she wasn’t so perturbed with the idea of what she had to do here and the notion of stepping closer to those rooms, she would’ve tried to walk away.

  Arlene’s glance made Jade conscious of her tight lips and rigid body. The flash in the other woman’s eyes ensured Jade that her discomfort was a further turn-on for Arlene. “I licked him. He tasted good.” Her gaze stayed on Jade. “I caressed his balls and took him. But I couldn’t fit it all in my mouth.”

  Nikki shook her head. “Don’t hold back, Arlene.”

  Her playful tone took Arlene’s attention from Jade. “Want me to stop?”

  Jade would have nodded, but she felt like a kid wanting acceptance.

  “I wouldn’t stop you before the big finish, now would I?” Nikki answered.

  Arlene tilted her head sideways and stayed quiet for a long moment, her hand frozen on her thigh. “No, I don’t think you would…”

  Jade didn’t know if the sexual tension rising from Arlene and Nikki’s come on smile and relaxed body was an act for her benefit, or if she thought the air was highly charged because she’d spent so long locked inside her house alone. Would the looks, touches and conversations be as overbearing if she had gone back to work in the housing authority?

  “I went slowly.” Arlene pulled her gaze from Nikki to face Jade. “Always go slow if you want to be serviced.” She giggled and Jade wondered if her need for advice in these matters was so obvious. If she looked rigid to Colin, how must she look to them?

  “When I released him, he was ready to take me, but I wouldn’t give it to him easily. I teased him. Then I let him go and sat on the couch. I widened my legs. ‘I want to feel your tongue,’ I told him. There was no argument. He was in front of me within seconds. With hands on my waist, he pulled me toward him and lapped me up. God, he was good. I thought with his silence and youth, I’d have to show him what to do.”

  “Show him?” Jade realized the question came from her only when they looked at her. She couldn’t imagine instructing a stranger.

  Arlene nodded. “I’ve always had the patience to teach. They feel like they owe you something then. But he didn’t need it. He knew how to work slowly and softly. He didn’t miss a spot. By the time he stood and turned me around, he could’ve done anything with me. He pushed me so I was folded over the couch and took me.”

  She dropped her leg as the doorbell rang, and Jade could tell by Arlene’s smile she wanted a client now. She wondered if Arlene let them touch her. The masseuses weren’t supposed to allow it. Still, she imagined the blond girl couldn’t resist now—either that or she would touch herself for them, sit in the small chair with her legs spread and move her hand through the wetness. Jade didn’t think Arlene could ignore horniness.

  The manageress was at the door. Her gaze skimmed past Nikki and made Jade think of their threesomes together. She could picture the two small girls wrapped around each other. “Our first client, girls...” Sasha looked at Jade, her tilted head softening her attention.

  “I’m not ready,” Jade mumbled. “Sorry.”

  “You want to sit this one out?”

  Jade nodded.

  “Okay, but you need to get ready soon.” Sasha moved sideways to let Arlene wriggle passed. Nikki had jumped up to meet the client with Sasha’s arrival and was already gone. “Do you know what to do?”

  She nodded but knew by Sasha’s quick smile the manageress wasn’t convinced. Still, Sasha left without comment.

  Jade was glad when Arlene went to meet the client. She had no idea what to say to her. If she was supposed to share tales of seduction, she would be like a fish out of water, gulping for words.

  “Did Arlene make you uncomfortable?” Nikki asked when she resumed her seat.

  Jade shook her head. “No, it was fine.”

  Nikki’s smile was warm. “Usually it’s a lot more interesting,”

  Arlene reappeared. “For you, maybe. I much prefer not having to beg them to leave.”

  Nikki laughed. “See what I mean? She had to get her last exploit kicked out by her neighbor.”

  No one was surprised when Sasha returned to say Arlene had been picked. The client probably felt the heat rising from her and Jade was sure Arlene had bent down with her legs straight to give him a perfect view of her perfect ass.

  A little later, Michele arrived. She had short brown hair with a long side fringe over her dark blue eyes. She was tall
and slim, and Jade thought she had the most beautiful breasts she’d ever seen. She wore a black push-up bra and a short skirt barely covering her bum. She wasn’t as friendly as the other girls but there was an aloofness about her that seemed to pull everyone in.

  When Michele came into the courtyard, she barely glanced at Jade before sitting on the chair. Nikki had just gone for an hour booking with a client and Michele put on makeup with the help of a small mirror. Jade waited for her to look in her direction. She wanted to hear the voice that would come from that smooth body.

  But when Nikki returned after the hour, they were still sitting in silence. With Nikki at the door, Michele finally looked at Jade. “So, have you had a client yet?”

  Jade shook her head.

  Michele smiled and stood. “I’m surprised. You’ve got great legs.”

  Jade felt the tingle of heat on her cheeks and noticed the way Nikki moved quickly out of Michele’s way. She watched Michele disappear and felt curiosity rise.

  “Michele’s a lesbian,” Nikki told her.

  Jade had never met a lesbian before and Michele stirred her. She imagined Michele’s clients watching her waltz around the table and becoming aroused when she bent over them with those perfect breasts while looking at them blankly. She would hold their erect cock and rub, and they would feel her mind was miles away. Jade considered how wonderful it would be to be gay so a man’s body had no effect. If men meant nothing to her, she wouldn’t have answered the ad for a masseuse in the newspaper, and she would be able to talk to Colin properly and understand how he felt.

  She couldn’t remember what their marriage used to be like, only that at one time, they had been happy. She wanted to get that back again so she could look her husband in the eye, and when Jade stood in the girls’ living room and put on black lace lingerie and high heels, it felt like a start. She didn’t know any other way to begin living again.

  Jade rubbed foundation on her skin and felt like a young girl, discovering her body. She put on eye shadow and a touch of lipstick. It had been so long since she had worn makeup. It seemed to distance her from herself rather than bring her closer.