The Masseuse Page 3

  “Hi, Kate!” Colin’s footsteps were heavy on the staircase. When she felt his presence at the bedroom door, she turned. He took off his tie, his face blank. He didn’t look at her light blue dress. It had once been his favorite.

  “Where were you?”

  “At the office. I talked to you.” He moved toward their en-suite bathroom as he unbuttoned his shirt.

  “I rang back straight away and they told me you were gone.”

  He didn’t miss a stride. “I told them not to accept calls from anyone. I was in the middle of something.” He smirked during his last words.

  She wanted to step closer, sure she could smell sex in the air. But her doubts kept her feet rooted to the floor. “I said it was your wife.”

  “I said, ‘anyone.’”

  The bathroom door closed between them and she heard the shower start. So that’s who she was—just anyone. She had known it for a while.

  Eventually he came out with a towel wrapped around him and put on jeans and a fresh shirt. When he finished dressing, he finally looked at her. “Okay, you ready?”

  She stood. Her hair lay across her shoulders and was pulled back from her face. She wore a little makeup that enhanced the brown in her eyes, and a pale lipstick softened her full lips. She nodded, hoping he would notice her effort.

  He smiled back, too quickly, hardly seeing her. “I left the wine in the car.”

  Kate waited after he’d gone, watching the door of their bedroom and hoping to see his body rewind to the space he had left, so she could get a second glance at his smile and let it fill the part of her stomach that had dropped.

  “You coming?” he shouted from downstairs. “Kate, come on!”

  Colin’s impatience brought her back to the present. The light had shifted, filling the room with shadows. He waited at the front door and opened it with her approach. She threw a light blue cardigan over her shoulders. He stepped outside and waited for her to follow. As Colin took her hand, she imagined the shadows coming out to play.

  * * * *

  A year after their first date, Colin took Kate to the beach near his house. They’d brought a picnic and a blanket. It was a warm spring day, the sky a bright lapis blue. They laughed trying to put the blanket on the sand with straight lines as the breeze kicked under it.

  Kate sat first and became aware of his still-standing form after a few seconds. She had to shield her eyes when she looked up, until he moved. She smiled then because he was large enough to blot out the sun.

  She remembered his dark silhouette going down on one knee. His smile was shaky. She loved his nervousness that day as much as the romance, loved the way his eyes widened, as if the way he would view life from now on depended entirely on her. The sun seemed to take a step backward, as though the world had started to revolve around them. He reached for her, but his hand was hard to focus on. She went back to his face instead.

  “I can’t be without you, even for a day.” His smile gained confidence with her silence and remained on his face as his grip loosened around the box. “Kate Giovanni, will you make me the happiest man on this earth and be my wife?”

  She didn’t have to consider it. Her arms around his neck made him fall back, laughing.

  * * * *

  A dark-haired woman opened the door of Jeanne’s house and smiled at them. Kate felt Colin’s grip strengthen. Light flicked across the woman’s eyes and made Kate hold her breath, as if that sparkle had taken something off her. She thought, with the tightening of her husband’s fingers and the easy lolling tone of his “Hello,” that the woman was enjoying the effect she had on Colin, building energy like a bulb just plugged in.

  The night turned out just as Kate had imagined it. She hated every minute. Only Kate and Colin and one other couple, Camilla and Ian, had been invited. Camilla knew Jeanne’s husband, Frederick, through working at the art gallery in town. She was an older, very sexy woman with dark curly hair, brown eyes and wide hips.

  The men all got slightly drunk on whiskey as Kate and Camilla helped Jeanne with the food in the kitchen. “So how are you?” Jeanne had asked.

  Kate nodded, unable to find her smile. “I’m fine, thanks.”

  “I do hope so.”

  Kate wished she had something to rebound this consideration back to Jeanne. She wanted to shatter the tough, annoying resolve of the woman it came from. When they finished setting the table and joined the men in the living room, Colin was sitting on the couch with his elbow on the armrest. He leaned forward and nodded at Kate before his eyes roamed up and down Camilla and his smile broadened. Kate felt her heart stop.

  Her neighbors’ false sympathy and Colin’s lecherous looks kept Kate’s confidence at a low, though the next day, when her first client started to take off his clothes, she couldn’t help thinking of Jeanne’s hand on her back and her caring, plastic smile.

  Chapter 3

  Jade walked into the reception area with her satin slip clinging to her and smiled at the appreciation she saw in the client’s eyes. The small Italian man stood upon her entry. He had brown eyes, a scrunched-up face and thin red lips. Dark stubble made up for his receding hairline. She knew he would pick her when closing the door. She saw his eyes had not left her and he had not sat.

  A few minutes later, she followed her first client into the dimly lit room, where music played on the intercom. He undressed and threw his clothes on the ground with a gesture of impatience that worried her. She took her time, slipping the straps off her shoulders. She had wanted to believe she would enter those dark rooms and become a different person, suddenly having the desire of Arlene, the confidence of Michele or the vixen-like ways of Nikki. She imagined the sensual music and the smell of sex would engulf her, releasing a new woman like a caterpillar from its cocoon. She would waltz out the door with the grace of a butterfly after holding a man’s penis and making him come.

  It didn’t happen like that. The Kate side of her came out in full force, though at one stage Jade felt her curiosity spark. When her client made his request to touch her, there was hesitation. For a second, she imagined what it would be like to say yes.

  The slip slid down her smooth body and revealed her breasts, small and pert. Her nipples were erect from nerves and the kiss of air. The light fabric went past her black lingerie to the high heels and she kicked it off. Then she removed her final defense: her g-string. She left her high heels on. Jade was naked before a stranger, wondering how this could possibly be safe.

  What she was told the day she went to the hotel for the interview now meant nothing as she stood exposed and alone. “They cannot touch you,” Caroline, the interviewer, had insisted as she leaned forward. “You can only touch them. You are the one in control the whole time. You decide what happens.” She’d pushed the card across the table. “Call me when you’re ready.” The interviewer was smart; that promise of control wasn’t forgotten.

  Three days later when the job was accepted, Caroline sounded like an old friend on the phone, but when Jade stood in that room, she had no idea where the woman was.

  The client looked her over, and Jade considered running out and never coming back to this place. But where would she go? Home to her house on that horrible street?

  Colin’s face kept her in the room as her client climbed onto the table and lay on his stomach, his hands straight by his sides. She stood over his body. The need to escape from her suburban life, where she no longer belonged, made her lift the massage oil.

  She poured too much. Within seconds, the client’s body was covered in oil and she slid her hands up and down without direction. She stretched her arms so her body was too far for him to reach and all she kept thinking of was his penis. She would have to touch it. She didn’t know how she could.

  Then he made his request. “I want to ask you something, please.”

  She nodded. Her voice was gone, tied within the knot in her stomach.

  “Can I lick you?”

  “What?”

  He turned
around and sat up. “Will you lie down and let me lick you? I promise I won’t do anything else.”

  She wanted to laugh and say, Oh, is that all? Okay, then. Instead, she shook her head. “It’s not allowed.”

  “I won’t tell anyone. Just five minutes. It’ll feel good.”

  “Why would you want to?” After two years without her husband’s touches, she couldn’t understand how a stranger would want to do that. She’d forgotten what it was like to get lost in the feel of a tongue.

  “My wife won’t let me do it to her, and I miss it.”

  Jade stiffened. Did his wife know her husband was here, being touched by another woman? She imagined lying down on the table and letting him move between her legs and the betrayal in it, and tried to hide her distaste under a shaky smile.

  “She hasn’t let me touch her in a very long time. I wouldn’t have an affair and I don’t want sex with anyone else, but sometimes…” He faltered and she felt the tickle of his gaze between her legs. “I go to places like this because I want to be touched.”

  Were his needs any different from hers? She was here because she was looking for something, if only appreciative glances and a feeling of being desired. He paid, and she took the money. She couldn’t hate him.

  Jade imagined letting herself go with the pleasure of soft wetness caressing her and was shocked she even considered it. In her seconds of silence, he had attained an expression of hope. He touched his erect cock.

  “I understand but still I can’t let you.”

  He took a deep breath. “It was worth a try.” She wondered what else he would’ve tried and how much truth lay behind his story of an estranged wife.

  Her deliberation was lost in the next second when he lay on his back and her eyes fell on his erection. She couldn’t breathe as she unceremoniously grabbed his penis and pulled.

  The client jumped off the table. “What are you doing?” He moved his hand to where she had just touched. “Fuck!”

  “I’m sorry. It’s my first time.”

  “I want another girl.”

  She nodded and tried not to cry.

  “What are you waiting for?” he shouted.

  Jade dressed quickly and ran to the office. She stumbled into Sasha, her body full of the tremors she tried to keep inside. “He wants another girl.”

  “You were only in there ten minutes.”

  She couldn’t believe it. Only ten minutes? How could she do this? She was still standing there with her arms around herself when Sasha went to get Arlene.

  * * * *

  The smell of air freshener hung in the air. Jade’s skin was bare under skimpy lingerie. The high heels added to her feeling of looseness.

  Jade crossed her legs and, for the first time in an age, appreciated their length and form, though they still shook from nerves and the frightening experience. She could smell the client’s sour sweat moving easily through the sprayed smell of the parlor. The grease from the massage oil lingered on her hands and made them slip off her knee.

  Once the unsatisfied client was taken care of, Sasha found Jade in the living room on the couch. “The first time is always scary.”

  Jade looked at her and tried to smile, but couldn’t.

  “It’s my fault. I should’ve made sure you knew what to do. I’m sorry.”

  Jade appreciated Sasha’s attempt to make her feel better but only wanted to stay in her tight parcel of legs and arms, where her voice was also lost, hiding within the pit of her stomach.

  “Have you met Jasmine?”

  She had briefly, yesterday. Jasmine had come in as Jade was leaving. She was Chinese and very beautiful, with long black silky hair, wide dark eyes and a lovely mouth. She swayed to her own humming as she put on makeup. When her slender figure was covered by a short lace dress, she danced around the room, hardly conscious of the girls watching her. The sitting room became her stage and Jade had stood with her bag on her back, unable to pull her eyes away for what seemed a long time until the doorbell rang and broke her trance.

  “She’s coming in early to show you the ropes. She’s on nights all the time, so I thought it best if you got help from someone you don’t work with. It lessens rivalry.”

  Jade managed to smile at this. She doubted Jasmine would ever feel threatened by her after what happened today.

  * * * *

  Jasmine arrived an hour later. On their way to the small massage room upstairs, she told Jade she always showered with the client at the beginning of their session. Jade had to resist the urge to run down the steps and leave. The idea of being in that small space with a man made her chest tighten.

  Before Jasmine’s lesson, all Jade knew were the basic facts. After a client picks the girl, he is brought to a room, where he says how long he wants to stay. A half hour is sixty dollars, an hour is a hundred and so on. The girl gets the money and gives it to Sasha. At the end of the night, half of everything each girl earns is given back.

  While the client showered, some girls took the chance to have a few puffs of a cigarette or finish a conversation. Jasmine jumped in with her client, and after he came in her hands, she’d shower with him again to make sure he would return. She saw Jade’s surprise and shrugged. “It makes them happy when you make an extra effort.”

  “I’m sure it does.” Jade imagined Jasmine’s naked skin against her client as the water ran over them, and doubted she had to worry about her clients returning for seconds.

  Once inside the darkened massage room, Jasmine started to show Jade how to touch a man. In her flowered lingerie and high heels, she stood at the side of the table and starting with his imaginary shoulders, she worked her way down his back. She slid her hands to his waist and put them on either side of the table. Jade saw Jasmine caress his sides.

  “I spend ages on their asses.” Jasmine rubbed the space where his buttocks would have been then brought her hands together. “They love getting their balls teased.” She kneaded the air. “Their waists usually rise at this point to accommodate their erections.”

  A knock on the door made Jasmine stand and turn. When it opened to Sasha, Jade’s stomach lurched. The manageress’s smile let her know something was up. “We’re in luck, girls. Hideki is here. He doesn’t mind Jade watching as long as she’s naked.”

  Jasmine smiled. Her eyes twinkled when she looked at Jade. “He’s my oldest regular. The poor man is in love.”

  Sasha’s laughed. “That’s for sure. He wants an hour, Jasmine.”

  “How did he know I was here?” Jasmine smiled. “You told him?”

  “He wanted me to. Couldn’t stand the idea of missing an opportunity. I’ll send him up.” Then Sasha was gone.

  When Jasmine looked at Jade again, her laugh was sweet. “Don’t look so worried. All you have to do is sit and watch. I’ll do the rest.”

  A middle-aged man with dark, lank hair lying flat on his head came to the door. Jasmine was beside him straight away. He was only a few inches taller than her. She moved just as she had danced the day before, her body like a leaf on a breeze, and entwined her hand in his. The moment a client looked at her, Jasmine seemed to forget everything else. Jade could tell she loved the attention and noticed the way this client—Hideki—stood taller in her grasp. Hideki’s shoulders moved back, and his smile made the brown eyes behind his gray glasses shine. With Jasmine beside him, he seemed much more certain of himself.

  When they came back from showering together, Jade stood by the door, waiting for instructions. Hideki had a towel wrapped around his waist. He nodded to Jasmine. Jade tried to hold back her surprise when Jasmine went to her and slid the thin strap off her shoulders. She pulled the fabric down, and Jade held her breath from the closeness of her. She expected to feel Jasmine’s breasts rubbing against her skin. Jasmine’s were small, but the areola and nipples were spectacular in their moist brightness. They took up the surface of her breasts and begged to be touched.

  Hideki’s towel dropped to reveal his erection as he watched Jasmin
e kneel in front of Jade and pull her g-string down. Her breath fell on Jade’s sex, and Jade swallowed a lump in her throat.

  Jasmine stood and gently eased Jade into the chair behind her. She glanced back at Hideki, who smiled. Then, like a falling feather, she skimmed Jade’s breast with her hand, which landed on Jade’s knee. With a gentle pressure, she separated Jade’s legs.

  Jade was too surprised to resist, but by the time Hideki was lying on the massage table and Jasmine stood to caress his back, she had eased into the posture, reclining slightly on the chair with her legs parted to let in air and Hideki’s gaze.

  She watched Jasmine touch his back. She moved her hands down to his buttocks, which he lifted. She caressed it in circles and then moved downward between his legs. Her fingers were a short breadth away from his balls. His body was slick with oil. She teased him. He raised his ass to her again, which made Jade think he would be impatient in bed, moving his penis for himself and not the woman.

  She caressed the inside of his legs while she moved down the table. Once by his feet, she rubbed upward. She lifted her knee onto the table and the other one followed, so she kneeled by his toes.

  Jade leaned forward in her chair, wondering what Jasmine was doing. As she felt the air move up her legs, Hideki smiled.

  With her hands on Hideki’s legs, Jasmine slid upward so she sat between his thighs. One knee was near his balls and she brought her other knee to the edge of the table. She looked like a horse rider, only it was his leg she was resting on. Jasmine’s upper body lowered and arms went on either side of him.

  Jasmine moved downward, her neck almost making contact with his buttocks, and rubbed her breasts on his ass. Then those wonderful nipples moved up his back. She angled herself to the right and her breasts caressed him in circles, and then she brought them to his other side. It was like watching a very sexy break dancer, connecting every part of her body with the naked man beneath her. Every now and again, she would bring her crotch back to his leg as she teased his balls. Jade wondered if Jasmine would be wet.