Page 73 of Fierce-Dane

“No,” she said, pushing it back to him.

“Are we going to argue about this?”

“Nope,” she said. “I’m not taking your money.”

“Sloane. We are going to be at a stalemate here. I enjoy these massages. Even without the ending I got and I don’t expect it and didn’t tonight. If you aren’t going to charge me, it’s going to make me schedule with one of your employees to get the massage and not feel like crap because it’s free. Do you want that?”

She’d never seen him this serious before.

She’d gotten the impression he wasn’t like this from his sister.

There was part of her that enjoyed witnessing it now.

“Over my dead body they are touching you,” she said, smiling.

“Good,” he said.

“But I’m still not charging you tonight. It’s a compromise.”

“Then take the tip regardless. Or I’m leaving it right on the counter for whoever opens to get it.”

He set it on the counter. It’d be stupid at this point to not take it.

She was being silly and stubborn.

Just like him.

“Fine,” she said. “But you are getting a discount going forward for massages. Like fifty percent off. You come once a month. You aren’t taking a slot from anyone else.”

“Is this our first fight and compromise?” he asked, smiling.

“I think it is. Did we resolve it to your satisfaction?”

“Good enough,” he said.

“Good,” she said. “Now when would you like your next appointment?”

He leaned in and gave her a smacking kiss on the lips, pulled his phone out to look at his calendar and threw a few dates out there.

She scheduled him with her at the end of the day like normal and told herself the next time maybe she’d have him stay the night at her place when they were done and they could finish off there.

21

A GOOD TEAM

“Can we stay longer?” Tyler asked Dane on Sunday morning. “I don’t want to go home with Mom.”

“Why not?” he asked. “You know you need to. I’ll see you in a few days.”

“Because we wanted to go swimming at Aunt Chloe’s again,” Tiffani said. “It’s the holiday weekend. You don’t have to work tomorrow, do you?”

“No,” he said. Which he’d forgotten about when he’d made plans for Sloane to spend the night.

She was open but said her first appointment wasn’t until ten and Heather was going to open so she didn’t have to get there as early.

“Then why can’t we stay today and tomorrow with you?” Tyler asked.

“You know how this works,” he said. “We’ve been doing it for years.”

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