Page 68 of Run Away Home: Tempered

“With my eyes closed?”

“Yeah! Shouldn’t be that hard.”

He flips over. “Now what?”

“Now take your shirt off.”

“It would have been much easier to take my shirt off before I closed my eyes and flipped over. These directions are way out of order. It should have been shirt, flip, eyes... Not eyes, flip, shirt. Very—”

“Stop talking. Just do it,” I demand.

“Okay.” He sits back up and pulls his shirt off. I stare at the tattoo on his right arm. He sees me.

“So should I close my eyes again and lay back down?”

“Duh.” I point to the pillow.

“All right.” He does just that.

I start rubbing his neck and shoulders.

“What... Are you—?”

“Just relax! I read how to do this in that magazine that you think is complete crap.”

“I guess it’s not so crappy, after all.”

“Exactly. You have a lot of tension in your shoulders.”

He laughs. “What, you’re a professional now?”

“I am. I even watched a ‘how to’ video online. Am I any good?”

“Feels good to me. I never had one of these before. What’s the English word?”

“Massage,” I remind him.

“Right. Why couldn’t I think of that? That’s an easy one. Anyway, I think you’re doing a great job.”

“Maybe I should go to school to be a masseuse.”

“I think you could do it. I think you could do anything you wanted to do.”

I straddle his back, lean down, and kiss the bottom of his neck. I work my way up to his ear.

“That’s definitely not something you would do to your clients if you were a professional masseuse, right?”

“I don’t know. Depends on how much they pay me.”

“That would make you a prostitute, and you don’t have to go to school for that. But we could use the money...”

“Shut up!” I yell at him playfully. “Oh! Also, I readyourhoroscope today.”

“Mine? You know I don’t believe in all of that.”

“Maybe this will change your mind. It said that Mercury has been in retrograde.”

“How would that change my mind? I don’t even know what the fuck that means.” He moans with pleasure as I push my knuckles farther into his spine.

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