Page 64 of DeLucas After Dark

“Never,” I whisper harshly. “I just know that the holidays are special to you and your family.”

“They chose to love each other, and it didn’t matter what anyone else thought about it. I choose to love you, and it doesn’t matter what anyone else feels about that. Will it hurt if they continue to treat me this way?” Tears sparkle in her eyes, but she nods firmly. “Absolutely! But I can’t do anything about that. I’m not going to beg them, bribe them, or threaten them. They have a choice to make, and they’ve made it. Me?” she says, jerking her thumb at herself. “I choose you.”

She kisses me again, long and hard, this time before pulling back. “I’ll show you just how much tonight. But now…let’s get some damn baking done!”

She pulls away from me, laughing, when she dodges my attempt to pull her back. The patio door is opened before I can reach her, and she’s disappeared inside.

Briefly, I look into the sky at the stars twinkling overhead. If I’d never had another wish granted, I would want the one for her parents to arrive tomorrow to come true.

PIPER

“I’m having a hard time getting these knots out of your shoulders,” Aurora, the masseuse and owner of Encore Day Spa, says.

“I’m trying to relax, Aurora, but I just want everything to go well for Christmas.”

“Girl, you need to relax. From everything that I see of you two, that man loves your dirty drawers,” she says.

I sigh. “I don’t know. There seems to be a disconnect between us lately. I feel like he’s holding something important back, and I don’t know what it is. If I ask him if everything is okay, he reassures me, but something deep inside tells me it’s not.”

“Have you told him that you don’t believe he’s being truthful with you?”

“No. I don’t want him to think that I don’t trust him.”

“You think he’s cheating on you?”

“No. He’s the most loyal man I’ve ever known. But something is going on with him, and I can’t put my finger on it.”

“Maybe you need to tell him how you’re feeling, and if he still insists all is well, then give it a break for a while. I’ll be right back, Piper. I have the perfect thing to ease your tension,” Aurora says.

“Okay,” I mutter with my face in the massage pillow.

Soft Christmas jazz music plays, creating a relaxing atmosphere. My body may be relaxed, but my mind isn’t.

I want to build a home for him that will be his place of solitude and refuge. I want to be his strength and backbone, who he pours into when the world is against him.

While I respect and understand that he can’t tell me certain things, I need him to be honest with me when he’s having a bad day or if he’s under pressure. That’s the only way I can figure out how I can serve him.

The door opens and closes again, and I sigh.

“You’re right, Aurora. I think that it is the holidays. His family is in town. He wants everyone to have a beautiful time on top of running his business. That must be what has him stressed out, and I’m probably adding to it by nagging him,” I agree.

Aurora’s oily fists knead my back muscles and slowly work their way down to my thighs. The scent is sandalwood, and it mixes well with the lavender oil she’d previously used.

I find myself relaxing further into the table and not thinking about the tension that Marco has been under. The music changes to Boyz II Men’sLet It Snow.

“I love this song,” I murmur.

I feel the knots ease from my body as my eyes drift closed. After a couple of minutes, I feel myself drifting into a peaceful rest. I’m somewhere between napping and resting when I hear Ginuwine’sMistletoecome on just as Aurora’s hands slip between my thighs and graze my core.

I instantly start to shift and get off the table, but she presses me back down, forcing my face into the massage pillow. I stare uncomfortably through the hole at the teak floors.

“Hey, umm…watch where you put those fingers,” I warn.

I’m no longer comfortable, and while I don’t want to think she intentionally did it, I’m still a bit uncomfortable. She doesn’t respond but continues working my thigh muscles.

A kiss pressed against my back when I finally relax again alerts my senses that something is completely off. That wasn’t Aurora. Hell, unless she grew a beard in the last half an hour.

Lifting my head, I glance questioningly over my shoulder and laugh.

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