Page 7 of His Curvy Temptation

“Dreamy?” Deepti completes my sentence with a sigh. “Built like one of those Greek God statues I saw when I went on vacation with my parents last summer? Ridiculously wealthy? Smells like heaven? With a voice that makes you wet as soon as you-"

“Okay that’s enough!” I groan. “No, I wasn’t going to say anything like that! Shit. I was going to say, he’s a friend of Nick’sandhe has this whole entire room set up in his office specifically for massages that I didn’t even know about.”

Deepti sighs.

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I should have told you about that! I was just so pissed off at Nick and then Aiden offered to take me away for the week to get my mind off of things and I had no signal on the plane and –”

“Wait, wait, wait,” I say. “Who the hell is Aiden?”

“Hello? My boyfriend, Aiden? I told you about him.”

“Right,” I say, pacing my kitchen and pinching the bridge of my nose. “Of course. How could I forget Aiden? I mean, you’ve known him forso long. How insensitive of me to forget his name.”

“Save the lecture,” Deepti replies dryly. “Aiden is great, okay? He’sdifferent. And I needed that trip to Disney World after the stress I’ve been dealing with. Nick is such an asshole, I have no idea how you’ve worked for him for so long!”

“I hardly see the guy so that helps,” I say. “What happened between you two? Did he fire you?”

“No,” Deepti says. “I quit. After he screamed at me in the towel room and called me a b-word, that is.”

“He did not,” I gasp.

“Yep. Astupid, empty-headedb-word,” she says. “Well, obviously I’m not going to take that kind of disrespect from him or from anyone else, so I quit on the spot. But Andy, Ididgive notice and I had every intention of working for two more weeks. Nick is the one who told me to turn in my badge and leave immediately. So I did. I thought he would have told you.”

“Nope,” I reply.

“I can’t believe he let everyone think I just randomly walked out,” Deepti groans. “I mean, how could you even believe something like that about me?”

“I don’t know,” I reply carefully. “I guess you’re always like this when you meet a new guy so it didn’t seem that surprising. You could have texted me, you know.”

“It happened so fast. That morning I was quitting my job, and I was packed and on a plane to Florida within an hour. Aideninsisted. It was so spur of the moment and romantic!”

The kettle on the counter begins to whistle, and I pause my pacing to pour the steaming water into my favorite polka dotted mug.

“Well,” I say eventually, not wanting to encourage a long gushing session from Deepti about Aiden. “I wish someone would have warned me about this guy. Elijah Stone? I googled him and he’s kind of a big seal.”

“Kind of?” Deepti asks. “Yeah, he’s only the hottest single guy in the city, Andy. Trust you not to know that, though.”

“I don’t keep a running catalog of single men,” I laugh. “I barely have time to study for my finals.”

“You and your sensible priorities,” Deepti replies. “Well, yeah. What else is there to say about Elijah? He’s got the hardest body I’ve ever laid hands on, and the way he speaks in that low growl-y voice makes me want to do bad things to him.”

“Yeah…” I say. “Um, I noticed he’s very attractive. Especially without his clothes on. But I feel bad for even saying that, I’m supposed to be a professional. It’s wrong that I’m even thinking of him in that way.”

“You’re a professional but you’re also a human being,” Deepti reminds me. “It’s not like you drooled on him or something. Youdidn’tdrool on him, right?”

“Of course not!”

“Well, then what’s the harm in looking? We have eyes and hormones, we see a man like Elijah Stone, we’re going to notice.”

“I guess so,” I reply.

“So once you found the relaxation room, how did it go?”

I think back to the appointment. I was so distracted by my attraction to Elijah that I don’t think I can remember any details of the massage, just performing the motions automatically while my mind wandered and my eyes roamed.

Guiltily, of course.

“It was fine,” I say.

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