Sexual Healin': A BWWM Billionaire Romance Page 2

  He looked over his paper at her and glared. "How can you say something like that? You didn't come from a wealthy family; you came from roots just like those. How could you say that there are different classes of people and we should only mingle with our own? That's supremely elitist!"

  She shuddered involuntarily and her cheeks grew pink. "How dare you throw my past up in my face. It's not as if I'd chosen it, and you know how hard I have worked to separate myself from that life, from those people, and you just keep right on going back to them!"

  He narrowed his eyes. "How hard you've worked? You married me. How hard was that? Wait... what am I saying? You can't stand me." He scowled and went back to reading his paper.

  It had been a long time since she had enjoyed his company, in the bedroom or out of it. Now they only bickered when they saw each other on rare occasions, except at night when they slept on opposite sides of the same bed. Veronica was only nice to Kyle when she wanted something bad enough to have to involve him in the process of getting it.

  Veronica pouted quietly in her coffee for a few minutes and then flashed her big blue eyes at Kyle.

  "I want to redecorate that second room from the left upstairs. The one that overlooks the garden." She said it as a means of telling him rather than asking him if it would be alright if she did it.

  He sighed. "What are you going to do with it?" he asked, not curious to know at all.

  "I'm going to turn it into my own bedroom,” she said with a glow and a wide grin of excitement.

  He looked up at her in consternation. "Why do you want your own bedroom? Why would you do that? We share a room."

  She nodded and shrugged. "Well, all we do in there is sleep, and I want to sleep somewhere pretty, so I need my own room." She looked at him sharply and he knew her mind was made up. He had a half a mind to argue with her, but he knew it wouldn't get him far.

  "Fine!" he grumbled. "Have it your way, then. We never have sex anymore anyway; there's no reason to keep you in our room."

  Kyle paused a moment and chuckled to himself and then went back to reading the newspaper.

  "What's so funny?" she asked in curious irritation.

  "Well," he answered her, "I won't have to listen to you snore anymore."

  Veronica was aghast. "I do not snore!" she insisted.

  "Yeah, you do. If you like, I'll video tape it one night for you," he offered, straight faced.

  "Don't you dare!" she shrieked at him.

  "I think I might like you having your own room. Why don't you go ahead and do it then?" he said. "I'm going to head off to work. I'll see you later," he told her, standing up and leaning over to kiss her cheek. She turned her face from him and left him standing there.

  He cleared his throat and stood up, walking away as she ignored him, heading to the garage to get one of the cars to drive for his workday.

  Kyle worked in the city and did very well for himself. He wasn't often in his office, but he did meet with clients outside of his office from time to time, and he tried to keep himself busy with good old business partners and bright new prospects.

  This Friday may have dragged by at home, but it went by in a flash at the office, and before he knew it, it was late and it was time for his massage with Brandy. He looked forward to those every single week, and when Friday came around, he was always so sad to see the day arrive, only because it was about to go again and it would be another week before he'd be back. He had thought before of going for a massage more often during the week, but he hadn't made those changes in his schedule yet, and it gave him a good start to every weekend.

  Chapter2

  It was coming close to the end of Brandy's day and Hannah called her aside after her massage with Mrs. Stein-Harrington III was finished.

  Hannah looked at her and said, "Your last appointment rescheduled, so you'll just have Mr. Jamison and then you can cut out for the day."

  Brandy nodded and smiled. "Okay, thanks!" she said with a small thrill. Kyle Jamison, with his toned and gorgeous body, his wavy blonde hair and green eyes, and the little dimple in his cheek, gave her heart a little flutter whenever he came in.

  She loved to work on him; he took good care of himself and so his muscles were only ever in need of stretching out and relaxing. It was one of her favorite times of the week because he actually cared about what was going on with her, and it was nice to have someone to talk with, rather than just listen to for an hour.

  He was a gorgeous man with a sharp mind and a kind tongue, and all of that together, plus the fact that she had a little crush on him, made him one of her most favorite clients.

  He walked through the door just when he was scheduled to, and she welcomed him warmly.

  "Kyle!" She smiled brightly at him. "It's so good to see you. How are you doing today?"

  She expressed genuine concern for him, and he always appreciated it. It was nice to talk to someone who actually cared about how he was doing.

  He smiled back at her. "I'm doing alright! How are you doing?" .

  "I'm good." That was more or less the truth. She was stressed, but she was good.

  He asked how she did on her history exam as she took his coat and hung it up in the wardrobe of the massage room.

  She closed the wardrobe door and turned to him with a smile of surprise. "I did well! Thank you for remembering and thinking to ask me!" She was touched that he had even thought to ask her how she had done.

  He nodded. "I'm glad to hear it. It always makes me happy when you've done well."

  She felt her cheeks go a little warm and she looked up into his green eyes. "Thank you. You're always so kind." She reminded herself to breathe as she realized that she had been holding her breath while he looked at her and spoke to her. "I'd better step out for a few minutes while you get undressed and make yourself comfortable on the bed. I'll come back in a few minutes. Take your time," she told him as she bowed out of the room.

  A few minutes later, she knocked on the door and he bid her come in. He was face down on the bed, waiting for her, a thin cover over his body. She smiled to herself as she let her eyes drift over the shape of his form. He was fun to work on, but he was also very nice to look at and she allowed herself an appreciative smile.

  She went to the head of the table and began to look through the essential oils she had in her cabinet. "What kind of oil do you think you'd like today?" She picked up a few different bottles that she knew he liked.

  He sighed. "Let's go with peppermint today. I need to relax. It's been rough lately."

  She turned and looked down at the back of his head, her brow furrowing slightly. "Really? How come? What's going on?"

  He moaned a little and sighed. "Just the usual. Work, wife, life. The things I've tied myself to that pull at me. I didn't come in here to bleed my sorrows, though. I'm here to relax and enjoy my time with you." He smiled and sighed again as she oiled her hands and placed them on his shoulders, working lightly for a moment over his skin before beginning to press her fingers into his muscles.

  She felt his tension right away and began to push her thumbs into it to work it out. She watched his skin rolling beneath her fingers and she let her mind drift back to when they'd first met. She had just started working at the spa and he was one of her first customers. She had been nervous because she hadn't been a masseuse for very long and she was still learning confidence in her professional role, and then he had walked in looking the way that he did, and she had felt the butterflies in her stomach dance wildly.

  She'd been attracted to him right away, which she knew was not a good thing for a new professional to do, but she couldn't help it. She had flirted with him a little, not wanting to overstep her bounds, but still enjoying expressing her interest in him while having some fun.

  He had laid beneath the cover the first time and with each and every touch, he had drawn her even more into a crush for him. Unveiling him a little at a time as she worked over him had been a sweet and torturous tease for her, and they had tal
ked for a while, just about each other, and she had loved it.

  Then she had discovered that he was married while he was talking and she was so very sad to hear it. Her disappointment had been tremendous, but she had chosen to focus on the positive side of it; that she had a new client with whom she enjoyed working, and that he was going to be a regular for her, so she focused on that, and she was very happy with what they had become.

  They were more than client and professional, they were friends, and it was nice to share the bond with him, and the weekly appointments where they shared parts of their lives with one another.

  She moved her hands down his back in long slow strokes and smiled. When he came into her office in the mood he had come in on this day, she was able to change the bad to good for him; she was able to wipe away some of his stress and frustration, and when he left, he was always better for having been in to see her.

  Knowing that she could make a positive difference in his life every week was wonderfully rewarding to her, and it made everything she did for him well worth it.

  "What do you have coming up at school this week?" He was always interested in hearing about what she was doing there. It made him happy to support her and knowing what it was that she was doing and how it was going for her, made him feel more involved.

  "I have a couple of tests and two reports to write. I also have a speech to give. It's a busy week," she told him with a little bit of a tired sigh.

  He heard her sigh and frowned a little as she ran her fingers and hands over the back of his legs, pushing against the muscles and digging into them to release their stiffness.

  "I know you're going to be just fine. Remember that speech you did on comprehension and communication? You worried about it for weeks, but then you aced it. You'll be just fine,” he told her with assurance.

  She laughed and shook her head, bending his feet and moving her thumbs in circles and lines over his skin. "I wish I had your confidence in me. I'd already be through college!"

  He chuckled and she moved to his other leg. "Someday I hope you do have my confidence in you. You're bright, sweet, dedicated, and I know you're going to be able to make such a positive difference in so many lives."

  Her heart fluttered in her chest and she reminded herself as she often did, that he was married and that she had no right to feel her crush on him.

  She moved to the top of the table again and had him roll over onto his back, and then she began to massage the front of him. They were quiet a while and then she said, "I know you don't always like to tell me just what is bothering you, but I hope that whatever it is will change for you soon, because you deserve so much better than that. You deserve to be really happy and have things go your way."

  He smiled and she watched his face as he did it with his eyes closed. He was truly a beautiful man. She worked along the front of his chest, running her hands over and over his sculpted muscles and solid contours. He sighed and felt enormously relaxed.

  She knew that he needed to feel her hands on him, rubbing away all the things that were going wrong for him just then, rather than talking, and so she focused on doing that.

  When she had finished, he was asleep. She woke him gently and he came around and looked at her in wonder.

  "I fell asleep?" he asked in surprise.

  "You did! I thought that you must have needed it, though, so I let you sleep and I just worked on you."

  "How long did you work on me?" he asked, looking at the clock in the corner in confusion.

  "An extra half hour. You were my last client today, and you needed it, so I gave you some extra time. I'm glad to help you like that,” she told him with a quiet smile.

  He shook his head and returned her grin. "You really are the best, Brandy, thank you so much for taking such good care of me."

  She nodded and slipped out of the room so he could dress. When he left, she thanked him again and he promised to come and visit her at the end of the next week.

  Brandy left the spa and took the train home. It was a long and tiring ride, but she finally made it to her little apartment, and she collapsed on the sofa to read her mail. Most of it was bills, but there was one letter that caught her attention almost immediately. It was from her school.

  She slid the letter from the envelope and read it, and as she did, her heart dropped and fell through the floor. The financial aide department had written to let her know that she was on academic probation because her grade point average had slipped below the required limit for her grants and student loans, and she had to pull her grades back up or repay all of them. It was a tremendous amount of money, and the reality of her situation hit her hard.

  The first thing she did was to call Alice to tell her what she had gotten.

  "That's terrible!" she exclaimed in worry. "What are you going to do about it?"

  Brandy closed her eyes and laid her head back against the sofa she was sitting on. "I have no idea. I have to pull my grades back up, but I'm not going to be able to do much differently than I've already been doing it. I can't cut back at work because I can't afford less hours there, and I just don't have more time for studies.

  “I don't want to drop any of my classes because I have so much to do and I'm almost done with it. I only have a year left, and when I'm finished with it, I'll graduate! I can't let go of that now. I've worked too hard for it! Oh, Alice! What am I going to do?" she pleaded for an answer that she already knew Alice didn't have.

  "I wish I could tell you. I wish I could do something to help you. I would tell you to check with your professors, but I know that they aren't about to do anything to help you, and even if they did, it wouldn't be enough to make a difference. I'm so sorry. I wish there was a good solution for you."

  Her sympathy was soothing, but it wasn't an answer, and that was what Brandy desperately needed. She needed a way to fix her grade point average, a way to pass her classes, a way to make money, and a way to succeed at all of it without letting any of it go. All she could feel was desperation.

  "Alice, it's not just school. I am riding the edge of failure so close. I have to succeed at school, but I also can't take any time off work; I'm not making enough money right now as it is. I'm three months behind on rent, and if I don't get that caught up soon, it's going to be a big nightmare for me. I just don't know what to do!" She wiped tears from her cheeks and closed her eyes, blocking out the world at least a little bit for a few moments.

  Alice groaned. "Oh no! Can you talk to your landlord? Can they help you a little and maybe give you some more time?" she asked, searching for some way to offer help or ideas.

  "I've asked. They aren't able to do much for me. They've already done all that they can. Now it's up to me to get them paid off or I will be the one in trouble." Brandy covered her eyes with her hands. "Alice, I've got to figure something out soon."

  Alice sympathized with her. "I know. You will, honey. You will figure something out. You have to. Please call me and let me know if I can do anything for you,” she said with a heavy voice.

  "I will," Brandy replied. "Thank you."

  ***

  Kyle walked in the front door of his house and the minute he walked into his study, Veronica strolled through the door and stopped him before he got around his desk to sit.

  To his complete and utter amazement, she took his hand in hers and pulled him over to the sofa.

  "Come sit down and talk to me," she said with a little smile on her face.

  He looked at her in suspicion. "What are you so happy about?"

  "Well," she said with a thin little smile as she sat down, "I had a decorator and a contractor come and look at that room, and my new bedroom is underway so it could be finished within a week if they hurry with it. I told them I would pay them more if they hurried and got it finished before next week." She pulled a strand of her long blonde hair around her finger and began to twirl it as she sat and watched Kyle.

  "Of course you did,” he said with a frown. "What else could be more impo
rtant than you moving out of our bedroom and into your own room?" He refused to look at her.

  She scooted closer to him on the sofa and softened her voice to give it a velvet tone. "Well, there is one thing. I was at the spa today and McKenna Witherspoon and her husband have just purchased a yacht. They invited me to go sailing on their yacht with them and I told them I would."

  Her singular choice of words made him look up at her in consternation. "Just you?" He narrowed his eyes.

  She shrugged. "Well, I'm sure they wouldn't mind if you came along; if you think you ought to. Of course, I think that only one of us needs to go along as representation for us both and you're so busy that I thought it should be me that goes for us, and you can stay home." She gave him a wicked grin and he shook his head in frustration.