Mind and Body: Ecstasy Spa, #6

By Suzanne Rock

From the NYT and USA Today bestselling author of the Carnal Coed series comes a workplace drama about an exclusive spa, and how one visit can change a person's views on love and life.

Celeste gets a lot of satisfaction seeing others have their sexual fantasies fulfilled at her spa. Unfortunately, her own sex life has been non-existent. Theo, her boyfriend, and co-owner, has been ignoring her for the temporary contractor building a new addition to the spa. As Celeste watches the two men interact, she wonders if there’s something deeper between them than friendship, and decides to arrange an erotic interlude for all three of them to find out.

Note: This book is a stand alone story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Electric Ink Press
• Release date: Dec 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9781507010327

Book preview

Acknowledgements

This self-publishing venture would never have gotten off the ground without the help of my writing partners, Em Petrova and Lauren Hawkeye. Not only are they fantastic writers, but they’re great friends. Thanks ladies!

Chapter One

Celeste Pinard’s headache was getting worse. Her temples throbbed in time to some imaginary drumbeat, and the pressure in her skull continued to build. She wondered if it was possible for a person’s head to explode. It certainly felt like hers was about to do just that.

Damn, she didn’t have time for this. She had to keep working. So many people were depending on her.

Celeste dropped her reading glasses on the desk and rubbed her eyes. She hated the foul things, but the more time she spent at the computer, the more she needed them. Who knew that running a business required so much computer time? At this rate, she was going to go blind. That is, if her headache didn’t kill her first.

In the beginning, her small spa had helped her to forget the life and broken relationships she had left back in Paris. Then, as her business became more and more popular, she had to spend countless hours updating spreadsheets and filling out legal papers. Every 'T' had to be crossed and every 'I' had to be dotted. There could be no room for mistakes. It had been many years of hard work, but now the Ecstasy Spa was a household name, at least among the people who could afford Celeste's high fees.

Now everything she had so carefully built was in danger of falling down around her. She reached into her lower desk drawer—the one where she kept both her vibrator and her Ibuprofen—and let out a long breath. Unfortunately, the vibrator wasn’t going to help today. She grabbed the bottle of pills and dumped two into her hand. Squeezing her eyes shut, she popped the pills into her mouth and swallowed. She had taken so many of them in the past three months that she didn’t even bother with water anymore. What was the point?

Her biggest problem right now was that she had lost countless spa staff members in the past year and couldn’t find any suitable replacements. If she didn't fill those empty positions, then she wasn’t going to be able to keep her clients. If her clients stopped coming, then she wasn’t going to get paid. No money would lead to layoffs, not to mention stopping the massive building renovations that had started last month. Not only would her business go under, but she’d owe a huge debt to ‘Done Right Construction’ with no way of paying it off.

Would the construction company owner, Micah, take something else in exchange for money? She glanced out her large picture window at the perfectly sculpted foreman directing his crew. The man was handsome in a rugged, reckless, cowboy sort of way. His sandy-colored hair, broad shoulders and intense green eyes reminded her a little of Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. The only differences were that Micah wore flannel shirts and jeans, not the trademark fedora and button-down shirt of the fictional anthropologist.

Shit, what was she doing? Celeste couldn’t whore herself out to the foreman in exchange for adding on a new foyer and office space. It was ridiculous. Not to mention the fact that she already had a boyfriend. She’d never do anything to hurt Theo’s feelings. Not after everything he’d given her over their year-long relationship. How could she think about risking her relationship with Theo for a larger office? It was rather shallow. Theo was worth so much more than that to her.

Damn them, she muttered as she turned away from the window. On some level she was jealous of her former staff members. Each one of them had claimed for themselves what seemed to elude her grasp. They had found true love, and in finding it, refused to provide services at the spa, sexual or otherwise, since it would compromise their newfound relationship.

How different her life would’ve been if she had found love as well. Celeste had thought that she had found her soul mates back in Paris nine years ago. She considered herself lucky to have found not one, but two men who had loved her—or so she had thought. It turned out that they had loved each other more than her, and she got dumped so that they could pursue an exclusive relationship. Not only did they break her heart, but they stole her nightclub out from under her nose, leaving her destitute.

But that was almost a decade ago.

Celeste? I was just wondering if you wanted me to file...oh. Jenna, one of the Ecstasy Spa workers, burst through the door and dropped the stack of papers in her hands. I'm sorry, am I interrupting something? She pushed long strands of her jet-black hair from her face as she stooped to pick up the papers.

No, Jenna. I was just thinking. There was no way that Celeste could vent her troubles on Jenna. While she had a close connection to the raven-haired beauty, she also knew that Jenna was a gossip with ruthless ambitions. One word of her troubles to Jenna and the entire Ecstasy Spa staff would know that the company was in trouble by the end of the day.

Jenna straightened and closed the distance between them. About what?

Nothing important. Celeste didn’t want to talk to Jenna. She didn’t want to talk to anyone today. She just wanted to curl up under her warm, down comforter in her large canopy bed and feel sorry for herself.

Are you sure? You look a little...out of sorts.

Celeste snorted. That was putting it lightly. Still, she wasn’t going to tell Jenna her troubles. While she saw a lot of herself in the young woman, Celeste also saw a mean and vindictive streak. She wouldn’t give Jenna any more ammunition to create upheaval at the spa.

While searching for the right words to answer Jenna, Celeste glanced out the picture window and noticed that Theo had joined Micah at the construction site. Theo’s long dark hair was tied neatly at his nape. He wore khakis and a dress shirt, no tie. While Micah looked rough, Theo appeared polished and professional.

Her heart ached as she looked at her boyfriend. Theo was a good man. He loved her, she really believed that. He was everything she wasn't—well respected, refined and just a hint of English accent. What he saw in her, she didn't know, but she was thankful for it. He was steady and comforting in a world that was full of upheaval and drama.

She cared deeply for Theo, but something was missing from the relationship. There was nothing specifically wrong with Theo. It wasn’t like there was something about him that she could point to and blame for the distance between them. While the sex was great, and Theo’s loyalty was unfaltering, Celeste couldn’t deny the growing rift between them.

The lack of closeness in their relationship was her own fault, she supposed. Celeste missed the lifestyle she had back in France. She was naturally drawn to kink, and her two boyfriends gave her more than her fair share. It seemed like the perfect ménage relationship for her—until she discovered that the men of her dreams were money-hungry backstabbers who loved each other more than they loved her.

Celeste, Jenna asked. Are you sure you’re okay? You’re scaring me.

Celeste rose from her desk and walked over to the window. She watched Theo talk with the tall, lean foreman as an empty hole filled her chest. It was Theo’s idea to expand and renovate the spa. When he had suggested it, the company was at full staff with a surge of patrons. It seemed like a good idea. Now she wished that she had thought it through more. Watching her opulent foyer and mammoth office come to life was depressing. How was she going to pay for all of this?

Celeste slid her gaze away from her boyfriend to focus on her contractor. Micah Asner was a vision for the eyes. He was only slightly shorter than Theo, and his neatly trimmed, sandy blond hair was a perfect foil to Theo's dark strands.

Part of the reason why she was so behind with her work was because of Micah. Celeste had caught herself staring at the sexy foreman outside her window more than once during the past month. Instead of working her spreadsheets, she'd watch Micah work and mentally trace his profile. He had a round face and firm jaw. The five o’clock shadow and large hands made him look older than his thirty-two years. And all of those muscles... It was so easy to picture herself giving him a nice warm bath and massage after a physically demanding day. A man like Micah was used to hard labor. She guessed that the ripples in his back extended well below his jeans. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on him. Would his cock be as big and thick as his biceps? Would he be as rough and demanding of her as he was with his workers, or did a kind, gentle lover hide beneath his rough exterior? She’d give anything to find out.

She nibbled on the tip of her manicured finger as desire heated her skin. If she tortured herself for much longer, she’d have to grab the dildo she kept in her bottom desk drawer. It was an emergency toy bought around the time Micah started working at the spa. It was able to take the edge off but gave no real satisfaction. There was a time when Theo would have helped alleviate the ache between her legs, but ever since the construction started, he had been as busy as she. Work had intruded on their sex life, and the rift between them had grown so much that it felt awkward to try to seduce him.

Celeste wanted to bridge the distance between her and Theo, but she didn’t know how. She wasn’t even sure if Theo would admit that there was a problem with their relationship.

Celeste? Jenna cleared her throat and advanced until she stood next to Celeste at the window. There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.

Yes? Celeste dragged her gaze away from the sexy men outside her office window.

Yes. You see...how do I say this? Jenna pressed her lips together for a moment in thought. My mother has been very sick.

Yes, I know. Celeste took Jenna’s hands and pushed her own troubles aside. I’m so sorry about that.

Yeah, well... Tears stung Jenna’s eyes

Reviews for Mind and Body

[allandanybooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was an amazing story even though I thought it kind of ended too soon... I wouldn't have minded reading a bit more about the three. But I enjoyed this book a lot and I'm certainly going to read more books from Suzanne Rock.

ARC received from the author