Healing Vincenza

Chapter 1: part 4

Derek was lying there fighting his own arousal battles, unbeknownst to her. He tried thinking of all the relaxing places he had been to in an effort to not think about her small warm hands on his back. No matter what he thought about though, she would be inserted into his daydream. Either in a skimpy two piece lying on the sands of the Dominican Republic, or in his jacuzzi on the private island he owned.

It wasn't until her hands stopped and her voice called out to him that he came back to reality.

"Ok, now I need you to roll on your back and you will get fifteen minutes on the heating pad."

She walked away from him quickly so he couldn't see the redness on her face, and he was thankful to watch her walk away. Not only for the view, but because he could adjust himself before she came back.

She walked over with a load of towels in her arms. She had him sit up and she positioned the towels, which enclosed the heating pad, underneath where his back would come to rest. He laid down and the heat penetrated his sore muscles. It felt good and he let a slight groan escape.

Vincenza sucked in her breath and quickly walked away. That sound made her knees quake and she had to move away from him, or she feared she would fall to the floor.

Desperate to calm herself she started asking him questions, hoping that a conversation would relieve her nervous tension around him and keep her mind on other things.

"So what are you doing for New Year's eve tonight?"

"My office is having a party, and you?" Surprised at the more-than-one-word answer she got from him, she happily replied to his question.

"After work my friends and I are going out to a bar. Then I am going to go back home and soak in my tub." She wasn't sure why she said that, and automatically regretted the words as they escaped her lips.

Derek had moved his head on the table in a way so he could see her. He pictured her with her hair in a messy bun, body enveloped in bubbles while her arms hung over the sides of her tub. Candles lit all around her and a glass of red wine in her hand. He wanted to be there to witness it, wanted to run his hands over her as her body soaked in the water, wanting to make her muscles feel as good as she had made his back feel only moments before.

"It sounds like fun," what he would give to be able to skip his party and go home with her, "Too bad you have to work. I hope you won't be here late."

"Until 5:30, but that's not late considering we are usually open until 9 at night."

Kelli poked her head through the back door.

"Hey V. Your 11:30 is here. Mrs. DeLeon. Send her back?"

"She's early. That's fine, just send her back. I can get her set up while Mr. Blaser is finishing with the heating pad."

"You got it!" Kelli briefly scanned Derek's body lying on the table as she turned and walked back to her desk, "You can go back Mrs. DeLeon." Vincenza heard her talk loudly to the next client. Mrs. DeLeon was an elderly woman who had hip surgery. She was hard of hearing, but sweet and someone that Vincenza felt easy to talk with. The woman was here so much that she was like an adopted grandmother to Vincenza, and Vincenza found herself confiding in the elderly woman with many things. Vincenza giggled as she heard Kelli tell Mrs. DeLeon again, and much louder, that she could go to the back.

Vincenza walked to the door not noticing that Derek was watching her intensely. She opened the door and called to the woman while waving her hands, gesturing that Mrs. DeLeon should follow her back. He saw an older woman walking in with a cane. Her hair was white, but with grey flecks thrown in. She looked kind and wise, and warmed at the thought that he would have loved to have this woman as a grandmother. He found this funny because he hardly knew the woman to begin with, but he could just see she would welcome any person, child or adult, into her arms so she could care for them. Mrs. DeLeon smiled warmly up at Vincenza and Vincenza returned with a warm smile of her own.

He felt his heart thump at the exchange. He had never experienced meeting a woman like her before. Derek laid there trying to think if he had ever had feelings like this for any of the women he had dated. He realized that the women of his past weren't as interesting as he found Vincenza. He wanted to get to know this woman better, wanted to listen to her laugh, watch her smile and run his hands through her hair and over her body. Derek knew he had to have her, even if it were just a fleeting relationship, his body needed to feel hers. He had 8 weeks to get her to be with him, and he had a feeling it would be a challenge. Challenge accepted!