Barefoot Bay: When You Touch Me (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read Online Free

store’s business was steady from what she could see, and it promised to improve if the deal with the Barefoot Bay Bucks came through.
    Jillian took one last deep inhalation, held it for a count of seven and exhaled. So much for clearing her mind. She had shoved Sam Hartman from her thoughts only to replace him with the multitude of others that faced her.
    She stood and swiped her hands across the seat of her uniform’s pants to remove any loose sand, then stepped back into the clogs. She had plenty of time to walk back to Eucalyptus and prepare for her next client. Sylvia Leighton was a regular, and Jillian had worked on her once before. Her neck and shoulders were riddled with knotted muscles, but she refused to allow any therapist to work on them.
    Brenna had warned Jillian not to even mention deep tissue massage to Sylvia. “She just wants someone to give her body a good moisturizing, so do exactly that because she tips very well. And be sure to use something that is vanilla scented. She says it reminds her of apple pie baking in her grandmother’s kitchen.”
    Jillian would do whatever Sylvia Leighton wanted. She always made sure a client received the service they desired. Tonight she would work out a preliminary plan for Sam Hartman based on the limited information she had. Then tomorrow…. Well, she would deal with her new client and hope tomorrow went far better than today.
     

Chapter Three
     
    Sam pulled up a contact on his cell phone, pressed the dial icon and waited for the call to connect. He paced back and forth in the bedroom, unconcerned he was buck naked. The villa was secluded and private, and none of the staff would enter without knocking first. He hoped. Since his discharge from the Army he had returned to his old habit of sleeping in the raw.
    Sliding naked between the expensive cotton sheets on the villa’s bed was damn close to orgasmic, and he harbored high hopes of sliding between them with a woman by his side. He wasn’t going to change for the sake of some fancy-ass resort. As he neared the French doors leading to the pool deck, he briefly considered putting on a pair of shorts, then nixed the idea. If someone hadn’t seen a naked man before, he would gladly introduce them to the male form.
    After four rings the answering machine picked up and his mother’s voice began the familiar greeting.
    You’ve reached the Hartman residence. Your call is important to us. Leave a message and we’ll call you back.
    “Drew.” Sam spoke loudly into the phone after the beep. “If you’re there, pick up.”
    Then he waited, knowing Drew was probably still asleep after a late night of partying. Just as he was ready to hang up, Sam heard a click and then his brother’s groggy voice.
    “Hey Sam. What’s up? And why are you calling from some place called Casa Blanca?”
    “It’s a long story that would bore the shit out of you.” His family knew about the bombing and his injuries. He had called them from the military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, as soon as he was able. Once he and Trip had been stabilized in Kandahar, they had both been evacuated to Germany for specialized treatment. His family knew about his concussion, the shoulder injury, the burns on his back and the shrapnel that had struck perilously close to his left eye.
    What he hadn’t told them was that only he and Trip Granger had survived. His parents had worried enough when he had been deployed to the Middle East. No use adding to the worry. He would heal. He’d be good as new after a while.
    Now his little brother was being sent to the same sandy hellhole, and Stanley and Jean Hartman’s trip down Worry Lane would begin all over again.
    Sam and his brother had chosen the Army as a path to a college education without smothering themselves or their parents in student loans. Secretaries and landscape contractors didn’t make six-figure incomes. Sam and Drew had never lacked for the essentials or even some of the non-essentials,