She leaned back in her seat as they entered a nice area of town with manicured lawns and shopping areas without boarded up windows.
“Still, we would have helped where we could. We care about you, and would never allow a friend to suffer. How long?”
“How long, what?” She sighed.
“How long have you been taking care of him on your own?” Dante asked, pulling into La Pierre Spa’s parking lot.
“Since my mom died. I was nineteen. So it’s going on ten years now. It’s why I never went to college, and barely finished high school, come to think about it. What are we doing here?” she asked, trying to think of a reasonable explanation for their location. She had always wondered what went on behind spa doors. It just sounded so decadent to go to a spa. And she had stayed away from researching places like it, because in all honesty, she hadn’t been filled with much hope for years, and looking at pretty places she couldn’t afford would have depressed her.
“Hair, nails, the works, really.”
“You’re taking me for a spa day? Really? Why do I need that?” she asked, even though she was secretly thrilled. She had never had one. There had never been money for one. As for her hair, she hadn’t seen the inside of a salon in two years, and had been whacking at it herself.
“Sabrina, you have to look the part of Michael’s fiancée. This is part of living in the society circles Michael moves in. Enjoy today and the pampering, have fun with it. This will take a few hours. Then we’ll get some lunch before we head out and get some shopping in.”
“Why are you with me? Why didn’t Michael just send me by myself?” she asked him.
“Because we don’t know who is behind all this subterfuge at his company, and until we do, we want you protected at all costs,” Dante explained.
“You think someone would hurt me? Over a company?” she asked, trying to comprehend that kind of materialistic greed.
“Listen, while I don’t think you’re in any danger, understand that there are billions of dollars at stake. Someone who has gone after Michael the way they have doesn’t operate under the same moral code you or I do. We can’t fail to consider the possibility that anyone or anything that could keep them from achieving their aims could wind up as a potential target.”
A shiver of fear whipped through her. “They wouldn’t go after my brother, would they?”
“No, love. We won’t let that happen. But for the time being, any time you aren’t with Michael, you will be with me, and vice versa.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. That was something. “Okay, as long as Alex is safe, I will be fine. I can take care of myself.”
“I know you can, but you’re not alone anymore.” He gripped her hand and brought it up to his lips. Then he held her hand at his chest.
Sabrina had the distinct urge to climb over the console and curl up in his lap. She had to stop it with the fantasies, with the longing he continued to trigger. He might have kissed her last night, but he had stated he wouldn’t do it again.
“Not for the next thirty days, anyway.” She smiled but it was forced. Because when her time was up, what exactly was she going to do with her life?
The fact that it could be anything she wanted, that she could go lie on a beach somewhere for a month without any pressing responsibilities, amazed her. Or she could decide to go to college and get a degree in anything she wanted. The possibilities were endless, and with that, a bit daunting as well.
“Come on. Let’s get inside. You are to enjoy being pampered,” he murmured, and escorted her inside.
The boutique style spa with its soothing, calm colors of light green and taupe smelled like heaven. There were display shelves full of feminine-looking products for styling hair, for the body, and the face. Even the white chairs in the front for customers to wait in were white and feminine. After giving the receptionist Sabrina’s name, Dante had no problem sitting in one of those chairs and dominating the space with his animal magnetism.
And that’s exactly what happened when she was led away into the back—she was pampered. Her hair was expertly cut and styled; the stylist only took about two inches off the length, but then she added layers to Sabrina’s hair, making it so that it framed her face. She experienced her first facial and body wrap. She nodded off a bit while she resembled a burrito in the body wrap. But how could she not? With the soft flute music playing, and the low light in the treatment room.
Her eyebrows were tweezed, and her upper lip waxed. She was waxed beneath her arms and, embarrassingly, along her bikini line. Her nails were buffed and painted, and she was given a pedicure that left her sighing in bliss.
And through it all, Sabrina hoped that she was doing the right thing for her brother, trying like mad not to feel guilty that she was being pampered all day instead of taking care of him.
She nodded off again during the massage. After only three hours of sleep the previous night, it really wasn’t a surprise. Besides, her body became so loose and relaxed, it seemed only natural to slip into a dreamless sleep. The technician gently woke her with kind smiles and soft words, helping her into her robe and taking her to her next treatment session.
Then, trying to hide her exhaustion, Sabrina did her best to pay attention to the makeup lesson she was provided as they transformed her. She was fascinated by all the different varieties of makeup and what each product did. She’d never had the time or the funds over the last decade to indulge in silly things like makeup lessons. Long ago, she had stopped hoping that she would get a chance to experience a normal adult life, to be the kind of woman who had time to put makeup on and do all the girly things to make herself look pretty. Hope could be a cruel mistress. Over time, if someone wasn’t careful, unfulfilled hope turned into a dagger whose cuts ran deep. And while one little cut wouldn’t kill you, as time passed and the yearning was never satisfied, that dagger sliced again and again. Then, after thousands of tiny cuts, the light inside would be extinguished and sputter out completely. She knew because it was something she had been fighting against descending into for years.
By the time they’d finished applying makeup, she hardly recognized her own image. She wanted to ask them who the attractive, well-groomed woman in the mirror was. It was a hundred times better than the hack job she had done for the strip club. And all the products they had used, from the face wash to the lotion and the mascara, were boxed up for her to take with her.
There were bags of it: hundreds of dollars’ worth, possibly more. With what Sabrina earned normally, it would have taken her two years of hustling and working extra hours to afford half of these products, let alone a full spa treatment like today.
The simple jeans and knit top in a pale mauve that she wore hardly complemented the job the spa personnel had done on her. She felt sexy and powerful in her womanhood for the first time in her life. It was a heady experience.
“You’ll come see us again, Miss Sabrina. We enjoyed having you with us today,” the makeup technician, Sandy, stated kindly as she walked her to the front of the spa.
“Yes. I would like that very much.” More than the woman could possibly imagine.
“Great. Why don’t we book another appointment for you? If you need to cancel or reschedule, you just need to do it twenty-four hours in advance. Would you like to book for next month?” Sandy asked her with a smile.
Her knee jerk reaction was to dismiss it and say no, that she couldn’t afford it. But that was the old Sabrina. A month from now, money wasn’t going to be an issue. Heck, it wasn’t one now, with the advance she had already been given that was sitting in her account. “That would be lovely. I would enjoy that very much.”
“Perfect.