Tuesday was always a big day for Carnal Spa but then again, every day was now since Dominic added his new services. But that morning seemed more so.
Dominic had a lady in his chair he was doing a cut on while he had another lady in foils, her hair cooking while she was gabbing to Jazz, our nail technician who was working on a client. Kayeleen had a cut in her chair. The back rooms were full. Dominic had been right to take the risk and add actual spa treatments, biker babes and mountain women embraced them wholeheartedly. The massage therapist had a client on her table and there was another woman getting a facial. Kayeleen’s next up, Stockard, was twenty minutes early and drifting. She’d been in before so I’d met her and the last time she was in, she was also twenty minutes early and she was this way because she liked to gossip, which was what she was doing.
I’d just rung up some product a woman had popped in to buy. I was dealing with her credit card receipt as she said her farewells and wandered to the door so I was looking down at my desk when I heard her surprised gasp.
I looked up at the sound and saw her standing in the opened door looking out of it and up, her mouth open. I couldn’t see what she was looking at, the blinds at the windows were fully closed, it was late August but the heat was already on the day, burning intense in preparation for Indian summer. Whoever or whatever she was looking at was out on the sidewalk standing by the window.
Suddenly, her body jerked, she nodded, muttered, “Sorry, excuse me,” and scuttled out the door.
Approximately point two five seconds later, Ty filled it.
I stared and vaguely felt the buzz change in the room considering it was filled with women and a gay guy. Ty naturally had that affect on women and gay guys, of course, but everyone knew what was going down with him, he had never visited me in the salon, he was all man in coveralls half hanging down and a wife beater streaked with black marks in a purple beauty salon that had zero masculinity in it, his mood invaded the room the instant he appeared in the door and that mood controlled it.
The whole room.
I just stared at him because I didn’t understand his mood, I’d never felt it before. Since I came back after our thing, he played his cards face up on the table. I knew what he was thinking because he shared it in a multitude of ways, on his face, with words. He didn’t hide from me anymore. He might hide from the world but not from his wife.
And he wasn’t hiding now, though his eyes were intense but his face was blank. It was his aura that was speaking for him.
I just had no idea what it was saying.
And I had little time to figure it out. His long legs ate the distance from the door into the salon, rounding my receptionist desk and I kept my eyes on him the whole way, swiveling my chair as he moved to me.
Then I sat in it when he was in my space, my head bent way back, my back pressed deep into the chair to keep my eyes locked with his.
Then he bent and I was up, I heard gasps at the movement but could only feel surprise. One of his arms wrapped around my ass, the other one slanted across my back, his fingers driving into my hair, cupping my head then he slammed my mouth down on his and he kissed me.
Automatically, my legs circled his hips, my arms his shoulders and for two seconds I contemplated the fact that out of the blue my husband walked into my place of work, lifted me into his arms and was giving me an intense kiss that spoke volumes and in that two seconds I heard a woman whisper, “Ohmigod,” and Dominic mutter, “Now that is hot.”
But that was all that filtered in before Ty’s kiss swept me away, deep, hot, tongues tangling, his arms holding me so tight they were crushing me to him, the kiss so intense the world melted away.
Then his hand fisted in my hair, gently tugged back and I lost his mouth but gained his eyes when I opened mine.
And it was then he whispered, “Just got a call from Nina. The California Attorney General overturned my conviction. The Governor himself is issuing a public apology today and opening discussion about restitution. IA in LA last night arrested Eugene Fuller and Chet Palmer at the same time LAPD did a sweep of their dealers and raids of their storage facilities.”
He stopped speaking and I did nothing but stare.
So he went on to whisper, “It’s done, mama. I’m clear.”
I still did nothing but stare and I did this even as my throat closed and my vision decreased because my eyes were watery.
“Baby,” Ty whispered, his arms giving me a squeeze. “It’s done and there’s no going back. The gun used to commit the crime I went down for surfaced two weeks ago when a gang banger got arrested while carrying that gun. Its ownership was traced back to Palmer who had it in his possession when that murder was committed, this from a witness who owns a gun shop and regularly rents him an alley where he said, when Palmer went in for target practice until six months ago, he always used that gun. A solid alibi and no access to the murder weapon. It’s done. I’m clear.”