“So, you start over to do it right. That’s exactly what I mean. It’s a good metaphor.”
His praise made Haley feel like a good student. “But what about sharing your energy?”
“When you find a knot—” Damon’s hands unerringly returned to the tightness at the base of her spine. “—it might mean that the chakra is stuck or moving very slowly. You want to help the patient move beyond that challenge and you can nudge the chakra with your own energy to do that.”
“I thought I read that practitioners were supposed to open the patient to the energy of the earth but protect their own.”
“That’s one school of thought. This is mine.” His hands bracketed her waist, his thumbs working circles against her skin. She felt him leaning over her, putting more weight into his movement. Haley closed her eyes as the heat of his touch flowed through her.
The effect, though, seemed to be on the lower chakra. She hadn’t been so aroused in years.
“Where did you learn it?”
“From my dad. The Marco Perez school of massage therapy.”
Haley smiled. “Where did he learn?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he invented it.”
“Did he really have a school?”
Damon laughed. “No. My mom was a ballet dancer. She always had aches and pains. He was a carpenter. He liked fixing things.”
Haley closed her eyes, liking the explanation and what it told her about his parents’ relationship. He didn’t say more and she didn’t ask, just enjoyed.
“This is called kneading,” Damon said as his hands lifted, squeezed and rolled one side of her waist in steady circles.
“That feels awesome.”
“It loosens the muscle at a deeper level, making it more flexible and supple.”
Haley felt about as supple as a wet burlap bag. She couldn’t remember that area not aching, but it felt a thousand times better. He eventually moved to the other side, lavishing attention upon her.
That was all new. Haley had never felt so pampered.
She really hoped Damon didn’t stop anytime soon.
One of his hands kept making circles and applying pressure, while the fingertips of his other hand pressed hard against the spot to one side of her spine. She felt them vibrate, buzzing against the muscle. The resonance seemed to go right through her, shaking the tension loose. “There are several percussion strokes,” he said. “Never use any of them against the bone. This is vibration. You’re liberating the tension, then smoothing it away with your other hand.”
“Yes,” Haley said, exhaling the word.
“There’s also cupping and hacking, which have similar effects.”
“Yes.” Haley hoped he’d use them all. Slowly. Repeatedly.
“I can pour my energy into you by making a connection with you,” he said, his voice low and soft. “That was my dad’s secret to healing with touch.”
“What kind of connection?”
“An emotional one.”
Haley blinked. “What do you mean?”
“Talk to me,” he invited. “Tell me something about Nurse Haley Slater.”
She stiffened despite herself. “There’s not much to tell.”
“Bull,” Damon said. “I can feel how you’re tensing up just because I asked. So, you’re a private person.” The pressure of his hands increased, working out the tension. “Tell me about knitting, then. What do you knit?”
“Baby sets.”
“Should I know what that means?”
She smiled, liking how low his voice was, how he drawled the question, how easily she could imagine the gleam of interest in his dark eyes and the corner of his mouth almost lifting in a smile. “Caps and booties and little mittens. Matching sets.”
“You have children?”
“No. Nieces and a nephew, but they’re too big for that.”
“Why knit baby sets then?”
“I knit for the neo-natal ward, for the preemies. It’s hard to keep them warm because they’re so tiny.”
“So, you knit for strangers.”
“Babies don’t have many social connections,” she said and he chuckled.
“I guess not beyond their parents.”
“Who are usually pretty busy when they have a baby in that ward.”
“Too busy to knit.”
“Exactly.”
“That sounds like a nice thing to do.” There was approval in his tone, a warmth that Haley liked a lot.
“It’s useful. It helps. I like that.”
“Because you like to take care of people.”
She felt herself blushing again.
He bent over her, his whisper so close that his lips must have been almost against her shoulder. “It’s how you share your energy,” he murmured. “I knew you understood how.”
“But I don’t...”
“Aren’t you tired at the end of your shift?”
“Yes, but...”
“It’s not just physical. When you take care of others, you give them some of your own energy.” His voice dropped lower. “The world needs people like you, Haley Slater.”
Haley did shiver with delight then. “You take care of your mom.”
“True, but she’s the only one. It sounds like you try to take care of everyone.”
“Not exactly.”
“Who takes care of you?”
Haley opened her mouth and closed it again. “I take care of myself.”
“Of course.” His tone was soothing but she guessed he wasn’t convinced.
“Who takes care of you?” she countered and he laughed again.
“Touché. Tell me about the nieces and nephew.”
“I have two brothers,” Haley admitted. It was ridiculously easy to talk to Damon. The words just flowed, without her thinking about it at all. It was almost a relief to confide in someone, even though she wasn’t admitting anything that was a secret. “The older one’s a firefighter and the younger just finished med school. The older one’s married with three kids.”
“And the doctor?”
“Not married. He signed up for a stint doing relief work with Doctors Without Borders.”
“Is he in the picture on your fridge?”
Haley nodded, a bit startled that he’d noticed. “That’s him and his group when they arrived last month.”
“In Afghanistan.”
“Yes.” There was no question in his voice. How had he guessed that? It wasn’t written on the picture...
Haley thought then of how Damon stood. Straight and tall, maybe not just because it was good posture. No. He stood at attention without realizing he did it. A habit, and one she almost hadn’t noticed because men like him were familiar to her.
The silence invited her to continue and she did. “And I have a sister. She’s a paramedic. Not married but she lives with her boyfriend.”
“Parents?”
“My mom’s a nurse. ER.”
“Sounds like a family devoted to service.”
“Because of my dad. He used to say that giving back was his religion.” Her throat tightened and she realized just how long it had been since she’d mentioned her dad to anyone. She thought about him all the time. She felt his presence beside her often, but she didn’t talk about him.