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“Then I figure my neighbors will hear the screams and call 911.” He got to his feet and gestured to the bench. “Your turn.”
Penny blinked. “What?”
“You got to drool over me,” he said as he slid the forty-fives off the bar. “Now it’s my turn to enjoy an exhibition.”
She backed away from the bench. “Uh uh. No way.”
“Yes way. Fair’s fair. How much weight do you want?”
She looked down at her dress and leather-soled ballet flats. The residue from the floor would give her shoes a little more traction, but it still wasn’t ideal. “Just the bar.”
He raised a skeptical eyebrow. “I’ll bet you can bench more than the bar. How much?”
“Um.” Penny bit her lip. “Give me the twenty-fives, I guess.”
“Ninety-five?” He looked impressed again.
Her personal record was one-fifteen, but she figured she could manage ninety-five pounds without a warm-up. Maybe. Hopefully.
Caleb loaded the weight for her and gestured to the bench again. “All yours.”
Penny’s stomach churned with stage fright as she got under the bar. She’d never lifted in front of a man before. Her weight class was women only, and she liked it that way. She always felt a little like an imposter when she exercised. Like a fat kid pretending to be an athlete. Bench pressing in front of someone as fit as Caleb was a terrifying prospect.
“You got this,” he said, taking a position at the head of the bench to help her unrack. “Ready?”
The bench was too high for her to get her feet flat on the ground, she didn’t have chalk, and she was wearing a dress, but sure. She nodded and Caleb gave her a wolfish grin. “What?” she said, staring up his nostrils.
“I’ve got a great view of your boobs from this position.”
“And I’ve got a great view of your crotch.” It was only inches away from her face, close enough that his shorts were brushing the top of her head. “Let’s get this over with,” she said, trying not to let his proximity distract her.
He lifted the bar out of the rack and waited until she had it in position over her chest before letting go and stepping back.
Penny took a breath, braced her abdomen, and lowered the bar down to her diaphragm and back up again. That wasn’t so bad. Her arms only felt a little shaky. She took another breath and did it again. It felt even smoother the second time. She did it three more times, and then Caleb put his hands on the bar and helped her guide it into the rack.
She sat up, feeling a little dizzy. “Happy now?”
“Yes,” he said, looking a little dizzy himself. His pupils had gone wide and dark with naked lust. “That was unbelievably hot.” He pulled her off the bench and into his arms. “Can I come watch your next weight class?”
“Nope. No boys allowed.” She slid her hands under his tank top and over the bare skin of his back.
“That’s a tragedy,” he said and kissed her. His mouth tasted salty and he smelled like coffee and sea air.
She closed her eyes and melted into him as his tongue slid into her mouth. A seagull called out overhead, and with the sun warming her skin Penny could almost imagine they were at the beach—the sound of the surf crashing around them, soft sand between their bare toes.
We should go to the beach sometime, she thought. Then she remembered they only had two more weekends left together and kissed him harder to push away the sadness.
“Where’s your bedroom?” she said when they finally came up for air, and he led her back into the house and through the messy living room, down a grubby hall with some truly appalling carpet, and into a small bedroom.
The carpet in there wasn’t much better, but it at least looked as though it had been recently vacuumed, and there were no dirty dishes or old pizza boxes sitting out, which put his room head and shoulders above the rest of the house. There was a cheap desk covered with books and a double bed with a faded plaid bedspread, but other than that the room had no personality whatsoever. No pictures on the walls, no decorations of any kind, nothing that wasn’t purely functional. It made her think of a jail cell.
“Sorry it’s not nicer,” he said, looking around the room with an expression of disgust.
She reached for him and kissed him. “You’re here. That’s all I need.”
He closed the door, winding his arms around her, and they fell into each other.
Chapter Nineteen
