I whip my head toward him. “How did you know?”
“I’m a psychic. That’s my side gig.
I shoot him a twisted grin. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. You also wrote it on the intake form, though.” He grins.
“Oh. Right.”
He slows the treadmill, then says casually, “I’m twenty-seven, by the way. In case you were wondering.”
I nearly trip. “I wasn’t.”Definitely was.
He sees it. “You okay?”
“Just air. Breathing. Life.”
He tries not to laugh.
“Age is just a number anyway,” he says, checking my form. “It’s not the thing that defines people.”
Easy for him to say when he looks like Poseidon’s nephew.
Next up is my first experience with weights in way too long.
He positions me for a hinged row. I kneel with one knee on the bench, and his hands brushing lightly against my ribcage to help my posture.
That touch is barely anything, but it lights something up in me I had forgotten I even had.
“Relax here,” he says softly, guiding my shoulder down.
The warmth of his hand makes my breath catch. I hate that I’m so starved for human touch. Incredible, really, in a city with this many millions of people.
He definitely notices.
I straighten too fast. “Sorry.”
“Nothing to apologize for,” he says gently. “Just getting your body used to the movement. You wrote on the intake form you’re cool with slight touching. That still okay?”
“Oh, yeah…touch away, honestly.”Touch away? Are you serious, Elena?
My face is on fire.
“Okay,” Colt says, stepping behind me as I hinge forward with the dumbbells. “Pull the elbows back, not out. Like you’re trying to tuck them into your back pockets.”
“That’s…very anatomically confusing,” I say, pulling anyway.
He laughs under his breath. “You’re doing great. Keep going.”
I do another rep, and for some reason, my mouth starts running like it’s late for a train.
“Honestly? Dating’s been weird lately,” I hear myself say.
Why am I talking?
Why am I talking to the hottest twenty-seven-year-old in Manhattan aboutdating?
But it’s too late. The floodgates have opened and Harper has possessed my body. I keep my arms moving with the weights.
