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At some point in round nine, I had to pull my t-shirt off.
My eyes just happened to be glued on her as I did it through my round of squats, and I smiled for the first time in hours when I caught her eyes go wide at the move.
I tossed it at her.
Instinctively, she caught it, then squealed, “Ewwwww!”
She tossed the t-shirt to the floor with a laugh and a curse, making me snicker.
I felt more of my anger float away at the sight of that laughter.
“Want to join me?” I panted through a pull-up.
She scoffed. “I don’t want to join you. I’ll get big muscles.”
I chuckled. “You won’t get big muscles. You’ll be strong and fit, possibly have defined muscles, but not big ones. Your body’s not made like that. You would have to do specialized repetitions of very specific exercises to hold muscles on your body like that.”
She seemed to contemplate that through the next few sets.
As she did, I pushed through the last few minutes, an ever-growing puddle of sweat on the ground where sweat rolled off my body.
By the time the timer sounded, I was ready to collapse.
My arms felt like limp, overcooked noodles. My head was no longer swimming with anger, and my lungs were on fire.
Not to mention the rest of me.
Funny thing, when Cannel bent down, ass to the back of her calves, right beside me, I realized that despite the fact that I was spent, my cock wasn’t.
It filled with blood as her scent filled my nose.
I didn’t bring attention to it by adjusting it.
Instead, I stared into her light green eyes and waited.
“Easton called me today. Told me I might need to come check on you.” She paused. “Said you were pissed.” She touched the middle of my heaving chest with one finger. “I was coming to see you anyway.”
That made something inside of me shift.
“Yeah?” I rasped.
“Yeah,” she confirmed.
“Schultz, score!” Haggard grumbled loudly over the still-blaring music.
I gave him my rep numbers, then went back to staring at Cannel. “I’m not going to ask you to talk about it. But I want you to know, when you’re ready… if you’re ever ready? I’m here.”
She pursed her lips in a frown before letting it drop. “I don’t want you to ever know what happened to me.” She hesitated. “I like the way you look at me like I’m not broken. If you hadn’t found out…” She hesitated. “I don’t think I ever would’ve told you.”
No, I couldn’t say that I blamed her, either.
But, one day, she might find the courage to do so. And I’d listen. No matter how much it made me want to kill the bastard afterward.
Her eyes took me in, sweat and cat hair—there was a gym cat, Rogue, that liked to share his hair with everyone in the gym—and all.
“Do you want to come over to my place? Order some food in, and watch a movie?” she asked.
I rolled my head to the side, then sat up. “Will that be okay? Me in your space?”
She thought about it for a few seconds, which made me believe her answer. “I don’t know. Most likely, since I’m the one who invited you in, yes. However, there’s a possibility I might have a panic attack, and you’ll have to leave.”
My knees creaked as I came to my feet.
Her eyes went to the black mat where I’d been laying, and her lips twitched.
I looked behind me to find a full imprint of my body, as well as my forearm where I used it to come to my feet. The only thing was, the placement of my ‘forearm’ was also in the exact right spot to make it appear that my sweat angel had a very large dick.
“That was my forearm.” I felt it prudent to point out.
She threw her head back and laughed.
CHAPTER 7
That moment when you realize you’ve made a mistake, and you’re about to die.
-Will, learning who Cannel’s brothers are
WILL
Thirty minutes later, I arrived at her place dressed and less sweaty.
I got off of my motorcycle and listened.
The only thing I could hear was the ticking of my engine, as well as the wind through the trees.
I wasn’t sure what I expected out of Cannel’s place, but it sure the fuck wasn’t a cabin in the woods.
Granted, it was a cabin in a row of other cabins, but due to the quietness of my surroundings, I wasn’t sure those cabins were occupied.
I would’ve thought, after everything that Cannel went through—and though I only had the basics, I’d been a damn detective for going on ten years now. I knew how to fill in the blanks—she’d have an apartment in town where there were people around to hear her if she needed help.
I couldn’t stop myself from walking to the edge of the lake and taking a peer out.
