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He sounded excited as we reached the bottom floor. “Yeah.” I had no idea why the hell I said that; it just spilled out of my mouth. I only ever either let Taigi run by himself or biked next to him. Running was not my thing.
“I usually do the Hudson River route, it’s almost nine miles, but Central Park is good too. Do you start your run from here?”
Almost nine miles every morning? Are you shitting me right now?
“We—” Before I could finish telling him to go on without us, Taigi ran forward, pulling me with him. What made it worse was I could feel Eli running beside me.
Why, Taigi, why? I screamed in my mind, running with them. I couldn’t get out of it now. It was early enough that the sidewalks toward the park were mostly empty; there was still even early morning fog out.
When we made it to the park I hoped, prayed one of them would slow down, but they were in their own little world, running farther and farther along the path while I could feel my calves tightening up.
Come on, Guinevere, you can do this. Just make it a half hour. I pushed myself, breathing in slowly through my nose and out my mouth.
I thought I was doing pretty well for a little bit too, until my whole left leg went numb and I had to slow down, much to Taigi’s annoyance. I slowed, finally stopping at a bench and grabbing my leg.
“Are you all right?” Eli came over.
I noticed that while I was sweating like crazy, he just looked like someone had sprayed him with a damn mister. Sighing, I just sat, trying to catch my breath.
“I’m not a runner.” I threw up my hands. “I have no idea why I said I was. I take him on walks, and if he really needs to go for a run, I take my bike. I’m a great cyclist, but running…yeah, not my thing. I think I’m dying. How long have we been going for?”
“Twenty-four minutes—”
“Really?” I was surprised I had made it that far. I should have kept going! “See? I can’t even make it thirty minutes. That’s bad, right?”
He knelt down in front of me. “Which leg is stiff? I’m guessing you didn’t stretch?”
“All of me is stiff, but my left leg is worse. I stretched my back when I got out of bed, but other than that, no.” No point trying to hide my embarrassment. I wanted to go back home and close my eyes. Maybe I could restart the day.
He took my left leg and massaged my calf. “Guinevere, when you're with me, I have one rule: don’t lie, especially if it leads to hurting yourself for no reason…or for any reason. I don't really care if you are a runner or not.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, trying not to focus on his hands. “You looked excited when I said I ran, too, and—”
“I was excited I could spend time with you.” He glanced up at me. “Even if we didn’t say anything, you were still going to be next to me. I spent the whole night wondering how I was going to approach you today. Running seemed like a good way to break the ice. I was excited about that.”
“I won’t lie, I’m sorry,” I said softly. “But I thought you said you could tell when I’m lying.”
He frowned. His hands had worked their way from my calf to my knee, and he froze right before reaching my thi
gh, his eyes looking up at me. “I was distracted and didn’t notice. Should I stop? Does it feel better?”
It did feel better. “Don’t stop.” It wasn’t a lie. I wanted him to keep touching me.
He smirked, his hands working up and down my thigh slowly.
Doing my best to keep my mouth closed, I kept my eyes on him and he kept his on me. I swallowed when his fingers worked farther, pressing down harder through my tights, and I could feel myself breathing hard.
He bit his lips, took a breath, and stopped, his hands not leaving my thigh. “You are really good at seducing me,” he whispered under his breath. “Last night, this morning. Guinevere, we just started, you can’t put me in positions like this. I want to be a gentleman before I’m the fiend.”
I placed my hand on his, leaning down to kiss him just as hard as he'd kissed me the night before, our mouths opening for each other, both his hands now gripping my thighs as if he was forcing them to stay where they were.
Breaking away, his eyes dropped to my lips and he swallowed, taking a deep breath.
“If you think I’m seducing you now, you’re in for one hell of a ride, Dr. Davenport.”
“I look forward to it, Ms. Poe.”
“Go for your run, you look like you need it.” I nodded down at his…problem.
