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Colt shook his head and sighed. “Never mind. Be right back.”
As I watched him retreat down the hall and then down the staircase, I wanted to kick myself. I hated how desperate Colt made me feel, not to mention act. No wonder he had lost interest in me.
Yet, there was a ridiculous streak in me that just didn’t want to give up so easily. The way he’d stared at me in my yoga outfit was proof that he still found me visually appealing to some degree. It wasn’t much, but I was more than willing to work with that.
Using his absence as an opportunity to clean my room, I tossed dirty clothes out view, smoothed out the comforter on my bed, and then opened the blinds, permitting sunlight to stream through the windows.
When I heard him coming back up the stairs, I hastily sat down on the edge of my bed and began picking with my fingernails, not wanting him to know that I had just cleaned my room in record-breaking speed.
“Where do you want me to put this?” he asked, stopping in my doorway with the mat balanced on his shoulder.
“Just put it right there,” I said, pointing to the spot in front of my bed and trying my best to sound nonchalant. Once he set down the yoga mat, I stood up and stretched. His eyes roamed my body yet again.
Goodness, Natalie—you’re acting like such a slut, a voice in my head chastised. But I ignored the voice.
“Have you ever tried yoga?” I asked as I approached the mat. I kept my eyes glued to him, determined to engage him in conversation so that he wouldn’t try to leave again.
He shook his head. “No. Not my thing.”
I began to stretch on the mat. “Really? What is your thing then?”
“I’m more into cardio, weight-lifting. That sort of thing.”
“Yoga is really relaxing. You should give it a try sometime. It’s really easy too. See look—this is a basic yoga stretch.” I demonstrated for him, once again pleased to see his eyes roaming my body.
“Are you trying to get me to do yoga with you, Natalie?” he asked, folding his arms across his chest.
I gave him a sly grin. “Is it working?”
He laughed, the sound of it being music to my ears. It seemed like such a long time since I’d heard him laugh—or even seen him smile—at least in my direction. “No,” he said.
I pouted. “Well, will you at least keep me company?”
Colt’s brow furrowed. “It gets lonely being the Speaker’s daughter, huh? I’d imagine it’s hard to know who to trust.”
I swallowed, having not anticipated the conversation taking such a serious turn. I lowered my gaze to the floor, this time genuinely focusing on my stretches rather than on him. “No. Being the Speaker’s daughter is all right. It’s lonely being the only child of a widowed potential vice-presidential candidate.”
“You guys don’t have much family, huh?”
I shook my head. “I’m an only child. My mom was an only child. And my dad is an only child.”
“Wow.” Colt ran a hand through his silky dark hair.
“You don’t have to stand there. You can take a seat if you want,” I said, pointing to the chair across the room. It was a comfortable reclining chair that I had been stingy about since childhood, never letting anyone else sit in it. It was where I liked to curl up with a good book and read late into the night whenever I had trouble sleeping. Yet, for some reason, I didn’t mind Colt sitting there.
He crossed the room, removed the pillows from the sides of the chair, and took a seat. With a sigh, he leaned back and closed his eyes for a second.
“Long day?”
“Taking care of you is a lot of work. I mean—looking after you, rather.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, feeling as if I had literally been stung.
Colt smiled. “Don’t worry. I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.”
I blinked, startled by the sincerity in his voice. I also noted that his face looked slightly flushed, as if he had said more than he meant to. An involuntary smile spread across my lips, and Colt averted his gaze just for an instant as I went into another yoga stretch.
After a while though, he couldn’t keep his eyes off me. I glanced at him throughout my workout, seeing lust creeping into his eyes each time I twisted my body into an interesting position. Purposely contorting myself into erotic poses, I finished my workout feeling just as hot and bothered as Colt looked. I suppressed a smile when he reached for one of the pillows he’d removed from the chair and placed it in his lap.
