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I rejoin Skyler at the front desk and then walk with her to the main entrance.
“Wow,” she says, pausing in the vestibule. “It’s really coming down out there.”
I hadn’t even noticed it was pouring outside. For the last hour and a half, all of my focus has been on the gorgeous young woman beside me.
She sighs. “If I’d known it was going to pour, I would’ve brought my umbrella.”
I immediately slip off my jacket and drape it over her shoulders.
Her already pink cheeks deepen in color. “Oh, no. I didn’t mean—”
“I insist.” I keep my hands on her shoulders, not letting her shrug the jacket off. “You’ll catch a cold in this weather. I don’t want you to miss work.”
She bites her bottom lip like she’s holding herself back from saying something.
“Thank you,” she says softly, pulling the jacket tightly around her.
The simple act of offering her some form of protection, and heracceptingit, fills my chest with a sense of pride and something warmer... Affection.
I clear my throat. “Where’s your car parked?”
“Actually, I don’t have a car. I walked from my apartment.”
I glance between the rain pooling on the pavement outside and Skyler’s lightweight gym shoes. There’s no way I’m letting her walk home in the dark, let alone in this weather.
“My truck’s over there,” I say, nodding to where my black pick-up’s parked in the lot. “I’ll drive you home.”
She opens her mouth like she means to argue. I give her a stern look. “Driving you home will be a lot less work than worrying about whether you made it home safe.”
Her lips twitch. She gives a sigh of defeat and then relents. “Fine, but only because my apartment’s not far from here.”
I crack the door open and unlock my truck using the key fob, then look to Skyler.
“Ready to run?” I ask.
Skyler nods. “Let’s get wet.”
She bursts out of the building like a bullet, while I’m still trying to decide whether I heard her correctly. I race after her through the rain. She reaches my truck a few seconds before I do and jumps inside. I round to the driver’s side door and slide onto the seat, shutting the door quickly to keep the rain out.
“That was intense,” Skyler says, breathless. She frowns at my sodden tee shirt. “God, you’re drenched. I feel bad for taking your jacket.”
“It’s nothing.” I lift the hem of my tee shirt and wipe the rain from my face, showing her just how few fucks I give about the state of my clothes. Her gaze lingers on my abs and then darts away. I know better than to read into her interest, but I like the thought of her appreciating my physique.
IappreciateSkyler’s body very much...
My pulse ratchets as her scent fills the cab and I resist the urge to lean closer. I ask where she lives. She replies with the name of a familiar apartment complex about a mile up the road. I back out of the parking space and then head out of the lot.
After a stretch of quiet, punctuated by the soundtrack of the rain hitting the roof, I decide I want to hear her voice more than I want to play the role of her indifferent boss.
“How’re you liking the job?” I ask, then add, “You can be brutally honest. This isn’t an employee-satisfaction survey.”
Skyler chuckles.
“It’s been great. All the members I’ve met have been really nice, even though I’m younger than most of them.”
“If anyone gives you a hard time, let me know and I’ll set ‘em straight.”
“Thanks,” she says, and I hear the smile in her voice. “I’m just happy that I can help people relax for a while.” She pauses for a second before continuing. “My dad worked a really stressful job as a defense attorney. It ended up messing with his health.”
