AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Despite my ever-present annoyance at Owen, I couldn’t help but admit that he lookedgood.He was shredded with muscle, and his skin seemed more tan in his tank top than it did when he was wearing a plain T-shirt. A bead of sweat ran down the side of his arm, and my eyes followed it as it trickled into the grooves of his corded muscle.
Owen racked the barbell and then sat up, a huge grin on his face. “Take a pic. It’ll last longer. Just don’t post it to my LinkedIn profile.”
His words knocked me out of my daze. “I didn’t want to distract you by walking by. You might drop the weight on your chest.”
He hooked an arm over the bar while lazily watching me. “Don’t think I’m the one distracted right now.”
Something perked up inside of me at the sight of him. I pushed it back down.Shut up, lady-parts. He’s not as hot as he thinks he is.
Lacking anything wittier to say, I repeated it out loud: “Oh, please. You’re not as hot as you think you are.”
He rose from the bench and walked toward me. His tank top was damp with sweat and clung to his chest. There was a small towel in his hand, and he began patting the sweat from his temple and arms. He stopped and towered over me, a cloud of musk and sweat and intoxicating manliness that stirred something inside of me.
“There you go again,” he said, giving me a knowing smile. “Seriously, just take a photo and get it over with.”
“I wasn’t…” I glared up at him. “Stop it. I wasn’t looking at you.”
“Okay.”
“And the hacks we’ve been trading? There’s nothingflirtyabout them. You’ve totally misread the situation.”
His smile deepened. “Whatever you say.” His tone didn’t match his words.
I let out an annoyed huff. Nothing I said was getting through to this guy. With every word he grewmoreconfident that I was checking him out, or flirting with him via elaborate computer hacks.
I was checking him out. I’m just pretending like I wasn’t.
“I’m done in here,” he said, tossing the towel in a nearby basket. “Gym’s all yours. I bet you need to work off some anger, huh?”
“I’m not using the gym.”
“Oh.” He glanced toward the locker room. “Let me guess. You were in such a hurry to get to the office and yell at me this morning that you forgot to shower?”
It was infuriating how right he was, so I stubbornly said, “No. I usually take mid-day showers.”
“Yeah, makes sense. Probably gets real sweaty in that furry suit.”
And with that, he shouldered past me and left the gym. The part of my shoulder where his arm touched felt warm and tingly.
I let out a frustrated noise as I marched into the women’s locker room. I couldn’t believe I had stood there, staring at Owen while he worked out. Like I had never seen a sweaty, muscular guy before. He was so full of himself, which ruined the otherwise flawless hard lines of his body.
He’s not full of himself,something whispered inside of me.He’s just confident. And confidence is incredibly sexy.
My body was warm now, and it practically hummed in the aftermath of his presence. His scent was stuck inside my nose, pungent and heady and ridiculously alluring. An invasive thought jammed its way into my head: me kissing him, tasting the salty sweat on his lips and feeling his body heat radiating against mine as he wrapped me in his arms, taking me…
To dispel such thoughts, I forced myself to stand under the cold water of the shower for ten seconds before turning it up to warm. But even then, the memory of him lingered like a bad idea.
What has gotten into me?I wondered as I let the heat of the water seep into my bones.I haven’t been flirting with him this whole time.
Have I?
I pulled my hair up with a hair tie and used a washcloth to scrub myself with soapy body wash. I was surprised at how well-stocked the locker room was. There were three different kinds of body wash, and the shower even had disposable razors and shower caps. Melinda was probably the one who made sure the women’s locker room was stocked properly. I would need to thank her when I got a chance.
The door to the locker room opened, then squeaked closed. Wondering if that was her, I called out, “Melinda?”
I was hoping to hear Melinda’s voice reply, but I was prepared for it to be Nancy. What Iwasn’tprepared for was the deeper voice of Jude.
“Hey,” he said, his whisper barely audible over the noise from the shower. “Amber?”
