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“Me going with you?”
His fingers tighten around my wrist. “No. Me pretending you’re not there. Not when you’re wearing this. Not ever.” He drops my hand like I’m on fire. Before I’ve even processed what he said, he’s out the door and rushing down his front porch steps to his waiting driver.
“If you’re not in the car in the next minute, you’re getting left behind!” he yells, not bothering to even look over his shoulder.
I yelp, chasing after him. I’ve barely slid into the back seat before he’s barking at his driver to get going.
CHAPTER 24
ARCHER
“You really don’t haveto help me,” Winnie insists as she stands next to a weight rack like she’s never seen one in her life.
I grunt, trying not to look at her now that she’s shed her jacket and stands in just a bra and a pair of leggings that do nothing to hide every curve of her body. “I’ll start and show you how to use each piece of equipment, and then you can follow my lead. Does that sound good?”
She watches me with a hesitant stare. I’m not sure I blame her—I’m as charming as a fucking bear right now, but it’s only because I come to the gym to work off the tension I feel after being around her constantly.
I know with every part of me I shouldn’t want her, that I shouldn’t think about her unless we’re out in public. The problem is, Idowant her, and with each day, she seems to take up even more and more space in my mind.
The gym is theoneplace I can get her out of my head. It’s the two hours where my trainer pushes me to the brink of exhaustion and I don’t have any other brainpower to think about how much I want my fake wife.
Because of her, the gym isn’t a safe place right now. I’m even more angry because it’s never occurred to me to rent out the entire place so I can work outin private. I pay a lot of money for a private trainer, but there’s enough equipment here that I’ve never needed anything all to myself.
Until today.
Because part of my terrible mood is from all the eyes on Winnie. Every person here should know that she’s my wife, but they’re still staring, and it’s driving me insane.
I know my trainer, Alec, has been happily married for over ten years now. He always talks about his kids in between reps and how he thinks his wife hung the damn moon, but I even canceled the private session with him today because I didn’t want him anywhere near Winnie.
It’s a fucking problem.
“I don’t want to take up your time. It’s fine, really,” Winnie comments, thinking that my gruffness with her is because I’m annoyed she wants to work out and not because I can’t control how badly I want her. And that I can’t control how mad it drives me to see another man’s gaze even focus on her for a second longer than necessary.
She reaches her arms above her head to stretch, showing off a strip of skin between the band of the bra and the top of the leggings. The movement makes my resolve finally snap. Without an explanation, I’m pulling her through all of the exercise equipment.
“Archer!” she yells, attempting to keep up with me. I don’t even look back at her—I’m too busy looking for somewhere to take her that doesn’t have countless men checking her out when she’s just trying to work out.
Finally, I find one of the recovery rooms. Shoving the door open, I pull Winnie into it with me and let it slam shut behind us.
She watches me carefully through wide eyes, like she doesn’t know what’s gotten into me. I don’t blame her. I know I’m acting childish, but I don’t give a shit. It was driving me crazy to have her in there with me, and we hadn’t even started working out. Ipay almost a grand a month to work out at this private gym, and I’m tempted to never come back—at least with her in tow.
“What are you doing?” Winnie asks. Her chest heaves up and down, and every time she takes a deep breath in, the spandex material of her bra tightens around her chest, giving me a glimpse of her peaked nipples.
I sigh, turning around to face the wall because I need a break from looking at her. I need a break fromwantingher, but I don’t think that’ll happen anytime soon.
Somehow, I’ve let Winnie in—deep. Deep enough that she’s stealing too much of my attention.
“Archer…” Winnie prods. Her voice is still far away, allowing me the distance I need to get my head on straight.
“What?” I ask, my voice tight and angry.
“Was it something I did out there? Something I did wrong?”
Her question breaks any sort of resolve I have left. Without thinking of all the reasons I shouldn’t be doing this, I turn around and hastily close the distance between us. I take her by surprise, backing her up against the black door and pressing her into it.
She gasps, her hands finding my chest because I’ve left nowhere else for her to put them.
“You haven’t done anything wrong,” I hiss, pissed at myself for making her feel this way. The only thing she’s done wrong is get mixed up with a man like me.
