Total pages in book: 225
Estimated words: 218500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1093(@200wpm)___ 874(@250wpm)___ 728(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 218500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1093(@200wpm)___ 874(@250wpm)___ 728(@300wpm)
“Fancy meeting you again,” I say with sarcasm. “If I didn’t know better I might think you’re stalking me.”
“And you know better, do you?” he asks, a wicked gleam in his eyes that is not only a little dangerous, it’s also a lot hot.
“How long have you been a member of this gym?” I ask, a hand propped on my waist. I know my stance oozes accusation.
“Just joined,” he says, shamelessly smirking.
I tilt my head. “Coincidence? I just re-joined last night after leaving the soup place.”
He continues smiling.
My eyebrows go up. Of course he knows that somehow. Did he follow me?
“Confession?” he asks.
I wait, braced.
“I’m gonna be making Columbus home base for a while. Saw you walk over here from the soup joint last night and… lightbulb went off.”
“Uh huh,” I nod sagely, “So, Derek… I don’t typically like to make assumptions, but I’m thinking my assumption here about you is probably not far off.”
“Probably not,” he returns, then casually sips from the water bottle in his hand. I watch him twist the cap back on and then he volleys with, “Just like my assumption probably ain’t wrong either. That you ducked out of the coffee shop pretending something came up because you were uncomfortable with the chemistry between us.”
“I’m engaged,” I state. “Though I know I’ve made this fact clear to you directly more than once as well as to someone else in front of you another time, so…” I give him a pointed look.
“How’s the book so far?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t dug in.”
“Have a drink with me, Chloe.”
I blink, taken back. “A drink?”
He rises and takes a step forward, putting us toe to toe. I look up at his face. He’s so close I can smell his soap on his freshly showered skin. So close he’s all I see.
This feels dangerous. Wrong. And yet … something else. Something I’m not sure I have the capacity to acknowledge fully.
“I’m not sure I’m in a state to be seen outside a gym,” I say self-consciously instead of doing what I should do. Walk away without responding.
My hair is wet, I have no makeup on my face. I’m in jeans and a plain tee.
He smiles. “I disagree.” He touches a tendril of hair that’s hanging over my ear. “But we don’t have to be in public if you’re not comfortable with it. We can have a drink at my place instead.”
I blink a couple times and then I shake my head. “I can’t. I… I’m-”
“Engaged. I know.”
“You know but you just don’t care?” I ask.
“There’s something here.” He gestures between us. “I think we both know it. And I want to explore it.”
“Meaning?” I ask.
“Meaning, come for a drink with me, Chloe,” he says, dark eyes searching mine.
I’m against the wall beside the locker room door and he’s close enough to kiss, if I get up on my tippy toes and lean forward just an inch.
“Not your place. Somewhere public,” I amend.
He smiles wider. “One of my clubs isn’t far. You know The Fifth?”
I nod.
“I’ll follow you there,” he tells me.
I nod again.
“Yeah?” he checks, like he doesn’t quite believe I’m agreeing.
“One drink. No promises of anything beyond that.”
He jerks his head toward the exit, so I move in that direction.
He gets to the door first and holds it open, gesturing for me to go ahead.
Heart pounding hard in my chest, I walk ahead of him. After I hit the button to get my car unlocked, he gets ahead of me to open the driver’s door. I climb inside. He looks dead into my eyes and something… that something he spoke of that’s between us, it pulses. Throbs. My heart is racing.
Derek skims his bottom lip with his front teeth and shuts my door.
I pull into a spot outside The Fifth; I’ve been here before. Twice, I think. I remember it as fairly dim, with plenty of high-backed booths. Should be a safer bet for discretion, though that’s never a guarantee in public.
Derek pulls up beside my six-year-old Jeep Cherokee with his swanky new-looking Mercedes SUV. He crooks his finger and then drives past me, so I follow him around to the opposite side of the parking lot. He stops in a reserved spot outside an entrance to the office building part of this location. This is another office building with a nightclub on the ground floor like last Friday’s spot.
I pull into the reserved spot beside him. By the time I turn my car off, he’s outside my door, opening it for me.
I’m not dressed for a club like The Fifth, being make-up free, damp-haired, and in jeans and a basic T-shirt with slip-on sneakers.
Despite this, it’s obvious by the carnal look on Derek’s face that he’s attracted to me anyway.
He’d look attractive if he, too, looked like he just came from the gym. But he doesn’t. While his dark hair is damp, he still looks amazing. He’s clean-shaven, in nice jeans, the same leather jacket he had on last night, and a snug wine-colored Henley hoodie that I’m sure will show off his defined upper body under that jacket. He takes my hand and pulls it to his mouth, touching his lips to my knuckles. “The club’s that way.” He points across the parking lot, still holding my hand. “My place is this way.” He points to the door in front of us. “Which way are we going, Chloe?”