Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
“Yeah. She closes early on Mondays. But I have a key,” I told him. “Come on,” I said, turning and starting to walk back to the subway.
The gym was open seven days a week, but my mom closed early two nights a week, so she could have something resembling down time.
“Do you work out after hours?” Anthony said as I unlocked the security gate, then hit the button to lift it.
“No. I still have a key mostly because I used to work here for years,” I told him.
“Really? So arms dealing wasn’t always your career path?”
“No,” I said, the word a little more clipped than I’d intended for it to be. But I knew that if I didn’t put an end to the topic, he would keep asking things. And I was worried that he might be the one person I would actually tell all about how I ended up in this profession.
I couldn’t let that happen.
“Try not to break a kneecap running into any of the equipment,” I teased as we walked into the darkened gym.
I’d never admit it aloud to anyone, but I always found the gym a little creepy at night. Maybe that was just leftover fear from being a young woman closing a male-dominated gym alone at night. Walking into the locker rooms, stomach in knots, praying no one was still behind when there was no one else around.
“Hm,” I said as I went behind the desk to find the hook my mom had hung his jacket on empty. “She probably put it in the office for safekeeping when she realized it was still here after we left,” I said, and I heard Anthony’s footsteps following me down the staff-only hallway that was home to a maintenance room, a private bathroom, and my mom’s office.
And I swear with each step he took behind me, my heart tripped faster and faster until I could feel my pulse pounding in my throat, chest, wrists, and, well… somewhere else I needed not to be thinking about.
I could feel him just a breath behind me as I slipped another key into the office lock, trying to ignore the way the heat of him was somehow slipping through the fabric of my clothes to chase the chill in the gym away.
A little shiver coursed through me, and I prayed it was dark enough that he didn’t actually see as the lock gave and I pushed the door inward then took a much-needed step away.
There was a coat hanger wedged next to her desk where my mom kept about three different jackets and sweatshirts hanging in case of unexpected weather.
I made my way there, reaching up to remove his jacket, then turning, not realizing Anthony had moved into the postage stamp sized room with me.
So when I whipped around, my breasts brushed across his chest.
My head whipped up as desire sizzled across my nerve endings.
And, somehow, at that moment, I couldn’t seem to muster the determination to keep things professional, to take a step back and wait for him to do the same.
So I stayed planted, my chest against his, my breathing getting slow and shallow as my heartbeat thrummed frantically. This close, I had to wonder if he felt it too.
I was so distracted by my own response to his nearness that I hadn’t seen his arm raise until I felt it slide across my shoulder, up the side of my neck, then whisper down my jaw until his fingers snagged my chin and lifted.
There was a beat.
Waiting to see if there were any objections, any hesitation.
Finding none, though, his lips crashed down on mine in the dark, his mouth swallowing the moan as it escaped me.
My body swayed shamelessly into him, craving the feel of his hard lines against my softer ones.
My hands slid up his arms then across his chest before grabbing the sides of his collar, pulling him more flush against me, my breasts crushing to his chest as his lips pressed deeper.
If there had ever been any concerns about his innate clumsiness or lack of attention slipping into his kissing skills, they disappeared immediately as his hand slid from my chin to grip the back of my neck, tilting me back as his lips grew hungrier, nearly bruising into mine.
My hands moved from his shirt to wrap around his neck as I went up on my tiptoes.
A shiver moved down my spine as Anthony’s tongue teased the crease of my lips before moving inside to meet mine, both of us exploring, tasting, teasing.
My fingers slid up, tangling in his hair, nails scraping his scalp, drawing a rumbling noise out of him, making his hands slide from my neck, moving down my back, then sinking into my ass, using it to draw me even closer. His cock pressed against my stomach, making a throaty whimper escape me as everything in me begged for him to reach up, to draw down my pants and panties, to sink his tongue, fingers, and cock inside of me.