Chapter Seven
Olivia
I yawned, pushing the last of my eggs around my plate as the apartment door slammed closed. As it did, my stomach lurched. I couldn’t let Nate go like this...because my best guess was that he’d come back sporting an impenetrable, self-imposed chastity belt. He had come so close to truly letting his guard down with me—if he came back with his guard up, I’d probably never see that side of Nate again.
I could see it in his eyes when he’d picked up the phone. Talking about his dad like that had shocked even himself, and now he was going to pull out of this as fast as he damn well could.
I sighed, my heart so filled with Nate it ached. But what could I do? I couldn’t just force him to stop bottling up his emotions, his deepest pains festering away while he threw himself into work. Hell, I couldn’t even stop him from leaving my apartment. It seemed like he’d do anything to avoid having a proper conversation.
But I could always go to him.
A smile spread across my face like beard burn on a hipster’s girlfriend. There was no reason I couldn’t fit in a workout today. I just had to find the keys.
I thought back to when Chloe had moved in and we had gone on a New Year’s health kick. Chloe had scored keys to Nate’s gym, so we could work out without having to worry about their opening hours. The health kick hadn’t lasted more than a month, but the keys were still here somewhere.
I dumped my plate in the sink and headed for the junk drawer in the hall—anything that might potentially come in handy “someday” made it into these drawers. Batteries, important letters, hair ties, coupons. And gym keys. I smiled, victorious.
Scurrying off to my bedroom, I looked around for something that might still pass as workout clothes. My heart leapt at the idea of surprising Nate. Sure, he might be used to repressing his emotions, but if last night had taught me anything, it was that if Nate and I were in close proximity? Something had to give...or else shit was bound to explode.
I found an old top and a pair of yoga pants that, after their initial one-month workout, had been repurposed into laze-around-the-house pants. I threw them into a gym bag along with a reasonably dry towel off the floor. I grabbed my trusty old sneakers from the bottom of my closet.
Then, an idea came to mind. I ditched the yoga pants and dashed into my cam room and raided the closet.
I smirked. Nate had no idea what was about to hit him.
Nate
I ran my fingers through my hair, spinning on my desk chair. “I know the order came through a day later than usual, but our account manager assured me it would be fine. We needed that shipment yesterday.”
It seemed like all I did now was fight fires. If it wasn’t something with the day-to-day running of the gym, it was a client emergency, a booking issue, or changes with our health supplement suppliers. The operator on the other end of the phone barely managed to hide her snark. “I understand that you believe one of our representatives confirmed delivery, but from what I can see that simply isn’t the case...”
I slammed my head against the desk as she droned on.
Of all the places I’d like to be right now, being here tied for last place with rubbing my nutsack against a cheese grater.
I rolled the tension out of my neck. “Bethany, is it?”
“Yes, sir,” Bethany said, pointedly.
“Listen. It’s clear we’re not going to get anywhere with this. Could you please give our regular account manager a message to call me back as soon as possible? Thanks. I really appreciate it. Bye.” I hung up the phone quickly before stick-up-butt Bethany could fire back a rebuttal.
One more call down, and only another 22 emails to answer before I could start my business school work. I dragged my sorry ass out of my desk chair and paced my office. What I wouldn’t give to let off a little steam on a rower or a bench press right now.
Or bury myself between Liv’s legs.
My heart lunged with a pang of longing so hard it almost knocked me on my ass. Goddamn it. I had no idea how I was going to face her again tonight without ripping her clothes off.
I rolled my shoulders and turned back to my desk, my heart almost jumping out of my chest as the clink of equipment echoed in from the gym.
What the fuck? On Saturdays, it was unusual for anyone to be in the gym. We had only a small, elite membership—mainly personal training clients or Jacob’s physiotherapy patients—and of those clients, only a select few had keys.
I palmed an umbrella, the only weapon I could find, and snuck through to the gym as my pulse started to scatter.
Even with her back to me, Olivia was unmistakable. In the corner by the leg machines was the sculpted ass I had become all too familiar with just last night—the ass that had driven me into a frenzy when she’d wiggled it in my hands.
“What the hell? Liv?” I dropped the umbrella. Though my galloping pulse and the sudden flush of heat to my groin were unmistakable, I tried to smother my desire by acting pissed off.
Liv turned, her cheeks flushed a subtle shade of pink. She was wearing a faded t-shirt with the word Bae-utiful scrawled in curly writing and some kind of weird, pleated shorts that at first glance seemed a stupid choice for working out.
“Fancy seeing you here,” Liv’s mouth quirked into a smile as she feigned innocence. “I just thought I’d squeeze a workout in. My schedule’s pretty busy, but, you know, gotta get those gains.”
My eyes narrowed. I remembered my vow this morning, the one I’d made as I had retreated from her bed. No more sexytimes. No matter how fuckable she was. I growled, my anger starting to boil over. “You really don’t take no for an answer, do you?”
Liv pointed her nose in the air, speaking in an English accent. “May I insist upon knowing your meaning, sir?”
I smirked. “Pride and Prejudice, right?”
“Oh my god, how did you know?” Liv frowned.
I shrugged, trying to hide my flush of pleasure with nonchalance. “The BBC version was Maddy’s go-to every time she was sick. It’s one of her favorites.”
“Right. Sisters.”
I stared at Liv for a moment, losing myself in the deep emerald of her eyes. When she nibbled at the side of her lower lip and looked to the side, I almost forgot the reason I was angry.
I cleared my throat.
“You know, that’s not how you use this machine.” I nodded to the adductor/abductor machine Liz was sitting on.
For a moment Liv’s confidence faltered and her cheeks flushed a deeper shade of pink. “Really? Well, how about you take a break from work and show me then, hot stuff?”
I grunted, unsure about whether to take her comment as a compliment or a jibe. Knowing Liv, it was both. Fuck, I really had to move this conversation back to safer territory. “This is a hip adductor/abductor, it’s for working a relatively small group of muscles in the groin and hips.”
“So in other words, it’ll make my ass look great in jeans?”
I snorted. “Not really. To be honest these machines are effectively useless.”
Liv’s eyebrows furrowed as she looked around. “Then why do you have one in your gym?”
“Because try as I might, I still have clients who insist on using it.”
I shot a heated glance at Liv. “Usually I’d recommend squats and lunges. But for what it’s worth, there is nothing in this world that could make your ass look more perfect in jeans.”
Liv’s breath shuddered and caught in her throat. She shivered and ran her tongue over her lower lip. “So how do I...” She trailed off, but indicated to her legs as she sat in the machine.
“You just hook one foot over here, and one over this one.” I crouched down, molding her all too willing body into position. “And then you squeeze...” I pulled the arms of the machine together, testing that the tension wasn’t too high. Liv wiggled her perfect ass forward. My stomach roiled, and my mouth dried.
For fuck’s sake. She wasn’t wearing shorts. She was wearing a skirt. A sexy, pleated tennis skirt, that I could all too easily look up if I wanted to. I clenched my fists, trying to stop myself from reacting.
Oh dear God, she wasn’t wearing any panties.
I shot her an angry look as heat raged inside me, threatening to burn out of control. “What are you trying to do to me? Jesus, Liv.” I lifted her barely-there skirt to expose her and she gasped, grinding forward as I drove my face between her thighs without a second thought.
Fuck, she was addictive. More so than any other woman I had been with. Her body. The way she looked at me. How her hands gripped the seat as I licked her, her gasps as my teeth gently nibbled at her sweet pink folds.
Liv moaned and rocked against my mouth, her clit rasping against my tongue as I claimed her. Tearing my mouth away from her, I lifted her out of the exercise machine, pulling her into me as she clamped her amazing legs around my hips.
“Liv fucking Barrett, you’re going to kill me.”
Liv met my angry tongue stroke for stroke, claiming my mouth in a deep kiss that ravaged mine. She nipped at my lip and it almost brought me to the goddamn floor.
She smiled. “Don’t worry. You’re squarely in the ‘fuck’ category of fuck, marry, kill.”
She swallowed my groan with her mouth as I carried her back to my office, my body begging to take her with more than just my mouth.
I dropped her onto my office couch and tugged her into position.
How many times had I slept here, pulling an all-nighter, dreaming about this woman? And now...
Now, I was going to pleasure her into oblivion.
Liv’s gaze met mine as I circled slow, rhythmical digits against her clit.
Breathing deeply, I watched as Liv pulled off her shirt, revealing her perfect tits. I ran each finger over the sensitive heads of her nipples, the tension in my groin tightening as I sucked on the tiny nubs.
My gut pulled at me, begging me to make this girl mine, but my head still niggled at me to keep control, to not let all of me go.
Coaxing Olivia upright, I sat behind her on the couch, so she was leaning against my chest, my dick wedged along the length of her crack. She wriggled her gorgeous ass against the hard length of my dick, and I pulled her in tight to my chest. Her back on my chest, her ass grinding against my erection, her legs draped over mine—even though we weren’t facing each other, it felt intimate. So intimate, I could feel the stuttering of her elongated breaths as her chest rose and fell.
Nibbling on her neck, I palmed her breasts before roaming my hands down her stomach. I kissed up the side of her neck and felt her breathing come harder. I cupped her sex in my hand, gently clasping her clit between my middle and ring fingers. She rocked against my hand with barely perceptible movements as I drew the lobe of her ear into my mouth.
Her breathing came faster as I felt her pulse race under my lips. Sweat melded our bodies together as I felt every inch of her against me, the tide of her coming release crashing in slow, gentle, but inevitable waves.
Goose pimples rose on my arms as I roiled inside. She felt so good. So right. So perfect. As she came against my hand, I savored every guilty pulse.