Tanya trotted down the three steps from the house. I was dying to ask her what Rob had said, but I couldn’t decide if that made me look guilty or not, so I decided not to say anything. I opened the door for her as she approached.

“That guy is a piece of work,” she said as she dropped into my car.

“Yeah,” I grunted and shut the door.

“He slapped me on the ass,” she continued when I flopped into the driver’s seat.

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “He’s old, not dead. What did you do?”

“I told him if he did that again I would break off his hand and shove it up his ass.”

I chuckled harder as I started the car. “He probably liked that.”

“He invited me into the sauna. Twice.” I shook my head but said nothing. “Tell me about Candice.”

“Who’s Candice?” I asked.

“His granddaughter.”

I flashed hot with memory. “Nothing much to tell.”

“Neil,” she began, “if you’re not honest with me, you make my job a lot harder.”

I sighed as I pulled out of the Thistle estate on my way to my next appointment. “She was hitting on me, hard, right in front of her grandfather. That made me a little uncomfortable. No. It made me a lot uncomfortable.”

“Did he really tell you to take her upstairs if you wanted to?”

“Not in so many words, but yeah.”

“What did he say?”

“I don’t remember exactly, but it was something like, ‘If you want to take a break to work with Candice, I’m not going to complain.’”

“Why didn’t you?”

I glared at her. “Why do you think?”

“Because Rob is your client?”

“That’s most of it. The other part was she was a little brash for my tastes. She talks just like her grandfather. Fuck this, and fuck that, and she wanted me to stick my big, fat, fucking cock inside her tight little pussy, and fuck her until she screamed.”

“She said that?” Tanya asked, her eyes wide.

I nodded. “Yeah. Whispered it in my ear while Rob was working out. Like I said, a little brash for my tastes.”

“Was she attractive?”

“Yeah, if you like the corporate ball-breaker look. I think she’s a bigtime corporate lawyer or something back east somewhere, and she looked at me like a cat staring at a mouse.”

“That family is messed up.”

I shrugged. “Just foul-mouthed is all. I saw Candice twice before she left for home.”

“Was she that way both times?”

I snorted. “More so the second time. That’s when she whispered in my ear. The first time she just made her interest clear.”

“You know most men would have been all over that?”

I shrugged. Five years earlier, I would probably have been myself. I’d have taken her upstairs and tried to fuck her into submission, just to prove I could. She was a couple of years older than me, and damned attractive. If she hadn’t been so pushy, I might have still taken her to bed. We might have gone out, had dinner, a couple of glasses of wine, and then I would have seen if her ass could backup the promises her mouth was making. But her pushing so hard turned me off her.

“What can I say? Wasn’t my type.”

“That kind of runs against your reputation.”

My lips pulled tight. “Yeah, I know, but trying to bed every woman that smiles at me doesn’t hold as much appeal as it used to.”

“Why?”

I shrugged again and glanced at her. “Finally growing up, maybe?”

“Maybe. Where are we going now?”

“My next stop. Harker Walsh.”

“Never heard of him.”

“Her. She’s an Irish pop singer. Huge in Europe and had a couple of big hits here in the States. I think she’s trying to break into the movies.”

“Ah,” she said, and I could tell her ears had perked up. “Anything I might have heard?”

“Sham?”

“About the girl who was in love, but the guy just wanted to be friends? That was her?”

“That was her.”

“Wow! That song was everywhere for a while. I liked it.”

I nodded. So did everyone else. It went to number one on Billboard with a bullet, and stayed on the charts for weeks.

I weaved my way around in the canyons from the old money of Beverly Hills to the rarified heights of Bel Air, where the maids were given cars like my Porsche to drive, and the dumps cost a couple of million. I rolled to the gate where I was greeted by a rent-a-cop.

“Hey, Greg.”

“Mr. Gibson. Who’s with you today?”

“Ms. Jacobs. She needs to ask Harker some questions.”

“She a reporter?”

I smiled. “No.”

“I can’t let her in.”

“Let me speak to Harker.”

“If this is going to be a problem,” Tanya began, but I waved her off.

The man handed a phone through the window. “Harker, Neil. I have a guest with me. She wants to ask you a few questions about me. You’ll be doing me a huge favor if you can talk to her for five minutes.”

“Questions about you?” Harker asked.

“Yeah.”

“About the rumors?”

“Yeah.”

“She’s not a reporter, is she?”

“No. She’s working for me.”

There was a short pause. “Okay. She can come up.”

“Can you tell your man?”

“Hand him the phone.”

I did, and a moment later, he opened the gates. “Just doing my job, Mr. Gibson.”

“Don’t sweat it, man,” I said as I flicked the paddle to put the car into first and crept forward.

“Christ,” Tanya muttered as Harker’s house came into view.

Harker’s house was not only huge, but it also had a breathtaking view over the canyon back toward LA. I stopped in the circular drive and led Tanya to the door.

“She’s waiting for you in the gym,” Paul, her bodyguard, driver, and butler said as he opened the door.

I led Tanya through the house. Where Rod’s house was old school, built in the forties, Harker’s was new, built in the last ten years or so. The house was a single story and open, with polished wood throughout. The house was a series of rooms, each with a wall of glass overlooking the canyon.

“Holy shit,” Tanya whispered as she trailed along behind me. “What would this place cost?”

“I heard she paid over twelve million for it,” I muttered.

I found Harker loosening up, the infinity pool behind the glass wall reflecting the sky. Full figured with a long mane of fiery red hair, Harker was as beautiful as her voice. Combined, she could stop a man’s heart. I kicked off my shoes and joined her on the mat.

“Ready to get to work?” I asked after giving her a quick kiss on the lips.

“Ready,” she purred, her accent thick.

I took my place beside her and we went through some slow, easy isometric exercises to warm up. “This is Tanya Jacobs,” I said. Harker grunted but said nothing. “She’s following me around for a couple of days.”

“Why?”

“I’m trying to get to the bottom of those rumors.”

“You Americans, I’ll never understand you. So quick to believe anything anyone says without a scrap of proof.”

Once we were loosened up, we added isotonic contractions to the routine. Harker didn’t like weights and machines, so we worked with our body weight and simple tools, such as steps. She wasn’t trying to build mass, only to stay toned and fit. About forty minutes in I was sweating pretty good and my shirt was starting to stick.

“You gobshite, how am I supposed to focus with you looking savage like that?” Harker asked with a teasing grin.

I smiled to myself as we squatted half way down, like we were sitting in a chair, our arms out in front of us, and held it. It had taken me a while to learn her slang.

“You’ve got no room to talk, you sexy thing. I love working up a sweat with a beautiful woman.”

I controlled the workout and she followed my lead. When I saw her starting to lose a hold, I’d hold it a few seconds more, forcing her to reach for it, then break the position. I’d give her a five or ten second break, then we’d assume another position and hold it. Some of the positions hurt like bitch, but that’s how you knew you were working the muscle to its maximum. You could do these types of exercises to collapse without worrying about damage because you couldn’t overstress the muscle. I saw her legs starting to shake as she groaned, so I stood.

She tried to rise but went over sideways as she fell to her ass. “I’m banjaxed!” she panted as she sat on the floor.

I reached a hand down and pulled her to her feet. She wasn’t very steady, meaning she was about out of gas. “A few more, then we’re done.”

I led her to a padded wall and we leaned into it, our arms wide and bent at the elbow as we held our weight.

“Don’t go sticking your ass out, Harker. Keep it stiff and straight.”

She groaned and tightened up, increasing the pressure on her arms. “I would if you’d let me.”

As she began to sag I broke the hold to give her a rest. “One more.” She began shaking her head. “Come on, one more then we’re done,” I cajoled as I leaned against the wall again. She groaned, but followed. “Hold it…hold it…” I encouraged.

She cried out in pain just as I released her. “You’re a real arse, you know that?” she gasped as she straightened.

“No pain, no gain.”

“Aye, right. I think you just like hearing me groan in pain.”

I gave her a good-humored, lecherous smile. “And a sexy groan it is too. Why do you think I do it?”

She sneered playfully and gave me the finger. “One of these days you’re going to have to make good on all that flirting.”

I waved my hands in front of my face as I grinned back at her. “I’d never been able to handle as much woman as you.”

Harker smiled wide at Tanya before jerking her head my way. “Listen to him. All that talk and he won’t back it up. I think he’s a bit of a tool, what do you think?”

She smiled, but there wasn’t a lot of humor in it. “A tool? I think that describes him pretty well.”

“You said you wanted to talk to me? I’m a manky, but if you can stand me, ask away.”

Tanya looked at me and I took that as my cue. “I’ll see you next week,” I said, wrapping my arm around Harker’s back and giving her another buss on the lips. “I’ll wait outside.”

I picked up a bottle of water and carried it with me until I stepped out into the warm California sunshine. I cracked open the bottle and took a long pull to rehydrate. Thirst temporarily sated, I opened the trunk of my car and pulled out a towel and a clean, dry shirt. I ditched the wet shirt, wiped myself off, and changed into the dry one.

I’d seen the look on Tanya’s face, and I knew exactly what she was thinking. Yes, I was flirty with Harker, but she enjoyed it and it made her work hard. She’d started the kissing routine, and I just went with it. I was a male, after all, and there were probably less than twenty men on the planet that wouldn’t find kissing Harker Walsh appealing. The kiss was perfectly innocent, like you were kissing your grandmother, and would never be anything more.

Harker was stunning and had the voice of an angel, but so long as she was my client, she was strictly off-limits. That was my most stringent rule. No mixing business and pleasure. Nothing good could come from it. The last thing I needed was for a client to accuse me of inappropriate touching. It was bad enough having the anonymous internet saying it, much less someone like Harker. I would be ruined overnight.

I hung around my car. Tanya was talking far longer with Harker than she had with Rob, and I was beginning to fret when she appeared. I couldn’t stand it.

“Well?” I asked.

“What?”

“What did she say?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing? You were in there a long time for nothing.”

She smiled at me over the top of my car. “She’s got a serious case of the hots for you.”

“No kidding?” I was far below Harker’s pay grade, so the news was a surprise.

“You didn’t know?”

“No.”

“Oh yeah. If you weren’t her trainer…” She smirked at me and shook her head in teasing amazement. “She also said you were a flirt. No surprise there. I saw that myself. But she likes it, so I guess no harm no foul. She also told me that you don’t touch, not much anyway, and only enough to correct her posture, position, form, whatever.” She paused for a moment. “Is the flirting what you use to motivate her?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, it works. She works her ass off trying to impress you.”

I relaxed slightly. “What can I say? I’m good at finding what people need to make them work hard.”

“That brings up a question. Are you sure the flirting isn’t being misconstrued by someone? Another client perhaps?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I hope my clients would feel comfortable enough to tell me I was making them uncomfortable, and I haven’t lost a client in a while. Not until the rumors started.”

“How many clients do you have?”

“Where I do personal training like this?”

“Yeah.”

“Six. I used to have seven, but I lost one recently.”

“Because of the rumors?”

“She didn’t say that, but that’s what I think, yeah.”

“What reason did she give you?”

I grimaced. “No reason, only that she was taking a break and would be back in contact with me in the future.”

“Can I get a list of all your past clients?”

I shook my head. “So far, it’s only been the one. As you can see, these people don’t live on the same planet as we do. I need to be careful.”

“So you don’t want me talking to her?”

“It’s not that.”

“What is it then?”

“For the same reason I don’t want you driving up unannounced at the gates of my current clients. All my clients, past and current, expect a certain amount of discretion. If you really think it’s that important, I’ll call her and see if she’ll agree to talk to you.”

“Considering she fired you, yeah, that’s someone I’d like to talk to.”

I sighed. “Okay. Let me ask, and if she agrees, I’ll give you her name. Agreed?”

I could tell she didn’t like me putting the leash on her, but there was nothing for it. “Yeah, sure. Okay.” She brightened. “Now where? What rich and famous person are you going to introduce me to next?”

“Henry.”

“Who’s Henry?”

“The guy that makes the best baked chicken in California.”

“No more stars today?”

I shook my head. “That’s it for today. I’ll treat you to lunch, or I can drop you back at your office.”

“What are you doing the rest of the day?”

“I make it a point to stop in at my gyms on occasion. The places have my name on the sign and I want the members to see me taking a personal interest in them. Unless you’ve got something else, why don’t you come along? You wanted to see what I do. You might as well see it all.”

“It’s your money. If that’s how you want to spend it.”

I nodded. “If it helps you get to the bottom of this, it’s money well spent.”

She opened her car door. “Fair enough.”