IT’S NOTHING. YOU’RE blowing things out of proportion.
Sakis repeated the words over and over as he pulled the handles of the rowing machine in his gym just after six o’clock. Right this moment he’d have loved to be doing the real thing but this wasn’t the time to jump in his car and drive to his rowing club, no matter how powerful the temptation.
He smothered the voice that suggested he was running away from the truth.
What truth?
He didn’t know what the text on Brianna’s phone meant. Sure, the easiest thing would’ve been to wake her up and demand an answer. Instead, he’d got up, returned the phone to her jacket pocket and high-tailed it to the gym.
He yanked on the row bars and welcomed the burn of pain between his shoulders and the sweat that poured off his skin. He tried to ignore the question hammering through his brain but the truth of his actions was as clear as the scowl he could see in his reflection in the gym’s mirrors.
Are you invested in this? When he’d blurted those words out last night, he’d been stunned by the need to hear her answer in the affirmative. Because in that moment he’d realised just how truly invested he was in having Brianna in his life and not just as his personal assistant. Even now, with suspicion warring with his new-found intentions to trust more and judge less, the thought of not having her around made a red haze cloud his senses.
You have three days to get me what I need...
Was it a professional request? Who would be making such a demand of her professionally?
If it was a personal one...
He emitted the deep growl that had been growing in his chest as jealousy spiked through his gut.
At that moment, Brianna walked into the gym and froze. In the mirror, their eyes meshed. The look on his face was fierce and unwelcoming—he knew that. He wasn’t surprised when her eyes widened and she hesitated.
‘I can come back later if I’m disturbing you.’
With one last, vicious yank on the row bar, he let it go, watched it clatter against the spinning wheel and stood and advanced towards her.
The sight of her in skin-clinging, midriff-baring Lycra made adrenaline and arousal spike higher. The thought of making another of his myriad sexual fantasies come true pounded through his blood and groin with a ferocity that made him grit his teeth. He barely managed to catch himself from lunging for her, and veered towards the row of treadmills.
‘Disturb me. I was in danger of letting my imagination get the better of me.’ He gave a smile he knew fell far short of the mark and busied himself with programming the treadmill next to his. When he was done, he waved her over.
‘Thirty minutes okay?’ he asked.
He caught the look of wariness on her face as she nodded and approached the machine.
About to set his own programme, he glanced over and was pretty sure he burst a blood vessel when she bent over to stretch.
‘Theos!’ His hiss brought her head up and she slowly straightened.
Her gaze travelled down his chest and dropped to the loose shorts that did nothing to hide the power of her effect of him. When her mouth dropped open, he let out a strained laugh. ‘Now you see the power you have over me.’
She stepped onto the treadmill and pressed start. ‘You don’t sound too happy about it.’
‘I like being in control, agapita. And you’re detonating mine with that tight body of yours.’
He watched the blush creep up from her neck to stain her cheeks. ‘It’s not exactly a walk in the park for me either, if that helps you?’
Sakis fought to reconcile the blushing, sexually innocent woman in front of him with one who could be capable of duplicity.
Don’t judge before you know the facts...
Brianna’s words flashed through his churning mind. With a deep breath, he started his own machine and began jogging alongside her.
One minute, one full minute, was how long he lasted before he gave in to the urge to glance over at her. The sight of her breasts bouncing beneath her clinging tank top made him groan. Only his ingrained discipline from his professional rowing days stopped him from losing his footing.
But he didn’t glance away. He stared his fill. And then he stared some more as his body moved to the spinning treadmill entirely independent of his frenzied thoughts.
She tried to ignore him. But after stumbling a fourth time, she used the handlebars to raise herself and planted her feet on the stationary part of the machine.