Stealing Her (Covet 1)

“Is this right?” she called over her shoulder.

I jerked my head to attention, made a noncommittal noise that sounded like I was choking on something, and then squeezed out a hoarse “Yes.”

I did this for a living.

I had loads of female clients, all of whom tried to hit on me at one point in their training. Yet one innocent back squat from a woman who wasn’t even trying to tempt me was going to be my downfall.

“Alright.” I cleared my throat. “Let’s do three more.”

I squeezed my eyes shut for a few brief seconds then watched, I watched like it was my last meal, and I wondered yet again how my brother had gotten so damn lucky.

I helped her rack the weights and tossed her a towel, my mind a chaotic mixture of curiosity and jealousy. “Tell me something you remember about us.”

She gave me a funny look.

“I mean before all of this.”

“Ah, you mean before the trust funds and fancy cars. You’ve always had money, you just didn’t have access to it. It didn’t mean you didn’t have the nicest car on campus or most expensive clothes I’ve ever seen.” She frowned and patted her sweaty chest with the towel while I sucked in a shaky breath and waited for more words, more clues into how this even happened. “My favorite memory is how we met.”

“Oh?” I was dying with curiosity. “I want to hear the story from your point of view . . .”

She laughed softly. “You rarely travel down memory lane, you sure you want to do that now, with me all sweaty and you . . .” Her voice trailed off as she swallowed slowly and looked away. “Also sweaty?”

I smirked at her obvious discomfort. Excellent, at least I affected her. “I think we can handle it. We are adults, after all.”

“Let’s hit the showers, and I’ll tell you.” She skipped toward the immaculate bathroom connected to the workout room while I stood woodenly in place. When I didn’t follow right away she poked her head around the door. “Julian, you’re seriously acting weird. I know how you get if I don’t wash your back, and I’m sweaty too. It’s just a shower.”

She left again.

And I muttered under my breath, “No, it’s definitely not.”

I forced myself to go through the motions as I slowly stripped out of my clothes. I gave myself a million pep talks, then opened the steamed-up glass shower door and joined her.

Naked.

She was so naked, her perfect ass facing me while she rubbed soap all over her body and between her breasts.

I quickly turned on the second showerhead and started thinking about every single depressing thing possible.

And then I thought of my mother.

And her sickness.

And the fact that it had been almost four weeks since I’d seen her face to face.

And suddenly I wasn’t in the mood to shower, to talk, to do anything except call her and make sure my dad was keeping his end of the bargain still.

“I thought you were an arrogant prick,” came Izzy’s voice.

I whipped my head around. “Come again?”

She laughed and tossed a pink loofah at me. “You heard me. You were so arrogant, so aloof, everyone on campus knew who you were, who your family was. And since we’d gone to high school together and you’d sort of . . . taken me under your wing when I was dating Ryan, well, we just kind of clicked. Plus it’s not like we hadn’t been study partners before, I mean our senior year was the best, right?”

Shit. I had no idea if it was the best, because I had no fucking clue if she was even telling me the truth. Then again, she wouldn’t lie, would she?

“Sorry, I’m still focusing on the ‘arrogant prick’ comment,” I teased, sidestepping the entire question. “I expected you to say something like ‘And then I fell at your feet, because holy fuck, it’s Julian Tennyson.’”

She made a face. “You curse more now, you know that?”

“I almost died, you know that?” I deflected with a wink.

“Touché.” She grinned. “And no, I didn’t fall at your feet, but after all that trouble with tuition and my parents dying, it just . . . I don’t know, it was so natural turning to you, to your father. You guys gave me everything and I was so thankful that I had family who cared when I thought I had nobody. You guys stepped up in a huge way.” Darkness clouded her vision. “Things change, though, don’t they? When you get older and realize the world isn’t the place you thought it was?”

“Yeah, sadly they do.” I grabbed her smooth shoulders and turned her around so I could get her back. “Do you miss it, the before?”

“Yes,” she said without thinking. “And no.”

“Why no?”

“Because I wouldn’t be here in the shower with you if I hadn’t bumped into you that day in Human Anatomy, if we hadn’t recognized each other, gone to get coffee. We were inseparable after that.”