The Pretend Boyfriend (The Pretend Boyfriend #3)(2)
Author: Artemis Hunt

Like this new trainer at the gym, for example.

He had let Sam do all the hiring because the gym was more her thing than his. More importantly, he wants to lay low for a while. He’s afraid that his (public) involvement may send out the wrong perceptions and cause disrepute to the gym.

Besides, he doesn’t want to be partial to hiring only curvy blondes.

The trainer’s name is Lydia. She is a brunette who has streaked her hair purple. It’s a deep purple that is almost black, so you can’t tell the purple tints apart unless she stands under some fluorescent light.

After Sam has given them all her pep talk, Lydia sidles up to him.

“So,” she says casually, “I hear you’re Brian Morton. You own this place.”

“Along with Ms. Fox, your employer. I’m the silent partner.”

She’s smiling at him in a coy, seductive way, and he smiles back – carefully. Wouldn’t want the staff to think one of the partners is standoffish.

“You’re famous,” she says. “Everyone here is talking about you.”

“All the more reason for you to stay away, else I might do something you’ll regret,” he deadpans.

She laughs. “I’m not afraid of you. No one here is. We all know you didn’t do it.”

“Whatever happened to guilty unless proven innocent?”

“You can’t scare me.” Her eyes rake him up and down. “You know, you’ve got a good body. But I can make it even better.”

“How?” he challenges her. It’s not an encouragement. He’s not even flirting. He just wants to see where this goes.

“I could be your personal trainer. Five times a week. For free. Call it up sucking up to the boss.”

“I’m not your boss. She is.” He jerks his chin towards Sam, who is talking to one of the hunky trainers. A twinge of irrational jealousy strikes him, and then it passes. He has no right to chide Sam for talking – or doing anything else – with someone else she finds attractive. After all, they are both free spirits, and he has as much claim on her as she has on him.

“But you’re an equal partner.”

“Who told you that?”

“She did.” Lydia jerks her head towards Sam. “She seems to think very highly of you, and she mentions you any way she gets. She refers to you as ‘her partner’. Does it mean more than I think it does?’

“Office gossip is so passé.”

“We’re not in the office.”

He uncurls himself from the handlebars of the elliptical trainer. “I’ll think about your offer.”

“Please do.” She smiles at him winningly again. “You know where to find me . . . anytime.”

Not too long ago, he would have considered her offer tempting. But not right now. Sam averts her head to glance at him. She is laughing, and her cheeks are rosy. She is the very epitome of health, and a spool of obvious desire for her tightens his balls.

Damn.

Why is she laughing so hard with that hunky trainer? Doesn’t the kid know that she’s the boss and he should be hands off? Damn his perfect pecs and white teeth. Damn that mass of blond hair. Why does he have to wear it shoulder-length and romance novel cover-style?

Maybe I should have been involved in the hiring process after all.

Still, Brian has to smile back at her. Make her think nothing affects him. And it shouldn’t, of course. He must be getting maudlin in his fall from grace. He must erase all petty thoughts and ridiculous jealousies. Him – jealous of a twenty-one year old hunk who’s trying to paw at the luscious female boss. What are his sensibilities coming to?

The staff is getting ready to go. After all, they don’t open until tomorrow. Blond hunk detaches himself from the Stairmaster, upon which he is draped like a muscly cloth, and follows the rest to the reception area. Holding her notepad, Sam comes over to Brian.

“Berating the staff?” he asks her lightly.

“Motivating them. It’s what you taught me, remember? His name is Thor.”

“Thor?” he repeats, crinkling his brow.

She laughs. “I know. Not exactly a name for a gym bunny.”

“On the contrary, it fits him to the tee. Or lack of a tee.” He’s giving Thor, the gym god, his dues. See how Sam will respond to that.

She taps her notepad. “Brian, in anticipation of our opening, Fitness Worx ten blocks down is giving a recruitment discount.”

He nods grimly. Gyms are competitive in Chicago, and if it weren’t for Sam’s lifelong dream, he would avoid gym businesses like the plague. Still, some pigheadedness in him is determined to make this a success, even if he knows f**k all about it.

She sighs. “We’ve only had ten sign-ups pre-opening.”

“Maybe it’ll get better when we actually open tomorrow. We don’t have a brand name like Fitness Worx. We don’t have twenty-two chains and their marketing muscle. We’re starting from scratch. Hell, I don’t expect us to break even for three years.”

“Three years is a long time,” she says. “We’ve done everything. Put out the flyers, the banners to let everyone we’re here. Everything.”

He squeezes her shoulder. “Let’s not worry about stuff till we have to worry about it, OK?”

They are alone in the gym now. Unless Thor is waiting for her outside. And unless Lydia has in mind to waylay him in the men’s locker room.

Sam’s wide eyes gaze at him, and it’s a look – which he is trying to deny, and which she isn’t very good at concealing – of adoration. His heart wrenches. Lately, he has taken to feeling that way too about her. Not that he’s going to let it stick. Not that he isn’t going to quash it down like an ice-cream cone down a gullet on a parched summer’s day.

He smiles languidly at her. His hand on her shoulder slides down to her bare arm. She wears a sleeveless white tee above pink slacks. She has let her hair grow longer, and her brown curls are now below her shoulders. She looks good this way.

He says, “What do you say we check out the steam room?” He teases out a lock of her curls. He can do this forever – play with her hair.

“Hmmm, wouldn’t do to have it jam up on us opening day,” she murmurs.

Smiling, they shuffle to the steam room, which is located beyond the changing rooms and locker area. There are two saunas altogether – one for men and the other for women. They stand outside the men’s sauna. He leans over, grabs her face in his hands and starts to kiss her hungrily. They haven’t had sex since . . . uh, when was it? This morning?