Erin stands, pulling me from my thoughts. I watch as she slowly and seductively turns to face me before sliding her knees on either side of mine, straddling my lap. She bites her lip, her eyelids heavy with lust. “You should let me pay you back for that,” she says, her fingers trailing down my stomach. I groan when she palms me through my sweat pants, my dick reacting to her whether I want it to or not. I swallow hard, reining in my hormones. I already hate using Erin, I don’t need to make it worse than it already is.
“As tempting as that sounds and as sexy as you look right now…” I use my thumb to pull down on her chin, freeing her lip from her teeth before sliding my hand back through her hair. “I need to get to the gym and work on this paper before the tournament tonight.”
Erin’s shoulders deflate. “I don’t see why you have to go.” She pouts. “Poker is Skyler’s thing, not yours. I know you’re trying to be nice and be her friend, but I don’t think she’ll blame you if you bail.”
I shake my head. “I promised her at the beginning of the semester that I’d help her train for May. I never see her other than class and poker, so it’s not like I’m doing too much. Besides, it helps with this script idea I have about a poker player who gets caught up with the wrong people in Vegas. It’s a rough idea, but it might work for my final paper. I’m learning the terms and shit.” I smile through the lie and Erin sighs, still not happy.
“Well,” she says, her eyes lighting up again. “Then why don’t you skip the gym and let me work you out instead?” She licks her lips and arches a brow, challenging me.
“You’re relentless, woman,” I tease, but silently pray she’ll give it up. I’m just a guy, for fuck’s sake – I can only say no to sex so many times. “I really do need to go. But not before you give me a kiss with those lips you like to bite so much.”
Erin still doesn’t seem satisfied, but at that, she smiles and leans in to plant her lips on mine, running her fingers through my hair to pull me closer. I hate myself for kissing her back, for dragging her into this mess in the first place, but again I remind myself of the bigger picture. Erin is a small table, Skyler is the final one. I have to go through one to get to the other, and unfortunately no one cares much about the small table.
My level of asshole-ness is just growing by the minute.
The Palm South campus is a beautiful one, but perhaps one of their biggest bragging points is the gym. With two floors of machines and equipment, three studio classrooms, a spinning studio, a pool, and three full size courts for Intramural games, it’s massive – and my favorite place to burn off steam. The view of the Atlantic through the large glass windows only adds to the experience and they just put in a smoothie bar this semester. They didn’t have gyms anywhere close to this nice in Kansas, and I’ve taken full advantage every chance I’ve had.
My triceps are on fire as I grip the weight bench, lowering myself down to the ground and back up again. Each dip sends a burning pain through my arms and up to my shoulders but I grit through it, staring straight ahead and focusing on the house music blaring through my ear buds. Sweat drips into my eyes and I blink it away, counting the reps in my head. Suddenly, someone walks up beside the bench. I ignore them, but their presence pulls my focus.
What the fuck?
There are twenty other benches, stalker. Stop creeping on mine.
Just as I lift myself back onto the bench and let my arms fall like Jell-O to my sides, my right ear bud is ripped from my ear.
“What the fuck?” I yell louder than I intended as I look up to confront the offender. Skyler stands with her arms crossed, smirking. Without realizing it, my eyes fall from hers to the tight workout clothes hugging her curves.
Goddamn it, this is not part of the plan.
“Easy there, killer.” She laughs, throwing her hands up in surrender. “I just saw you over here when I was walking to Spin Class and thought I’d say hi. Clearly disrupting your lift session is a serious offense.”
I shake my head, realizing the scowl from my initial reaction is still cemented on my face. I trade it in for a smile and stand, rolling my shoulders back and pulling my left arm across my chest to stretch. “You’re damn right it is. Do you even lift, bro?”
She giggles and it’s the cutest fucking thing. Why does it have to be the cutest fucking thing?
“Remind me not to ever need a favor from you when you’re working out,” she says, her eyes playful.
“Who says you get any favors from me at all?” I arch my brows and her face falls, her eyes dropping to the ground. I laugh, nudging her with my hand as I switch arms and stretch the right one. “I’m joking, Sky. You ready for tonight?”
Her smile returns and she scoffs. “Please, I think the better question is are they ready for me tonight? The people playing tonight will definitely recognize me, which means I don’t have to worry about playing dumb. I can bring my A game. These poor suckers won’t know what hit them.” She winks and tosses her towel over her shoulder and I laugh.
“Well damn, looks like I’ll finally get to see the famous Skyler Thorne in her own element.”
“I bet you can barely contain your excitement,” she teases, but my eyes won’t listen to me and they fall to her chest. The sports bra she’s wearing paired with the low-cut tank top is enough to unravel me.
“You have no idea,” I murmur.
Skyler shifts uncomfortably under my stare and I lift my eyes again. She looks at me through her lashes, biting her lip just a bit – almost not enough to notice. I swallow and she clears her throat, pointing behind her with her thumb. “Um, you need to get in some cardio? I’ll let you bike next to me if you promise not to kill me with that lifting glare of yours.”
I laugh, crossing my arms across my chest. Skyler’s eyes follow the movement and I flex even though I don’t really need to in this position. “I got in plenty of cardio earlier, trust me,” I say, winking.
I realize immediately how that sounded as Skyler’s face turns white, her eyes wide. I was referring to running the circle around campus, but I know that’s not what she’s thinking. By now, she knows Erin stayed the night, and I watch as she puts two and two together.
My smile grows and I hold my ground as Skyler stares. It’s too easy to get caught up with her, to fall into our comfortable banter, but this slip up actually plays into my hand better than I could have planned. I’m supposed to weaken her, and comments like that might be the key to achieving the mission.
“Oh, uh… okay. Um,” she stumbles, backing up as I arch my brow. “Well I have to go, class is starting. I’ll see you tonight.” She turns on her heel and rushes toward the spin studio.
“Pick you up at five!” I yell to her back and she throws her hand up in a wave of acknowledgement.
Well shit, I definitely didn’t expect to run into her here. It makes sense that she would be at the gym, given how in shape she is, but this couldn’t have worked out any better for me. I smile, walking to the free weights. When I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, my cocky smile fades. I look into my own blue eyes, searching for a compassionate man that I know must exist in there somewhere. There’s got to be a better part of me that wants me to stop what I’m doing.
I guess he’s not speaking to me right now.
Can’t say that I blame him.
“You look different tonight,” I observe, eying the baggy black hoodie and dark jeans Skyler’s paired together. She taps her sunglasses on her leg nervously and stares out the window as we ride to the casino. The tension that built between us earlier at the gym has only magnified since we got in the cab. Skyler and I don’t do close very well. Or, rather, we do it too well, which is why I know my comment earlier got under her skin.