She seemed surprised that I remembered. I was kind of surprised myself. I didn’t normally remember little details about women, the only exceptions being the ones in my family, and even then I didn’t always pay close attention.
“Yeah, I’m doing freelance right now.” Her nose wrinkled. “It pays the bills I guess.”
“Don’t your parents help out?”
The light that had filled those strange eyes of hers dimmed, and I wanted to kick myself. I was really putting my foot in it today. “I don’t really talk to my parents unless I have to,” she murmured and turned her attention back to the numbers on her elliptical.
Harper
My thighs started burning long before I decided that I had enough of the elliptical. I reached for my towel and wiped the sweat from my brow and upper lip before taking a sip from my water bottle.
Beside me, Shane Stevenson, aka Hot Rocker Man, bounced off his own torture machine like he had another two hours of workout in him. For some strange reason he made me smile.
“So where to next?” he asked, taking his Boston Red Sox cap off and messing with his hair before putting it back on.
“I’m done.” An hour was my limit, about enough to work off the desserts I seemed to be addicted to. “I’m hitting the showers.”
His face fell and he actually gave me a little pout. “Ah, come on, Harper. Don’t leave now.”
That pout drew me in and I found myself relenting. “What do you want to do?”
Blue-gray eyes darkened and I saw firsthand the look that Lana had warned me about. Shane was supposed to be some bad ass womanizer that could melt the panties of every female with a working libido. I just couldn’t figure out why he was flirting with me…
“A few things come to mind.” His voice was lower, husky.
If I said it didn’t affect me I would be a liar. It seemed that my libido worked just fine because I was sure that my panties did melt a little, but I knew better than to take him seriously. Guys as hot as Shane didn’t go for girls like me.
I grinned and pushed at his shoulder. “I’m starving. Let’s shower and go get some breakfast.”
“Or we could do that.” He winked and walked with me toward the locker rooms. “I didn’t bring anything with me to change into.”
“Okay, I’ll hurry then. Do you want to go back to your place to change?” I glanced at his shirt drenched in sweat that clung to his hard chest. “Or I could get you something from Linc’s locker?”
“Do you think he would mind?” Shane frowned.
I shrugged. “I’m sure he won’t, but if you want we can run upstairs to the private rooms and ask him. He and Lana should be close to done by now.”
Blue-gray eyes narrowed at my words. “Lana is with Linc this morning?”
“Yeah, didn’t she tell you? She and Linc are doing some kind of dance competition. They practice two to three times a week, if not more. Linc pushes her really hard. He has a thing about winning.”
Actually, I was sure that Lana was starting to dislike dancing on some levels because of Linc’s drive. She wasn’t enjoying it like she had a few months ago.
Or maybe it was because Drake Stevenson was in town. Lana had told me about her relationship with the older Stevenson brother, or lack of one if you looked at it that way, so I knew she had to be hurting and conflicted about his sudden relocation to the East Coast.
“Let’s go ask Linc.” Shane gave me a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes, and I had a sudden crazy thought that maybe Drake wasn’t the only Stevenson brother with a thing for my friend.
Why that thought bothered me, I couldn’t say. It was almost startling the way my heart felt like it was being stabbed with a stickpin, but I ignored the dull ache and led him over to the stairs. Music was still playing behind the door. Normally, the room was used for the Zumba classes that I sometimes climbed out of bed for.
Shane opened the door and let me go in before him. My roommates were dancing to some Michael Bublé song. It was the first time I actually saw them like this, and I had to say they were pretty amazing. Linc was a big guy, in height and muscle mass, but he looked like he belonged on the dance floor the way he controlled Lana. And Lana looked enthralled as Linc swung her around. The excitement, the happiness I saw on her beautiful face, told me she wasn’t completely fed up with dancing just yet.
The couple didn’t even notice that they had an audience until the music finally came to an end. When it did Linc started critiquing Lana. “Your leg needs to come up a little more on that last spin, Lana.”
“Okay.”
“So this is what you blew me off for, sis?” Shane shook his head. “I feel cheated!”
Lana’s head snapped up and her face lit up when she saw him standing beside me. “You’ll get over it. Wow, three days in a row. I don’t think I saw this much of you back in Cali.”
“I was bored.” He stepped forward and pulled her into a hug.
I watched my friend but there wasn’t anything different about the way she looked at Shane than the way she would look at Linc. I shrugged off the idea that the two might possibly be into each other.
“I see you decided to actually get out of bed before noon,” Linc commented dryly as he uncapped his protein shake and chugged it.
I grinned up at the man that was my closest friend in the world, second only to Dallas and now Lana. “I thought I would be productive today since I ate half a cheesecake last night. My ass was begging for some help after all those calories.”
He rolled his eyes. “You have the best ass in the state, girl.”
I rolled my eyes at him, not taking his compliment to heart in the least. Linc was as hot as the surface of the sun, but he was also as gay as they came. “You want to come grab some breakfast with us?”
“I already ate.” He tossed his shake back into his gym bag. “And I have a private training session in ten minutes.”
What he meant was that he had a private session with some cougar that wanted to look at something pretty while they worked off the lettuce leaves they had forced down the day before. It took hard work to maintain what expensive doctors created. Linc got paid really well for just standing around flirting. The extra tips the cougars slipped him were appreciated as well.
“Have fun.” I hugged him before turning back to Lana and Shane, who seemed to be half teasing and half arguing.
“I shouldn’t have gone back to your place last night,” Lana huffed. “Don’t expect it to happen again.”
“Don’t you like me anymore, sis?” He pouted and I had the sudden vision of sucking on that full bottom lip.
That thought completely tossed me sideways. What the hell was the matter with me? I didn’t have random thoughts like that, especially about sex addict rock star playboys. I knew what guys like that were all about, and I didn’t need them complicating my life. So of course I did what I do best.
I ran like the hounds of Hell were behind me!
Pulling out my cellphone, I scrolled through the contact list and pulled up Dallas’ number. If anyone could understand my reasons for not wanting to even admit to having a crazy attraction for the rocker bad boy it would be Dallas. We had grown up together in the world of modeling, her in front of the camera and me on the sidelines watching my stepsister.
I punched in a quick text for her to call me and get me out of the breakfast I had stupidly invited Shane to.
Chapter 2
Shane
I knew she was running as soon as I saw the look in her eyes.
Something about her told me not to let her get away. Maybe I was so bored I needed the challenge. Or perhaps it was because no chick had ever ran from me, like ever. Not once since I had turned fourteen had a female turned me down.