Page 12 of Rush
Staring at the facade of the warehouse, I held my handbag against my stomach like a shield. If I went in and Ryan wasn’t there, then it wasn’t meant to be. It was a completely stupid reason to justify my lackluster attempt at finding him, but I couldn’t handle another rejection. Hunter had taken my entire life, and Ryan…he would take the foundations along with everything that was left.
C’mon, Jade, I thought to myself.Grab the bull by the balls.
Opening the door, I stepped into the little foyer. There was a desk with flyers littered over the top, and behind it was a wall of merchandise emblazoned with the Pulse Fitness logo.
Approaching the next set of doors, I realized I couldn’t go any further. A little black box by the door signaled I needed a security fob to enter the gym. I was stuck.
Craning my neck, I raked my gaze over the rows of weight machines and cardio equipment packed in the warehouse space beyond. Men and women in fancy fitness wear were working up a sweat, but I didn’t recognize any of them. Ryan wasn’t here, and I began to feel like a moron for coming in the first place.
That was when a man who’d had his back to me turned, reaching for the handles on a machine.Ryan.
I recognized him instantly. He was sans shirt, black shorts and trainers the only things he wore…and I was pretty sure I wasn’t the only woman drooling at the sight of his sculpted man chest. I had no idea what the machine he was using did, but there were weights involved, which meant flexing.Flexing without a shirt on.
I stood, stuck to the spot, completely transfixed. He pulled down on the handles, and the weights lifted. His muscles bulged and rippled, and my insides twisted.Hot damn…I could put that on a book cover and sell a million copies…
“Can I help you?”
I squeaked, jumping out of my skin as a female voice broke through my blatant ogling. Turning, I saw a woman with blue and black hair standing behind me, her arms full of brightly colored tattoos. She’d emerged from underneath the desk, looking just as surprised to see me as I was her.
“I… It’s not what it looks like,” I blurted.
“They dazzle me too sometimes,” the woman said with a smile. She seemed friendly enough, and I began to relax. I was so not myself.
“I, uh… I’m looking for a friend of mine,” I began. “Ryan Harper? He told me he trained here full-time…” I glanced back through the doors, trying not to get sucked into the hot male vortex but failed miserably. A shirtless Ryan Harper had me all juicy and slightly mortified I was gunning for another man so soon after catching Hunter fucking another woman.
“Ryan?” the woman asked. “He’s here. Would you like me to get him for you?”
“Oh, he looks busy,” I said, beginning to panic.I shouldn’t have come. This was completely stupid. “I know his training is important…”Lame, Jade. Totally lame. “It’s okay.”
“He doesn’t usually train on a Sunday. They go six days with today off. I don’t think he would mind.”
In a totally un-Jade-like way, I began plotting my escape route, which pretty much consisted of one step. Run like hell.
“Wait there a sec,” the woman said, and before I could grab her, she’d disappeared through the door, the security lock clicking into place. Trapped again.
Shit. What was I going to say to him? Why the fuck was I even here? My bravado had dissolved into a pile of steaming mush.
I watched the woman cross the gym, my stomach churning. She was totally casual as she stood beside the weight machine delivering the message. Then she pointed at me.
Ryan’s gaze met mine from across the gym, and he frowned. Not a good sign. He grabbed a towel and rubbed it over his face before pulling on a tank top. Then he made a beeline directly for me. Like a heat-seeking missile locked on its target, he wove through the rows of foreign looking machines and pushed through the door.
I was dazzled as we stood in the same space, even more than I’d been on Friday. His skin was all dewy, his tattooed arm glistening, and his eyes were sharp and alert…and focused solely on me.
“Jade,” he said, sounding surprised. “What are you doing here?”
“I, uh…” I was beginning to feel really stupid. He’d shown me a little kindness the other day and had promptly left. Now here I was, doing God knows what…
“Use your words, J,” he said with a chuckle.
“Shut up,” I said sharply.
“Just like old times.”
What was wrong with me? I knew what. I was so completely lost, and the realization had taken away everything that made me Jade Forsyth. My confidence, my fire, my arsenal of swear words, all of it had dissolved into a puddle of shame and humiliation.
“I didn’t want the other day to be… I didn’t want to leave it like that,” I said lamely.
Ryan’s brow furrowed, and he crossed his arms over his chest. All it did was accentuate his muscles, and I pursed my lips to stop myself salivating.
