Page 38 of The Hacker
She forced herself to clean and stow the mat at a seminormal speed. Then she walked—not jogged—to the treadmill room.
And stopped dead when she saw Leland running, his legs moving like pistons, the cotton of his shirt darkened by sweat down the middle of his back. She wanted to rip the shirt off and lick the salty sweat from his skin.
Not a useful thought.
She closed her eyes to block out the sight until she got a grip on her unruly imagination. Then she walked across the wood floor to Leland’s treadmill.
“I’m glad to see you got here with plenty of time to warm up,” she said, feeling like an idiot.
He kept running. “I had to force myself not to come any earlier.”
She couldn’t stop her grin. “I like your honesty.”
“I’ve been thinking about having your hands on me for our training session. I can’t decide whether it will be torment or bliss.” He brought the treadmill to a halt and scrubbed his face with his sweat towel.
“If it makes you feel any better, I’ve been debating the same question.”
He finally looked at her, his eyes blazing with the same hunger she felt. “I’m going to take a wild guess and say it will be combination of the two.”
“Let’s get started and find out.” She gave him a sideways smile and nodded toward the weight room.
He stepped off the machine and spoke in a low voice. “We need to talk about the gym’s router. Since we’re on a tight time line I’m going to accept your help with getting into the office. Then you will leave immediately and pretend you were never there.”
Right. The reason Leland was at the gym.The haze of lust enveloping them had nearly made her forget about it.
“I meant it when I said you don’t have to do this,” she murmured as they walked. “It will get taken care of on Monday.”
“I meant it when I said that I can’t let this go if it’s dark web activity that I have the opportunity to stop.” His voice was edged with something like anger. “But I won’t know until I get into that router.”
They arrived in the weight room, where she waved him toward a bench. Once he was in position on his back, she handed him a pair of dumbbells. “Skull crushers, so I can talk while I’m spotting you.”
He nodded and straightened his arms above his chest. “You upped the weight.”
“It was time.” She knelt beside his head, noticing that the shadow of his beard had darkened overnight. Her fingers twitched with the urge to test its heavier texture. “Okay, start.”
He bent his arms at the elbow and lowered the weights on either side of his ears while she kept her hands at the ready to support the dumbbells.
“How long do you need with the router?” she muttered as she tilted in closer.
“It depends on the level of encryption. I won’t know until I get started.” His face was taut with exertion, sweat-curled strands of hair clinging to his temples. God, she wanted to brush them away.
“Better go in late, then, after Vicky and Ramón have left. Around nine o’clock.”
He smiled, a drawing back of lips from clenched teeth that spoke of effort and evil intentions. “How much free time do you have between now and then?”
“I’ve got clients until six.”
“Three hours.” His smile grew even more lascivious. “Think what we can do with all that time.”
Desire jolted through her to curl low in her belly. “Right now you have to do another set of skull crushers.”
“I feel energized enough to push outtwomore sets.”
She bent lower to lock her gaze with his before she said, “Don’t overdo it. You’re going to need all your strength for three hours with me.”
“Game on,” he said with a throaty chuckle.
The next fifty minutes were exactly as Leland had predicted: delicious torment. She made it worse by adding extra little touches that glided along a tempting swell of muscle or a patch of sweat-glistened skin. He retaliated in kind, brushing against her thigh or shoulder when he shifted positions and giving her long stares that made heat singe through her.
