by Lexy Timms
“As good as you thought it would be?”
This time Jennifer laughed. “Better.”
Parker’s hand stroked slowly up the length of her thigh, over the smooth curve of her buttock. “We could do it again,” he suggested. “For science. See if it continues to exceed your expectations.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” she shot back.
“Like you wouldn’t.”
“Hmm. True.” She smiled, and leaned in to kiss him. “I think I would like that a lot.”
Chapter 13
They didn’t go for round three. Mostly because they’d already been locked in the room for long enough to be really suspicious, and staying any longer was likely to get them kicked out of the party. Parker wouldn’t have minded, but if he got thrown out he would have to kiss ass to get back in next year, and they did need the clients. That, and Jackson would have been disappointed.
Jennifer left first, dress smoothed back on and hair caught back up in its pins. Parker wasn’t sure that would actually fool anyone, but if they didn’t at least pretend to make an effort at it they’d really be in trouble. He sat in the room after she’d gone, waiting until enough time had passed that he wouldn’t be following her out in the eyes of everyone else.
As the afterglow faded, he started to wonder if sleeping with her at one of the client parties had really been the best choice, and decided that it didn’t really matter. What was done was done. He couldn’t go back and change the past. Besides, she was hot, and the sex had been kind of spectacular.
He’d be open to doing it again.
Shirt pulled back on and neatly buttoned—minus one button now hidden behind his jacket—Parker finally stepped out of the bedroom and into the hall, heading back to the main room and the party.
Jackson found him almost immediately.
“You couldn’t have waited two hours?” he hissed, catching Parker by the arm and leaning up enough to whisper the words into his ear. “Seriously?”
“Kind of hard to wait when there’s a smoking hot naked woman standing in front of you begging for it,” Parker whispered back, grinning.
Jackson looked at him like he was contemplating whether or not he would be able to sufficiently hide all the pieces if he had Parker murdered. “I really don’t know why I associate with you sometimes. Go. Mingle. Platonically.” He gave Parker a shove.
Parker laughed and obediently went to make nice with the clientele. Across the room, he caught Jennifer’s eye for an instant as she did the same, and they exchanged secret smiles as they turned away from each other again.
“I guess it’s true what they say about that fine line between love and hate,” Lydia said a while later, stepping around Parker and toward the bar.
Parker followed. “Lust and hate, maybe,” he said.
She snorted. “Yeah. I guess that does make more sense. Was it worth it?”
Parker signaled the bartender. “Not that I should be telling you this, but it was totally worth it.” He took a seat on one of the stools, and she followed suit. “It usually is.”
“You keep telling yourself that,” Lydia said, and gave her order to the bartender as he made his way down to their end of the bar.
“Aren’t I the one who’s supposed to be dispensing life advice?” Parker retorted when he’d ordered his own drink.
“You only get to give life advice if it’s good. ‘Have hate sex with your rival in someone’s else’s bedroom’ isn’t good advice,” Lydia pointed out.
Parker laughed. “Yeah. Okay. Fair enough.”
“So,” she said, turning her head enough to look at him, “what comes next?”
The bartender returned and set their drinks down in front of them.
Parker toyed with the beer bottle, but didn’t lift it to his lips. “We keep moving forward with your training. At the end of the two weeks, you decide if you want to keep going from there, or if you’re done.”
“I meant with Jennifer, actually.” Lydia paused to take a sip of her drink. “Are you two an item now?”
“What, because we had sex we’re automatically going steady?” Parker shook his head. “No. I’m not looking for anything long-term.” He looked down at her, surprised at himself. “I don’t know why I’m telling you all of this. It really goes beyond the client/trainer relationship.”
“Because I’m a good listener,” she said, smiling at him.
“Well, listen to this, then. In two weeks, the contest is over.” Parker leaned his weight on one elbow resting on the wood of the bar. “If you want to be finished after that, then that’s your choice, but if you want to keep working with me, I admit that I want to keep training you. I like watching you get stronger every day. I like knowing that I’m doing something important.”
Lydia chuckled, and shook her head. “You know something, Parker? You might be the first genuinely good CEO I’ve ever heard of. Let alone met.”
“I’m going to take that as a compliment.” Parker said.
She grinned. “You should.”
***
They kept moving forward with Lydia’s training.
As the end of the contest got closer, the media coverage started up again, and they were dodging paparazzi to get into the gym. Parker was more than ready for it to be over.
Jennifer hadn’t shown up in his office since the party. Or at any of the diners he frequented. She was busy with her own side of the contest, Parker was sure. With the weeks spinning down into only days left, both of them had more than enough on their plates without adding whatever complicated thing they had started that night. It was better to just leave it.
Besides, like he’d said, he wasn’t looking for the one.
There was a knock on his office door an afternoon after working out with Lydia. Parker looked up, from the plans Jackson had given him for the final video, sighing.
“Come in,” he called toward it.
The man who walked in was wearing aviators, even though he’d have had to walk through the entire gym to get to the office. Parker resisted the urge to roll his eyes. It was obvious from the cut of the guy’s suit that he was rich, and despite what Jackson claimed, Parker was capable of restraining himself for the sake of professional appearance. Besides, the more rich clients they had willing to pay top dollar or donate money, the more people they could help who weren’t able to afford their training without some financial aid. People like Lydia and Michael, who wasn’t progressing quite as fast in his training as she was, but who still deserved a hand up. So Parker smiled at Mr. Tailored Suit.
“What can I do for you?”
“Hey! I’m Sebastian Koy. I’ve heard you’re the best, so I’m here to set up a training program with you.”
He had a trace of a British accent.
“I’d be happy to help you with that about…” Parker glanced at his watch. “Two days from now.”
Sebastian’s eyebrows lifted above his glasses. “I called to make sure you weren’t in an appointment.”
Parker was going have words with the people at the front desk.
“I’m not, but, as you might have heard, I’m in the middle of a publicity stunt and it’s taking up a lot of my time right now.”
“Look,” Sebastian said, leaning a little forward with one ankle crossed over the other knee, and finally taking off the sunglasses to look Parker in the eye. “My schedule is tight on a level that makes yours look open. So if you can’t help me, I’ll go find someone who can. I hear Jennifer Leandra is quite the trainer.”
Parker’s jaw tightened. The guy would bring that up.
“Fine. Happy to help. What kind of program are you looking for?” he asked, setting aside the video description and pulling out his pad and pen.
Sebastian sat back in his seat. “I’m a model, and I’ve just been chosen as the face—or body, rather—of a new highly popular underwear campaign. I need to look perfect for it. No bulking up. No offense, but I don’t want to look like you. I do, however, want muscl
e.”
Parker jotted the basics of Sebastian’s request down, nodding. “That’s not a problem at all. We work with a lot of clients looking for a leaner look. It’s just a matter of how much you want to do and when.”
“I’d like to start training with you as soon as possible.”
“How does next week sound? This weekend I’m booked solid.”
Sebastian sighed. He obviously wasn’t used to being told to wait. “Next week will have to do, I suppose. I’ll email you my schedule. Likely I won’t be available the same times every day, so we’ll have to find a workable method for slipping training in where I’ve got time. As far as diet, I’m already on a strict one, so I’ll send you the specifics for that as well. If you feel there need to be changes, let me know.”
“Will do,” Parker said. “I’ll try to get to it while I have some spare time in the next day or two, but I can’t guarantee I’ll have it before our first training session.”
Sebastian inhaled a long breath before huffing it out. “That’ll have to do, too, I suppose.”
He stood, and Parker stood as well, offering a hand for him to shake. Sebastian reached out and took it, his grip firm. Then he pulled away and turned to go, only to pause at the door.
“Oh. I’m not looking to work with your other trainers. I want you, specifically, and I’m willing to pay for the privilege. Please keep that in mind.”
Parker opened his mouth, but Sebastian hadn’t waited for an answer. He was already out the door. Finally giving into the temptation to roll his eyes, Parker dropped into his seat and went back to the video plan.
Chapter 14
“Budge over,” Lydia said, stealing a space on the couch between Parker and Jackson, and looking pleased with herself when she got settled in it, the bowl of popcorn on her lap.
“You're getting awfully pushy, you know,” Parker said, looking down at the top of her blonde head.
“Yeah, but you love it,” she retorted.
Parker laughed. He wasn't even going to deny it. The confidence that Lydia had built up working with him was a definite perk, and he was always happy to see it manifesting. She was, if he was honest, the client he was the proudest of taking on, and her progress had been kind of astonishing. He glanced at Jackson, and found his business partner shaking his head, but there was a smile on his lips. Parker picked up the remote, turning it to face the entertainment center at the other end of the room.
“You ready for this?” he asked them both.
“Totally ready,” Lydia said.
Jackson gave him a thumbs up. Parker hit the button to turn on the television.
“And now we're going to the news you've all been waiting for tonight,” the show’s host said as the picture came to life. She smiled into the camera. “Twelve weeks ago, Parker, of Health and Fitness Sports Club, decided to go head to head against Lioness Home Fitness' Jennifer Leandra to see who could really help anyone get fit. Tonight, we're going to find out who won.”
Lydia bumped her shoulder against Parker's, and when he looked down at her she was grinning. “Come on,” she said. “We totally won.”
“We might not have,” Parker said, because he didn't want to see her get too hung up on it and then spiral down when they didn't. He reached for a handful of popcorn. “Jennifer’s a pretty worthy opponent. You saw Tom.”
“Yeah, but you're still better.” She settled a little deeper into the couch cushions and they fell silent again.
“As you know,” the show’s host was saying, “the contest involved each contestant picking out a client to train. Over a period of twelve weeks they worked on fitness, and changing habits for better health. Once a week, each team released a progress video, along with various Instagram pics and other social media pieces throughout. They also had check-ins with doctors to make sure that progress was going in the right direction. At the end of the time period, they ran the trainees through a series of tests for strength and endurance, and doctors recorded the difference between starting health statistics and ending stats.”
The picture shifted as she spoke, showing images of Lydia and Tom with Parker and Jennifer, from the early days until the last week. Video clips of Lydia lifting weights and Tom jogging popped up on the screen.
“Wow,” Lydia said. “I can't believe how much different I look.”
“Hey, I'm good at what I do.”
“The best,” Lydia agreed.
Maybe not the best, Parker didn’t say, because no matter what happened in the contest, he was happy with where he stood. He knew Jennifer and Tom were watching, too, just down the hall in their own green room, all of them waiting to be summoned out for the big reveal.
There were a lot of different ways they could have gone with the announcement. Parker had told Jackson to handle it, because he didn’t care, and in the end Jackson and Jennifer had decided on a live television reveal, which was probably the best option if what they were going for was publicity. Their shocked faces would go up on national television, and then the entire country would know who they were. Or at least that was the theory. Frankly, Parker could have done without the national television angle; he was really getting tired of watching out for photographers hiding in bushes.
“They’re getting close,” Lydia said suddenly, elbowing him in the side to get his attention.
Parker looked up at the television. They were rambling through the rationale for the different tests they’d run. That meant that they’d want everyone out on stage for the announcement in just a few minutes. Parker ran a hand through his hair to straighten it out.
Video of Lydia and Tom running played. Parker couldn’t quite hide his smug smile. Lydia had won that race, and not just because Tom had started the contest in physical therapy. After twelve weeks, his leg was well and truly healed. He’d beaten her at the shorter run, his longer stride giving him an advantage in the sprint, but Lydia had the endurance.
The door opened, and an aide stuck his head in. “We’re ready for you guys. Come on out.”
They stood, Lydia brushing a stray piece of popcorn off her shirt, and headed for the door and out onto the stage. Jackson waved from the couch as they left. Parker had argued that he should come, too, but the show had insisted that it would just be Jennifer and Tom from Lioness Home Fitness, and that Lydia and Parker should be a matching pair.
Out in the audience, people were screaming and waving their hands as he and Lydia stepped through the door. Parker grinned at them, lifting a hand in a wave that made them cheer louder. On the other side of the stage, Lydia and Tom were standing together, both of them in workout gear the same as he and Lydia.
“Finally,” the host said. “The moment you’ve all been waiting for. Please welcome Jennifer Leandra of Lioness Home Fitness and her partner Tom, and Parker of Fitness and Health Sports Club and his partner Lydia.”
Everyone cheered again. Parker smiled, and tried not to look as anxious as he felt. At his side, he could feel Lydia shifting a little closer, nervous in front of the live audience and the multiple cameras. He instantly calmed, reached out and caught her hand in his, giving it a gentle squeeze. Everything was going to be okay, he’d promised her, and it was true. No matter who won, they’d done something great. She squeezed back.
“So, Jennifer,” the host said. “What will you do if Parker wins?”
Jennifer laughed. “Well, Pam, that’s a moot question. Parker isn’t going to win.”
“And what about you, Parker?” Pam asked, turning to look at him. “What will you do if Jennifer wins?”
Parker smiled at the camera. “Go home and have a beer.”
Laughter went up in the audience, and a few people cheered.
“Seriously, though,” Parker said. “It doesn’t matter who wins. All that matters is that my client is happy with the progress she’s made and feeling good in her own skin.”
More cheers, and he could see that he’d pulled Pam in. She gave him a wide smile.
That’s awfully noble
of you.”
“It’s just my job.” He could practically hear Jennifer grinding her teeth, but he saw that when they turned back to her she was smiling.
“Anything to say to that, Jennifer?” Pam asked.
“Obviously,” Jennifer said, “I’m happy if Tom is. He and I have worked really hard to get where we are now, and his satisfaction with that is definitely important.” Her smile widened. “But we’d both be happier if we won.”
This time the audience laughed for her.
“One more thing,” Pam said, “before we go to the announcement from the judges. And this is a question for both of you.”
There was an anticipation hanging in the air that Parker wasn’t sure he liked. He was pretty sure he knew where the question was going, and equally sure that Jackson was in the green room tearing his hair out because he couldn’t be out on stage to offer advice on the best answer.
“Two weeks ago, you two attended a fancy soiree held by one of Fitness and Health Sports Club’s big investors. Rumor has it you disappeared together for quite a while there.” She raised her eyebrows at them. “America wants to know what happened behind closed doors.”
Parker glanced over at Jennifer. She was smiling a little too wide to really be believable. Beside her, Tom looked like he’d rather be somewhere else. He looked down at Lydia, who gave him a shrug that said whatever he’d done with Jennifer wasn’t her problem.
“I don’t really think that’s America’s business, Pam,” Parker said, in the same moment as Jennifer opened her mouth. “What I, or anyone else, does behind closed doors is the business of the person involved.”
If it had been just him, he wouldn’t have minded. But he wasn’t going to drag Jennifer into it if she didn’t want to be. They should have talked about before this. It had been a given that rumors would get out about that night.
“And here I thought you were the open and forthcoming type,” Pam said, more teasing than unhappy. “I mean, I did read your Rich & Single interview.”
