by Drea Stein
“I hear it’s excellent exercise,” Jackson said, looking up and around for his next grip. Lynn watched his technique. It wasn’t very refined but it got the job done. His big frame made it easy for him to find a foot or handhold and then it was just a matter of sheer strength for him to pull himself up.
She looked at him, could see how his back muscles bunched and tightened under his fitted t-shirt, the way his long, muscular legs moved with the rest of the body. Well, whatever he was doing for exercise, it was working nicely, Lynn thought, since there was nothing wrong with his body, especially the view from below and behind.
“You don’t climb for real, I mean outdoors?” Lynn asked, picking up her pace. The top half of the wall was trickier than the bottom half, with the grips more spaced out. She used her knowledge of it to pull ahead of Jackson, watching as his hands searched for a good position.
“You mean on real rocks? Not since I was a kid,” he said, his voice holding just the hint of breathlessness.
“You should try it sometime, might loosen you up.”
He gave a snort. “Does that mean you climb trees too?”
“Only when something’s chasing me,” she said, sending him a proud grin as she passed him and made her way to the top.
A rueful look flickered over his face, but he kept going, pulling himself up to the top more slowly.
Lynn looked around, surveying the space and catching her breath. Ok, so it wasn’t anything like what she had climbed back in Colorado, but it wasn’t so bad. And the Mountain State had never had a view quite like Jackson Sanders in it, either.
“Hey, guys. Time to come down; I’ve got some people waiting,” Bode called from below. Lynn nodded and readied herself for the rappel down. Sure, there was no way this could compete with the real thing, but it was still no small thrill to let yourself leap out into the air, the only thing keeping you from free falling your harness and a piece of rope.
With a little whoop, she shoved off, relished the speed and then slowed herself down to a more respectable, rule-abiding pace.
“Nice work out.” Bode caught her and then set her upright, his hands moving over her just a little as he set her upright.
Jackson landed neatly next to her, glancing between her and Bode. Lynn decided that she didn’t mind the way Bode let his hand rest on her shoulder, not when she saw how Jackson was looking at them. Maybe this was the way to pierce Jackson’s ice demeanor.
“Not bad for a first timer,” Bode said offhandedly to Jackson. Lynn could feel Bode drawing up tight beside her, his arm still possessively around her. She nearly sidestepped but just to keep watching Jackson’s reaction, she stayed where she was.
Jackson only said, “I’m a quick learner.”
“Your form and technique could be a little better,” Bode said quickly. “Maybe we’ll just have another go at it, and then I’ll critique you.”
Lynn looked between the two men and decided she had better make herself scarce. “I’m just going to go over and use the weight room. Thanks, Bode.”
“No problem.” Bode shot her a smile and then said, “I was thinking maybe we could grab a beer together. My buddies and I usually hit Quent’s Pub around eight?”
Lynn tried not to care if Jackson overheard this exchange or not. Bode had been bugging her to go out for a ‘beer’ for a while, but she’d always found some excuse, usually work related, to say no. But now her hours were more regular, so there really wasn’t any reason she couldn’t, shouldn’t go out. If she told her mom she was going on a date voluntarily, then she’d be less likely to set her up on another blind one. She was fairly certain she could drag Tory along so she’d have backup. After all, Tory had told her stop over-thinking her relationships, and Bode had never struck her as much of a thinker. Maybe he was just what she needed. And there was the fact that Jackson was standing there, watching, as if he actually cared what she had to say.
“Sounds good,” Lynn said, and glanced over at Jackson, and just caught the look that flitted across his face. Was he angry? Jealous? Whatever it was, he certainly wasn’t indifferent.
She tried to hide her smile, and knew good manners needed her to say something. “I’ll bring my friend Tory along, so Jackson, if you’re not doing anything, maybe you’d like to join us?”
His blue eyes raked over her, took in Bode standing next to her, arms crossed.
“I have other plans, thank you,” he said coldly.
Lynn nodded, but felt what? A small shiver of disappointment. Still, she turned to look at Bode, with his surfer-length brownish-blonde hair, bulging biceps, and pecs that practically danced on their own and decided that there could be worse ways to spend an evening than in the company of the very well-toned and defined Bode Weller.
“Well then, catch you later, Bode,” she said as casually as she could, and walked away. She didn’t dare look back, but she was certain she could feel two sets of eyes staring at her as she crossed the gym floor toward the weight room.
Chapter 21
Jackson didn’t know why he disliked Bode almost on sight. Certainly it wasn’t because he was jealous of the easy way he had gotten Lynn to agree to go out with him. Or the way Lynn had clearly been staring, ogling Bode in his sleeveless shirt and workout pants. But he just didn’t like the guy.
He hadn’t planned on running into her; at least, that hadn’t been his primary goal in coming here. Sure, he knew that this was the only gym in town. The thought had crossed his mind that maybe, when he decided to go for a workout, there was an off chance he might bump into her. The thought bothered him, but he hadn’t tried to stay away either. It was just that he wasn’t supposed to care about her one way or the other. And yet he couldn’t deny that he had been strangely gratified when he’d seen her walking in and stopping at the front desk. His eyes had followed her to the locker room and then before he realized what he doing, he had sweet-talked the receptionist into booking him onto the wall at the same time as Lynn.
He still didn’t know why he had done it. The right thing to do was to stay away. He hadn’t come back into town to start dating. Especially not his brother’s fiancée’s best friend. That would definitely be against his no-strings policy. And Lynn didn’t even like him. She, who seemed to welcome the rest of the world with open arms, looked at him like he was one step above medical waste. He shouldn’t need to work at this, he had a thousand other things to occupy his time.
Now, after listening to Bode gave him a lecture about climbing wall safety, Jackson was doing his usual gym routine, running, lifting some weights. He had kept an eye on Lynn while she did her own workout, seen her use some free weights, then do pushups and pull-ups, her toned little body moving effortlessly through the exercises. She was slicked with a bit of sweat, and her workout clothes, while not tight, clung closely enough to her curves so that he couldn’t help wondering what she would look like without them on.
He watched as she disappeared into the locker room, presumably done for the day. Off to her date with that muscle head Bode.
He tried to put the thought of her out of his head as he finished up his workout. He headed over toward the water cooler to get a drink and then hit the showers, when he heard Bode’s voice from inside one of the gym offices.
“Dude, climber chick is going out with me tonight.”
Jackson froze, listening.
“What, you mean Lynn, the hot little doctor? She agreed to go out with you?” The other voice was raised in disbelief.
“Yeah, finally. She’s going to meet me at Quent’s tonight. Said she’s bringing a friend; want to ride shotgun?”
Jackson thought it sounded like Bode couldn’t quite hide the triumph in his tone.
“Think her friend is as smokin’ as she is?”
The other guy’s voice was eager and Jackson clenched his hands in anger.
“Of course. Hot chicks run in packs. But look, Lynn’s mine—you get what you get.”
“Fine, but man, I still don’t know how
you got that sweet piece of ass to say yes to you.”
He heard Bode laugh. “Who could resist me?”
“She’s probably only interested in you for your body.”
Bode laughed again. “What do you think I want her for? An interesting conversation over wine and cheese? I’m just hoping she’ll want to play doctor with me.”
There was a bout of loud laughter, and Jackson swallowed the impulse to shove open the door of the office and take a swing at Bode.
He heard a sound and turned, trying his best to look like he was casually strolling away, clenching and unclenching his hands, trying to work off some of his anger, when Bode came up behind him, clapped him on the back and said, “Not a bad day for a beginner, dude. You know we’re running a special here, fifty percent off your first month of training. I’d be happy to set you up with the paperwork.”
Jackson let his anger settle down. It wouldn’t do any good to take a punch at Bode. At least not yet. But there was no way he was going to let a guy like Bode prey upon an unsuspecting girl like Lynn. With her big brown eyes, that curly hair, and passionate personality, she was an easy mark for guys like him.
Barely sparing a smile for Bode, he disentangled himself, promising to stop by later, and made his way to the locker room, mulling over his options. Perhaps he might just stop by Quent’s tonight after all.
Chapter 22
“What made you decide all of a sudden you wanted to go on a date?” Tory asked. They were at Lynn’s apartment, getting ready to meet Bode and his friend.
Lynn was looking through her paltry selection of tops, trying to decide what to wear. She had lived the last eight years in scrubs and was slowly realizing that her wardrobe had suffered for it. She couldn’t wear a repeat of her date with Nate. Hence the emergency call to Tory, who seemed to have perfected the casual chic look, for some fashion advice.
“What do you think about this one?” Lynn asked, holding up one of her favorites, a scoop neck, tunic-length top in a dark red.
“Hmm,” Tory said getting up from the bed and coming over to Lynn’s closet. “You didn’t answer the question.”
Lynn shrugged. What was the real reason that she had volunteered to go on a date? Was it to keep her mom off her back? Or had she only said yes to the date with Bode because Jackson had been standing there and she had the sudden, crazy impulse to see if she could get a reaction out of him? But that had backfired. Jackson had seemed to have cared less that she was going.
And why should he? He was what? The clinic’s landlord. And a mean one at that. He seemed to have no room in his heart other than what was best for the bottom line. What did she hope to gain by talking to him so more? Just more of those icy, cold stares that sent shivers down her back. And there had been plenty of those today.
All she knew was that whenever she had looked up from her workout, he had been looking at her. He looked away of course, thinking he hadn’t been caught, but she had been totally aware of him the whole time.
“Earth to Lynn…Since you agreed to go on a date, did you decide to take my advice? Does this mean you think Bode is really hot, or have you just decided that it’s been so long something’s going to rust shut if it doesn’t get used?”
“Rust shut?” Lynn asked. “You know that isn’t physically possible.”
“I wasn’t being literal,” Tory said with a wave of her hand.
“Well it’s not literally or metaphorically possible for it, as you call it, to rust shut.” Lynn shuddered at the image, but she had to admit that Tory had a point. It had been a while and her hormones seemed to be in overdrive. She had thought it was because she had finally reached a place in her life, professionally, where things were going well. And that meant that the other part of her body wanted in on the action, even if the reason things were going so well was that she had neglected her hormones.
But now everything was turmoil and her hormones hadn’t gotten the message that there was a much bigger crisis going on than their lack of activity.
“It’s really been, like years? How have gone so long?”
“Med school is pretty demanding,” Lynn said.
“It must not have been very good,” Tory said casually as she plucked a blouse off a hanger, looked at it, and discarded it on the growing heap of clothes on the floor.
“What?”
“The sex, silly.”
“It was ok,” Lynn defended her experience.
Tory smiled. “Ahh, that’s the problem.”
“What do you mean?”
“Honey, sex isn’t supposed to be ok, it’s supposed to be good.” Tory pulled out the syllable in the last word and gave Lynn a knowing look. “You need to up your expectations,” she continued.
“And what should my expectations be?” Lynn asked.
“Great sex. That’s it. Nothing else. Don’t expect more than that, especially from someone like Bode, who let’s admit, doesn’t seem like much more than a pretty face, and you’ll be fine. Probably better than fine. You just need to get laid, without all that other crap about hearts and flowers and moonlight walks into forever.”
Lynn blinked. “That doesn’t sound very romantic.”
Tory shook her head. “That’s the point. You need to start with baby steps, you know, personal pleasure, and then you can move onto romance. At some point.”
“But…”
“Look, did you find Nate attractive, envision yourself doing the horizontal mambo with him?”
Lynn shook her head.
“Good, so you cut him loose right?”
Lynn nodded. It had taken some dodging and excuses about her crazy schedule, but Nate had finally stopped texting her.
“And Bode’s easy on the eyes, right?”
“True,” Lynn agreed.
“Well, unless you have someone else in mind?” Tory said, with a wicked smile on her face.
“What?” Lynn found her face flaming. How did Tory do that?
“Nothing, just working out a hunch,” Tory said, her voice innocent, as she held up a sweater, considering.
“This isn’t some game,” Lynn said.
Tory smiled, her caramel colored eyes dancing, “Oh yes it is. And now it’s time to play. Wear this one, with that skirt, and these boots and let’s see if you can score a goal, slugger.” She tossed the outfit on the bed and smiled.
“You’re mixing your sports metaphors,” Lynn said. She looked at the outfit Troy had picked out. Simple, casual and the v-neck sweater would show just a hint of cleavage. Maybe Tory was right. Not everything, especially guys, needed to be a matter of life or death. Maybe she just needed to enjoy the ride.
Chapter 23
Bode was waiting for them, and as promised, he’d brought a friend. Bode looked good, Lynn thought: a little more polished than he usually did at the gym. Tonight, he wore a pair of dark jeans and a charcoal-gray t-shirt that seemed like it had been poured on. She stopped and took a moment to drink in the perfection that was Bode Weller’s pectoral region. His brownish-blond hair was slightly tousled and his dark brown eyes looked her over appreciatively as he pulled out a barstool for her.
Lynn introduced Tory to Bode, and Bode introduced them to his friend Greg and there was hand shaking and hellos all round. And then silence, except for the backdrop of music. Classic INXS was playing and there were more than a few people singing along.
“Been a while since I heard this song,” Lynn said, looking to break the quiet.
“Yeah, well, it’s Aussie night and Quent is running a special on beer from Down Under. Can I get you one?” Bode said, smiling at her.
Lynn nodded, and Bode went to go fetch the drinks. Tory and Greg eyed each other, and then Tory suggested they try a game of pool. Greg seemed thankful for something to do and Lynn was left alone.
She scanned the pub. There was a baseball game on one TV, football on another, and soccer on the third. None of them were big games, and no one was paying that much attention.
“Here’s
your beer. It’s an Australian micro-brew, one that Quent swears by,” Bode said, returning with two bottles of beer and a bowl of nuts.
He slid onto one of the barstools at their little table and she immediately found that somehow the stool had moved much closer than before. Bode’s knee was touching hers and she pulled back just a little. Maybe she hadn’t been on a date in a while, but she thought they should have at least one beer before he tried for close physical contact.
Undaunted, he leaned his head in. “It’s a nice change to see you here, outside of the gym. You look good there, but you look pretty hot outside of it.”
“Yeah, it’s good to get out,” Lynn said, fighting the impulse to lean back. Her pulse was racing but it wasn’t her hormones talking. She didn’t know what was wrong with her. Bode was nothing like Nate, the Civil War, vice presidential-loving accountant, who’d left her with nothing but the desire to run away screaming in boredom.
Nope, Bode was almost the exact opposite, and while Nate had been scrupulously polite about touching her, Bode was going in the total opposite direction.
She felt a hand brush casually against her thigh and she moved away. Bode sent her a lazy smile and she turned the talk to where he liked to go on vacation. They talked about other things and Lynn decided that except for an interest spending time at the gym, they didn’t have much in common. It didn’t seem to deter Bode though, as he kept reaching out, trying to close the distance between them, while she just as carefully tried to maintain it.
Finally, she decided she needed a break and excused herself to use the restroom. She was washing her hands and thinking through ways of politely breaking off the evening. First, she would need to give the signal to Tory, which was too bad, since she genuinely seemed to be enjoying herself with Bode’s friend, Greg. Still, Tory was her wingman and that was the nature of the job.
