“On the contrary!” Jamie beamed. “Today is the first day of the rest of your life, my dear friend, and I am going to make sure that we both start looking at everything in a much more positive light.”
As she skipped out of the room and slipped her feet into her sneakers, she was sure that even if Tammy needed a bit of an extra push, Jamie was the perfect person to give it to her, and in no time at all, both of the girls would be heading in a whole new direction.
She grabbed her gym bag from the closet in the hall and her house keys from the table off to the side, before she opened the front door and made her way into the blistering desert sun.
The walk to the gym was a short one, and even though it had been a while since she had been there, Jamie knew she was going to have to start getting back into fitness, otherwise, the year of working in the diner was going to start taking its toll on her and her ass. The thought of going anywhere near a treadmill or cross trainer was the last thing she wanted to be considering, but with her new outlook, she was going to have to lead by example if she stood any chance of getting Tammy out of her depression and in the mood to join her.
She rounded a corner and could see Main Street up ahead. The gym was old and had been part of Slate Springs for as long as the whole town had been standing, from what Jamie had gathered, but over the years, it had changed hands several times and luckily for her, it had been given a revamp.
The building, from the outside, was faded by the sun and the paint was peeling and chipped. But inside, the reception area was gleaming, the floors were all newly tiled, and the new owners had invested in some state of the art equipment, which meant the Slate Springs Gym looked like any other she had ever seen on the pages of glossy magazines. As she stepped through the doors and into the lobby, she could have been in a city anywhere in the world, The girl behind the counter looked up, smiled at her brightly, and said a very friendly, “Good Morning!”
Jamie returned her cheerful greeting and walked quickly through to the locker rooms. As she opened the doors and stepped inside, a great mist of steam seemed to hit her, drifting through from the showers and made the air hot and dense. She found a locker and threw her bag inside before she pulled off her sweater to reveal her cut away crop top and tight capris. It had been such a long time since she had done any exercise, she was lucky they still fit her and that she hadn’t put on any weight or gotten out of shape. She swept her hair up and tied it tight on top of her head before she pulled on a little headband to keep it in place and off her face. She was going to need to psyche herself up, so she put in her earbuds and turned the music on her iPod up as loud as she could stand it before putting it on shuffle.
“Okay, Jamie,” she said to herself quietly. “Let’s get out there and do this.”
Luckily, the fact that it was a weekday morning meant it was relatively quiet in the main body of the gym, and Jamie had her pick of the machines. She wandered along the rows of equipment slowly and looked at them all with trepidation. Even though she knew how they all worked and had used them all many times, after being out of the game for so long, they were more than a little intimidating.
I bet I can’t even last five minutes, she thought as she stopped by a treadmill and cautiously, climbed up onto it. She pressed the buttons that made it jump to life and waited for the revolving belt to pick up speed before she moved her feet from the sides and put them down on it and started walking as fast as she could.
She had never been a runner. Even in high school, when she had tried and tried to make it her thing, she had never been able to get away with it properly, and had always ended up playing basketball instead. She pressed the acceleration and let her pace pick up, and it wasn’t long before her feet were pounding down hard and she was flying along, as if she was a natural who had never been away.
Because she was so engrossed in her workout and enjoying the sensation of moving her body properly, for the first time in what could easily have been forever, she didn’t feel the pair of eyes fix on her from across the room. It wasn’t until she had been running for almost thirty minutes and her heart felt as if it was going to burst from her chest that she stopped the treadmill slowly, regained her breath as she walked and pulled her headphones out of her ears.
When she was back in the room and fully aware of her surroundings, it was almost instantaneous that she could sense someone watching her. She looked over her shoulder as she mopped the sweat from her brow and her breath caught in her throat as she saw the man on one of the machines a couple of rows behind her.
He was tall and dark, with an almost black pair of eyes, and he was looking up at her as he heaved weights up and down, up and down.
Jamie stopped in her tracks and had to hit the pause button on the machine so that she could regain her composure. She had no idea who he was, and she hadn’t even been able to get a proper look at him, but she could still feel his eyes boring holes into her back. And she knew that she wasn’t going to be able to stop herself from stealing another glance…
3.
They weren’t alone in the room, but it almost felt that way from the tension she could feel emanating from his corner of the gym. As Jamie began to step down from the treadmill, her mind was racing with what to do next. She wanted to turn around and get a good look at him, but she didn’t want to appear obvious. Especially not when she could feel him staring right at her.
She moved away from the machine and wandered further away from the man and his big, black eyes. She sauntered down another row of weights and stopped by the three rowing machines that were all lined up perfectly, facing back into the main body of the gym.
As she sat down and started to strap in her feet, she made sure that she didn’t stare directly at him and kept her attention fixed solidly on her actions, making them look as natural and fluid as possible. She reached for the bar and pulled it back, extending her arms and feeling the tension as she zipped back and forth on the track.
When she was sure that she had been doing it for about a minute, she finally, after an agonizing wait, let her eyes flick up and rest on him again.
He was still on the weight machines, his huge, heaving biceps flexing and bulging with each strong movement. All she could see was tanned muscles glistening with sweat and it made her heart and pussy flutter.
Oh my God, she thought, he really is quite a man.
And she found herself slowing on the rowing machine as she tried not to let her mouth gape open. He looked so dark and mysterious, and he was so tall and well-built that he looked like a giant next to any of the other men who were wandering around the room. Jamie bit her bottom lip and tried to regain her composure. But it was futile. In a split second, while she was still looking at him with lust in her eyes, suddenly, his own flicked up and settled directly on her.
As their eyes locked in on each other for the second time, Jamie was powerless. She could not pull away. He held her there, trapped like an animal, and she couldn’t break their eye contact, no matter how much her better judgement was telling her to do so.
A wry smile spread across his lips and showed his perfect teeth and Jamie swallowed hard. She was still moving, but she had no idea what she was doing, for all she knew her arms could be up in the air and she wasn’t even holding on to the bar anymore, she was in that much of a fluster.
She finally managed to drag her eyes away and she screeched to a halt on the rowing machine. Her heart was pounding in her chest, but she knew that, this time, it wasn’t because she was exercising and pushing herself; it was because she had been unnerved by the sexy stranger who was watching her from the weights.
She could hear him grunting with each lift and it made her feel even more turned on. He was so strong and brutal, she could tell that he could probably pick her up with one hand and lift her high over his head like some kind of Mr. Universe.
Great Jamie, she thought, you’ve been making deals with yourself all night and morning about embracing the single life and having nothing to do w
ith another man after what happened to Tammy… and now look at you! The first sign of a hot guy and you’re almost going insane with lust!
She wanted to kick herself, she was so stupid.
She stood up quickly and wiped her brow on the back of her wrist. The guy was still watching her, and he stopped his lifts for a moment to check her out as she crossed back to the other side of the room and climbed up high onto an exercise bike.
As she peddled, her rage was mounting. She was annoyed with herself for having her head turned, but even more annoyed at him for making it so hard for her to resist. She could still feel his eyes on her, and even though she had her back to him and was determined that she would not turn back around, she more than wanted to and it was killing her.
I wonder who he is… she thought as she worked her legs as fast as they could go. And I wonder if he’s single…
As soon as the thought popped into her head, she instantly scolded herself and sighed with defeat. She was going to have to just push him out of her mind… And avoid the gym for the foreseeable future.
“You need to be a good friend to Tammy,” she said out loud without realizing.
“Who’s Tammy?” the voice came from behind her suddenly and shocked her so much that she nearly jumped two feet into the air.
Her legs flailed out to the side and she struggled to hold onto the handle bars as she turned around and saw him standing right there, less than a meter away.
“Oh my God!” she gasped. “Do you mind?!”
It wasn’t a particularly good start, but she figured that it couldn’t be any other way.
“You scared me,” she panted as she turned to the side and glared at him, her rage now building more than ever.
He bit his bottom lip with his full set of top teeth and grinned. And Jamie felt something inside of her melt. He was far too good looking. It had to be a trap. He was so close to her, it was as if there was some kind of magnet between them, pulling them closer together. But she wasn’t going to let it happen, she had to resist.
“Sorry,” he smiled with a glint in his eyes. “It’s just not every day you see some girl talking to herself in this gym…”
The second he said the words, she felt her stomach crash down to the floor.
Great, and now you’ve made a complete fool of yourself too… she thought as she felt her cheeks burn red.
She turned back around and tried not to let him see how much his comment had gotten to her. She was sweating with nerves and even though she was trying to regain her rhythm on the bike, she was completely shaken up and felt all lightheaded.
He stepped around to the right side of her and climbed up onto the bike directly next to hers. Jamie could feel him staring at her, and she was trying her best to look demure and sexy, while sweating like a pig and pounding her feet down on the pedals to make it appear as if she was completely fine with what was happening.
But it was all too much. She slowed down and felt her body sigh with it. She was working herself too hard, and now, with the addition of the sexy stranger who couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off her, it was all too much to take.
She stopped and sucked in a breath before she took a sip from her water bottle and made moves to get down from the exercise bike.
“Don’t leave on my account,” he said.
Jamie turned to look at him, and although he was far too good looking for her to not be intrigued, she wanted to slap him across the face for making her feel like such a moron.
“I’m not,” she said sternly.
She looked up and down the row of machines that they were sitting on and realized that he could have easily chosen from a number of other bikes, but he had come and taken the one right next to her.
She shifted on the spot and wanted to say something but she didn’t know what.
“I’m Decker,” he offered finally as he held out a sweaty hand to her and smiled.
Jamie faltered for a moment, knowing that the second she took his hand in hers, she was going to be completely fucked.
But she did it anyway.
Their eyes were fixated on one another’s and her heart was pounding even harder than it had been when she had been running on the treadmill. She felt her breath catch in her throat, and even though she knew this was likely going to be the undoing of her, she had to know what his touch felt like.
His hands were so hot and rough, all she could think about was having them all over her, ripping at her clothes and teasing her as they slipped down between her legs. She gulped and tried to shake the image from her inner vision.
“And your name?” he asked with a smirk, almost as if he could read her mind and knew that she was thinking wicked thoughts.
“I’m Jamie…” she managed to stammer.
He nodded his head and smiled and then released his hard grip on hers. Her palm was cold as his body heat drifted and she instantly yearned for it to return.
“I haven’t seen you in here before,” he said as he kept peddling ferociously. “Are you new in town?”
Jamie found herself laughing and shaking her head.
“God no,” she said. “I work in the diner, out near the highway.”
He raised his eyebrows and smiled with a nod.
“Must be me who’s been hiding under a rock then,” he said as his eyes rushed over her again. “Find it hard to believe that we’ve never met…” he trailed off and looked into the distance as if he was trying to recall something from the deepest corners of his memory.
“Well,” Jamie interrupted as she gathered up her things and went to leave. “It was nice to meet you.”
She was sure that her cheeks were still burning and that she must have been bright red, and she was desperate to get away from him and into the showers to cool down.
“The pleasure was all mine,” he said naughtily as she turned and looked back at him over her shoulder.
As she rushed away to the stairs and got out of there as fast as she could, she could barely keep her composure.
What the hell had just happened? And how had it managed to unnerve her so much?
She pushed the door open to the girls’ locker room and marched inside. Her mind was swimming and she felt as if she was suddenly trapped under some intense kind of fog.
When she had found her towel and got into the shower, it was only then that the feeling seemed to lift. He had done something to her, she had no idea what, but he had managed to rattle her very bones.
She let the water cascade down over her as if it was washing away some unidentifiable sin. When she was clean again and had changed back into her normal clothes, she felt much more revived and almost reborn.
On her way out through the lobby, she smiled and waved goodbye to the girl at the reception desk, and it wasn’t until she was out on the street that she felt his presence again. It hit her all at once, almost as if he had driven his car right into her…
But he wasn’t in a car…
Decker was seated on top of a gleaming silver Harley, he had his glinting shades on, covering his black eyes and reflecting the sunlight, and he was smiling wickedly at her, much like he had done only minutes before back inside the gym. Even with the heat of the sun blazing down on him, he was clad in leather, and it was with a rush of both excitement and panic that Jamie realized who he must be.
She recognized the patches and the familiar swagger. She had seen it many times over her years in this town….
Decker wasn’t just another guy…
He was a biker.
A member of The Forsaken Riders…
And now she knew for sure that he was bound to be trouble.
4.
For days following her run-in with the handsome and mysterious Decker, Jamie didn’t speak a word of it to anyone and pushed him as far out of her mind as she could. She was still angry with herself for having her head turned so easily, when she had been so adamant that she didn’t need a man. And she was even more annoyed at herself now that she had learned he
was a biker.
To even let him walk into her thoughts again was dangerous, and she was determined to keep them at bay.
She avoided the gym as if she had never even set foot back in the place, and she didn’t try to get Tammy to join either, as had been her plan before that fateful day.
She had returned home and not said a word. She was convinced that Tammy was sure to know of him if she had been dating a member of The Forsaken Riders, and now, every time she looked at her friend, Jamie debated asking her if she could tell her something, anything, about Decker. But she just couldn’t do it.
“You look lost in thoughts tonight?” Tammy said, breaking Jamie out of the constant swirl of her troubled mind. The girls were in the front room, sitting side by side on the couch.
“Oh, do I?” she stammered as she rubbed her eyes and tried not to look too bewildered.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Tammy asked, with a look of concern on her face.
It was the first time since she had come to stay with Jamie that the focus hadn’t been on her, and it was strange for Jamie to suddenly feel as if she had been thrust into the spotlight.
“Of course, I am,” she smiled widely. “I’m just tired tonight, that’s all…” she drifted off and faked a yawn for authenticity.
Tammy nodded her head suspiciously and then turned back to the TV. They had been drinking a bottle of Merlot and watching a horror movie. Tammy seemed to be finding solace in other people’s pain and suffering, anything to not let her think about her own.
“When are you going to go back to work?” Jamie asked suddenly.
Tammy sighed and shrugged before she took another sip from her wine glass.
“Who knows,” she offered finally.
“You can’t just hide away in here forever,” Jamie said. “It would do you good to be back in some kind of routine.”
She could see the tears welling up behind her friend’s eyes.
DECKER: MC ROMANCE (Forsaken Riders MC Romance Book 9) Page 2
