Page 11 of Six Wishes

CHAPTER6

Van Boyd!

Chloe

“Hey, cuz,” Hunter is dragging her feet on the ground when she walks into the locker room, unaware of what she would’ve encountered in here had Van not heard the front door of the building opening.

“Good morning, sunshine,” I tease my cousin, pretending like I wasn’t about to mount Van Boyd in the very spot I’m currently standing, and ride him like the stud he is. And now I got bad analogies going through my head, just like he seems to have some lame pickup lines.

My hand comes up to cover my lips to stop myself from laughing out loud, especially when I meet Van’s panicked eyes. He is sizing my cousin up and down like she is presenting a great threat. And all the while, she seems to be so sleep deprived that she’s not even aware that he is in the same room as her.

“I don’t understand,” Hunter starts mumbling as she’s digging through her bag, “how you always look this good at the actual crack of dawn. Who does that, Chlo?”

She takes her glasses off and sets them on the little shelf at the top of the locker, then pulls off the crop top she has on, now showing the same kind of sports bra I have on.

She starts rolling her sweatpants down like it’s the most normal thing in the world. And it usually is when it’s just the two of us. But now Van is here, and he looks completely panicked, seeming to check out the perimeter of the fairly small room, trying to figure out a way to leave it undetected.

“Hunter,” I start but she’s not paying attention, and now the sweats are off. She is standing there in her thong, digging through her bag for the shorts she usually wears during our conditioning sessions. “Hey, babe, we’re not al…”

I don’t get to finish my thought when Hunter turns around with her shorts in one hand, looking like she wants to say something to me. That’s when she notices the large figure of Van who’s just sitting on the bench with his eyes as big as saucers, staring at her like she’s an alien from the outer space.

“Oh my God,” Hunter screams and jumps back, hitting her head and elbow on the locker door behind her in her haste to cover herself up. “Chloe,” she shrieks, “I can’t believe you let me get undressed like this in front of a…” she squints because she can’t see much without her glasses. She never puts her contacts in this early in the morning.

She takes a step closer to Van, and she looks so incredibly small next to him, even though she stands tall at almost five foot eight. She is still clutching the shorts in front of her, and I know she realizes who she just undressed in front of when she gasps in shock.

“Van Boyd!” She pretty much screams his name. “You let me get undressed in front of Van Boyd?!”

The speed with which she bends down and pulls her shorts on is very impressive, and I’d comment on it if she didn’t look like she is about to rip my head off my shoulders.

There’s movement behind me, and I turn just in time to see Brooke Montgomery walking through the door, then freezing in place as she’s taking us all in.

“Did I, uh, interrupt anything?” Her weird but cool colored eyes, one green, one kind of bluish gray, jump around from me to Hunter, then to Van, to Hunter again, and finally back to me.

“Brooke,” Hunter cries out and rushes to her sister-in-law. “I just got naked in front of Van Boyd. Kill me now, please!”

“Hunter, don’t be dramatic…” I try to calm her down.

That’s when Van chooses to stand up, and we all fall so quiet, you could hear a pin drop. I notice again his impressive height, and my stomach flip flops inside my body at what that does to me. Finally a man I can literally look up to in order to meet his eyes.

“Ladies,” he nods at Hunter, then at Brooke, both of them watching him with gaping mouths, their heads thrown back as they try to look at his face. “I didn’t see anything,” he tells Hunter even though I know, and she knows too, that he’s lying. “I’ll leave you to it then.”

And just as I am about to let out a sigh of relief, he stops in front of me. He grabs the high ponytail I have my hair in and pulls to bring my mouth closer to his. His lips touch mine in a slow and sensual kiss that I don’t want to ever end, witnesses or not.

When I think I may pass out from lack of oxygen to the brain, he separates our mouths and allows me to breathe. The hand on my hair tightens, and he pulls a little harder.

“I’ll see you out there,” he jerks his head toward the gym area, then bops me on the nose, and he is out.

I follow him with my eyes until he turns the corner and I don’t see him anymore. I press my hand to my chest, doing my best to calm my raging heart.

“That was so hot,” Brooke whispers from behind me, and my eyes fly to her and Hunter. They are both watching me with big eyes, like they’re unable to process what they just witnessed.

“You kissed Van Boyd,” Hunter is completely freaking out now, and I worry that Van can hear her squeaks of delight from all the way across the building.

“Be quiet, Hunter,” I put my hand over her mouth and push her back toward the middle of the room where the bench is. And where Van sat only a minute ago, enjoying her spontaneous strip tease.

“She kissed Van Boyd,” she mumbles from behind my hand while she grabs Brooke’s arm. “Can you believe it?”

“I am in shock too,” Brooke starts laughing, obviously more amused than anything by everything that’s happening to me. “How did this happen?”

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