Page 54 of Can't Fight the Moonlight

"Always ready," he said with his charmingly cocky smile. "Ladies first."

She doubled her speed, but Justin matched her stride for stride. With their new pace, the conversation ended, and she put her energy into her run, turning up the music in her ears. Her kick-ass mountain climbing music provided a nice backdrop for a run that had become a race, and she needed both the music and her competitive desire to win to keep up with Justin.

Up and down they went over rolling hills and through deeply forested areas, finally coming out along a path with an amazing view of the lake. When they reached the summit, she ran over to a low wall and gave it a tap. Justin hit the wall at the exact same time.

"Tie," he said with a grin.

Considering he didn't seem nearly as winded as she was, she had a feeling he could have gone faster. "You could have probably won," she said, as she pulled out her earphones.

"You think I let our race end in a tie?"

"Yes."

He laughed. "Does that score me any points?"

"No. I don't like it when people let me win or tie. I prefer to earn it. It means more."

"Then we'll have a rematch tomorrow."

Since making another date seemed like a bad idea, she turned her gaze to the lake and simply said, "We'll see."

"This is an amazing view," Justin said, pulling off his headphones and tucking them into his pocket.

"Worth the effort?"

"Definitely."

She wished she could find a way to stop smiling at him. But he was so damned attractive with sweat on his face, his brown hair mussed from the breeze, his cheeks red, his blue eyes as bright as the sunlight. "How do you fit daily runs into your busy schedule?"

"I get up early, like you."

"It is the best time of the day. Everything is possible. Nothing has gone wrong yet. It's all good."

He nodded in agreement. "I feel the same way. But I'm surprised you like to run. It's very solitary, and you seem like a people person."

"I am a people person, but I need time to myself, too. I actually started running with my brother, Nathan. He ran track and field in high school, and he'd let me come with him on his training runs. Since my siblings often left me out, I was thrilled to have someone who was fine with me tagging along."

He smiled. "Adam told me that you were always up for anything."

"Mostly because my brothers and sister were usually trying to ditch me," she said dryly. "Chelsea wasn't as bad as the boys, but then she got so into her music that that separated us a bit. Did you run with your brother?"

"No," he said shortly. "I always ran on my own. It was a good way to burn off my emotions."

"So, you do have emotions," she teased.

"Sometimes unwanted and unnecessary," he admitted.

"That's part of being human. Unless you'd rather be like one of your robots."

"That wouldn't be so bad. Robots are built on algorithms, logic, and math. No messy thoughts or feelings to wreck a perfectly executed program."

"But also no unexpected joy or surprise," she pointed out. "That's part of life, too. Unpredictability can be exciting."

"Or just bad."

"Why do you say that? You're a risk taker, aren't you?"

"I take risks, yes, but I'm usually in control of most of the variables."

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