Page 30 of Breaking the Sinner

“Stick out? How?” She dabbed the white sweat towel along her collar bone, up the curve of her neck. The neck he’d nibbled personally the evening before.

“Oh, come on. It’s obvious.” He didn’t want to say the words himself.

Confusion creased her face. “You look like you’ve been working here your entire life.”

“You couldn’t be more wrong.” The idea of him fitting in around here was a lot of things: laughable, ridiculous, completely false. “I started a couple months ago.”

“Didn’t you work at a gym before this?”

“Nope.” Cobra collected his papers, rustling them loudly as he shoved them back into his folder.

“Seems like you’ve been doing this for a long time.”

“Maybe on the outside. But trust me, I’m not like anyone else here.”

Gen studied the stitching on the towel, her thin fingers caressing the seam before she said, “Yeah. Neither am I.”

Cobra knocked her gently on the shoulder. “Maybe that’s why I like ya.”

She sent him a look full of surprise and adoration. His stomach jerked. He shouldn’t have said that.

He shouldn’t have started messing around with her at all.

“So we’re done. See you later, Gen.” He needed to get the fuck out of here. Feelings always sucked. He’d rather smoke himself numb and avoid all of the flops and dips of getting close to someone.

“Are you doing anything later?”

He stopped in his tracks on his way out of the gym. Without looking her way, he said, “I’m busy.”

“Oh.”

He glanced over his shoulder. He should just call the whole thing off. “I’ll let you know when I can hang out.”

Gen nodded, relief swarming those big green eyes. And with every step he took leading him away from her, he repeated the new goal to himself:the less Red, the better.

Chapter 13

“He probably has a good excuse,” Gen said, combing out her hair with her fingers for the tenth time. She was going to make theperfectbraids.

Sophie sent her a flat look. The two of them had been catching up after a few days of opposing schedules. Their girl-and-gab night was officially underway with a local beer Sophie swore was life changing and a heaping stack of sushi from the deli down the street.

“Three days since your last date, and not a single peep.” Sophie covered the coffee table with a black linen then meticulously arranged the varying trays of sushi. White rice rolls stared up at Gen as she fingered her hair into three equal sections. She’d become a professional French braider if it was the last thing she did.

“I’ve seen him a couple times at work,” she said, her voice distant as she focused on the movements of her fingers. “I don’t know what he does in his spare time.”

“Probably other women,” Sophie said.

Gen frowned. “Ouch.”

“Girl, I’m looking out for you.” Sophie tutted, shaking her head as she filled two tiny bowls with the dark brown soy sauce. “I hear about this all the time at the bar. Practically every other week, a new guy has ghosted.”

“Ghosted?” Gen frowned as she felt a strand of hair lump up in her plait. She combed out the braid again.

“They disappear. Stop texting, stop calling. No reason, no explanation.” Sophie snapped her fingers. “Gone, just like that.”

“I don’t think Cobra would ghost,” Gen said.

Sophie hefted with a laugh. “That’s what every woman says about every man. Until it happens to them.”

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