Page 24 of Spinning Out Of Control

A symphony of sinew and rippled muscles that sing in harmony with the soft features of her face and the round curves of her feminine figure.

I don’t know if she heard what I said, if she knew I was talking about her, but I don’t care. She hasn’t sought me out before, and I am not the kind of man who will look a gift horse in the mouth.

“Kira, good to come in. Please, see you.”

James snorts as I feel my cheeks turn a bright shade of crimson. Kira only tilts her head, the smallest of smiles tipping up the corner of her lips.

“I’ll see you later, Romeo,” James winks as he stands. I shoot him a glare, but he simply twiddles his fingers at me. He leans down to whisper something in Kira’s ear as he passes through the doorway, kissing her cheek and then whistling as he retreats down the hall.

Kira and I look at each other, neither of us speaking for a long moment. It’s an odd kind of standoff. I worry that if I’m the first to speak, I’ll fuck up again. Instead of prompting her to have a seat, I might accidentally beg her to sit on my face.

“We need to talk, Warren.”

11

KIRA

“Think about giving him a chance, Keeks.”

James’s words echo in my ears as I cross the threshold into Warren’s office. I toss them around in my mind, wondering if James has any idea that I’ve been fighting the urge to give the man a chance for weeks. As the weeks have gone on, it’s become harder and harder to stay angry at Warren. I told him I wasn’t going to be steamrolled. I told him to leave me alone, not to fuck with me, and he listened. He’s gone out of his way to give me space, going around his elbow to get to his ass anytime our paths–physical or professional–should have crossed.

He’s done what I asked him to do, and that should satisfy me.

So why does it hurt my feelings?

Warren gestures to the chairs across from him, but I don’t want to sit there. I don’t want a stuffy, formaldynamic with him. Instead, I round his desk, hopping up so my ass is perched on the corner. I cross one knee over the other and try to fight the thrill that runs through me when I clock Warren’s gaze drifting over my thighs, slowly roaming up my body before landing on my face.

Having him look up at me like this reminds me of the way he looked at me when his head was between my legs. The way he moaned and whimpered against my clit while he sucked on it, making me see stars. How he stared into my eyes as he licked me through my orgasm, bringing me down before building me back up again.

It’s unbelievably unfair that even when I’ve been determined to hate him, I haven’t been able to stop myself from wanting him again.

“What can I do for you, Kira?” His voice is low and raspy, sounding like every sin I want to commit with him.

“I’m going to go ahead and assume you’ve already met with the product team?”

A rhetorical question. I know he did. He’s met with every team. Every executive. He’s immersed himself in every aspect of the business seamlessly, just like I have.

Warren nods, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallows.

“Then you know that the new rowing machine is going to beta roll out early next year?”

Another wordless nod. I think I might make him nervous.

That shouldn’t thrill me, but fuck, it really does.

“Good. Glad to hear you’re up to date on the equipment. Right now, I’ve got Adler, Maddison, and myself for the instructor lineup, and we’re all on board to film the necessary roll out particulars. Tutorials, calibration materials, early classes so that we have a backlog when we launch. But it’s not enough. If we want the row program to be successful from the get-go, we’re going to need more instructors. We learned when we launched the treadmill that we need a wide array of instructors with different personalities, music taste and teaching styles. Variety is important, not just to bring in new customers but to appeal to current members, too. We’ve got a good start, but we’re going to need to start hiring.”

“That makes sense. Can I assume you’ve got a handle on the process?”

“I do. I’ve done some recon and I’ve got my sights set on a handful of people. Two of them are already in the Bay area, but the person I’m really interested in is based in New York. Jeslyn Bender, she works for The Core Collective.”

The Core Collective is a boutique gym in Manhattan that offers a similar streaming option for their members. They offer Pilates, boxing, bootcamps, and personal training. But unlike Spin Sync, they aren’t also aproduct company. They don’t sell machines or equipment.

“Jeslyn Bender, she sounds familiar,” Warren says, his brows furrowing. The move makes the little crinkles by his ocean-blue eyes even more prominent. I briefly wonder what it would be like to press my lips to that spot, to feel the warmth of his skin against my mouth again.

Ack. No. Bad Kira. No lusting over Warren’s cute little eye crinkles.

“She’s a former Team USA Olympian. She won gold with the women’s rowing team in the straight four in Tokyo. You probably remember hearing her name when they were on the podium. Great Britain came in third.”

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