Page 2 of After Hours

Shocked her, even.

Because tonight she saw him when she hadn’t expected it. When she wasn’t looking for him, for a change.

He was walking out on the commons—the public park behind the old Port of Oakland building that offered dreamy views over the estuary and further on toward San Francisco. He wasjustthere,like he wasn’t a gorgeous, terrifying warrior of a man, out in the falling dusk. As if he wasnormalinstead ofextraordinary,out here in public surrounded by regular people, and Romily didn’t know what to do with herself.

She barely knew who she was. She almost swallowed her own tongue. She was certainly holding her breath.

She froze, right in the middle of a stream of people, which was a good way to get trampled.

But she couldn’t move.

It was a small miracle that there was a knot of skateboarders between them. Not that he would recognize her. Why would he? But she was sure he’d notice someone frozen solid andgapingat him.

It was a kind of miracle to see him like this. Just… out.

No crashing weights or music ripe with full-throated bellows and dark, hot baselines designed to disturb.

Just a powerfully built man prowling his way down a walkway.

He was mesmerizing.

He wasn’t wearing the things he usually did in the gym. He was in jeans that made a grand feast out of the powerful muscles of his quads and ass. He wore a black Henley that only emphasized his outrageously cut arms. He wore a dark knitted beanie like every other bearded dude in the East Bay, but he was nothing like any ofthem.

Something abouthimmade her bones hum and her body ache.

Like a good fever, if that was a thing.

Long after he’d walked off, back to whatever life he must lead and she should probably wonder about that at some point, Romily stayed frozen still. She didn’t move even when the skateboarders looped all around her like she was a new obstacle for them to conquer.

She didn’t move for so long that when she did, she felt stiff and something like sore.

In her chest, where the heart she’d written off as defective suddenly decided to start beating again, too hard and too jagged.

Hours later, instead of walking straight to the marina entrance and hurrying down the dock to the safety of her boat, she looped around on the walkway instead. She told herself she was simply enjoying a nightly walk—not something she normally indulged in this far from dawn, not least because it could get a bit nutty out here in the dark— but that wasn’t entirely true.

Romily was deliberately taking another pass near the gym.

Just in case, she told herself.

Just in case what?she asked herself a bit scornfully.He’s standing around outside a gym on a Friday night? Just to see if he can cause a commotion?

Not likely.

When she headed toward his gym, she saw that the garage door was closed. Not a surprise.

That there was a light on inside, though, was. She could see it through the cracks in the small, barred windows in the rolling garage door. Just a hint of light, peeking out into the dark.

Romily wasn’t usually out this late, or for so long, but a lot of other people were because it was a Friday. And the weather was beautiful. There had been fleets of kayaks in the estuary all day. The restaurant was packed and loud. There were even people waiting in line to get into the dive bar.

She had gone out tonight as a test. There had been music in the park, so she’d gone over to listen. Once she’dunstuckherself that was. She’d watched people dance. Sing. Roller blade through the evening. She’d made herself sit there in a crowd, like normal people did, even in this part of beleaguered Oakland.

But all the while she’d daydreamed abouthim.

Now she wanted nothing but to get to her boat and hide away again, so she could lie in her cozy berth and go over every detail of his pecs straining beneath that Henley, then make up some delicious scenarios to go with it, but that light taunted her.

Romily made her way past the crowd outside the bar, then did something she’d never done before. She didn’t overthink it. She had a crazy little idea and she went with it. Instead of walking her usual path past the front of the gym and on to the marina’s gated entrance, she slipped into the alley between it and the bar.

She felt breathless. Audacious.

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