Page 27 of Until You're Mine
Liam had already caught me ogling his sister once—before I knew she was related to him. Now I knew better, and that meant I should look away. Totally gonna do that now…
Or not.
Gathering all my self-restraint, I forced myself to address Liam. “Hey, coach.” He nodded, and then I let myself glance at Brooklyn, doing my best to keep my poker face in place. “Mornin’, bruiser.”
She crossed her arms, and while she probably meant to use it as a way to close herself off to me, it only emphasized her cleavage, making it all the more impossible to not drink in every curve. “Fortunately for you, I’m not here to do any bruising today. A certain someone thought I needed outside time, and I was promised a fun change and a chance to relax. I didn’t realize he was going to be doing drills with you.”
“You said you wanted to do something besides the bills and laundry,” Liam said.
Now would probably be a bad time to point out that I wasn’t bills or laundry. It’d almost be worth it to see the look on Brooklyn’s face. Only I needed her to take off the shades first, so I could see those big blue eyes fly wide in the few seconds I’d have before her brother attempted to take me out.
Brooklyn tucked a flyaway strand of hair behind her ear. “Don’t get me wrong. While I do appreciate the chance to soak up some Vitamin D, I’m not sure that watching you guys put all your testosterone on display for the half-naked ladies at the beach is what I’d call fun.”
“Don’t be so sexist. I display my testosterone for all.” I ran a hand down my chest and abdomen. “I can’t help it, it just exudes out of me.” I’d hoped a joke might penetrate the stony shield she’d thrown up, but it bounced right off, her closed-off posture and expression unchanged.
“Well, exude it right on past me. Thanks to the overabundance of machismo in my life, I’msonot interested in more.”
I bit back the urge to say, “That’s not what it seemed like the other night.” Not sure why she was drawing such a firm line in the sand. I’d heard her loud and clear when things went from easy and natural to stilted. She’d hardly hung on to me as I’d driven her to the gym to get her car, and she couldn’t climb off the back of my bike fast enough.
Liam glanced between us, and Brooklyn quickly looked away. Probably not fast enough to keep her brother from noticing the charged vibe she and I had going on—or maybe I was the only one feeling it all the fucking time. The girl was under my skin and it was driving me crazy. I hadn’t been lying when I said that thoughts of her kept me up at night, and it’d only gotten worse over the past few days. Replaying the moments when I’d curled her close and touched her soft skin only left me frustrated and unsatisfied. I wanted the real thing.
“You guys go ahead and do your thing,” she said, “and I’ll set up to do my favorite part of training.”
“Let me guess, watching guys suffer?”
“Who me?” She looked over the top of her sunglasses and batted her eyes, all false innocence. Just when I was celebrating getting a reaction out of her and a peek at those baby blues, she shook herself out of it. She pushed her shades up her nose, dropped her big bag in the sand, and aimed her next words at Liam. “I’m going to work on my tan while I can. I have a feeling that I’m only going to get more behind on everything that needs done and end up staying at the office extra late. Guess I might as well soak in the sun before I forget what it looks like.”
Liam lowered the duffel, unzipped it, and swore. “I left my gloves in the truck. Remember how I said not to let me forget them?”
Brooklyn unrolled a beach mat. “Remember how I said that I hadn’t had my Mountain Dew yet so you were asking the wrong girl? And how you also told me we didn’t have time to stop by 7-Eleven because we already had water, and you don’t drink soda, and so you basically decided that if you can’t have one, no one can?”
“Fine. I guessI’llgo get them.” He kicked sand her way, and she twisted to shield her body, the laugh I’d missed spilling from her lips.
Brooklyn kicked sand back at him. “Go already. Tell you what. I’ll time you to make it more fun, and so that you can prove people are actually more awake without caffeine.” She held up her wrist to check her imaginary watch. “Go!”
The unamused look on Liam’s face made me want to laugh, but I knew better. He lumbered toward the parking lot, and once he was a safe distance away, my gaze drifted back to where it always tended to go—right to Brooklyn.
“So, no machismo, no displays of testosterone, and no more talking to me at the gym…? You know that saying about protesting too much and what it means?”
She shot me a scowl. “You wish.”
“I do.I’mnot the one in denial.”So much for letting it go.
“Shouldn’t you be running sprints? I’ll time you as well.” She lifted her wrist again. “I’m really interested in how far away you and your inflated ego can get from me.”
“Why doesn’t your boyfriend ever come into the gym to see you?”
She pressed her fingers to her forehead. “Why are you so obsessed with my boyfriend?”
“I just want to size him up. See what I’m up against.”
She sighed, her whole body getting in on it, and her words came out sharp. “You’re not up against him, Shane.” God, I was so starved for attention from this girl that hearing my name from her lips made me want to beg her to say it again. She ran a hand through her hair and looked away. “You’re not a contender. You’re not even in the cage.”
Bullshit, all of it, but she was fighting damn hard to make herself believe it. “Just admit it. I’m in your head.”
“Nope.” She glanced in the direction of the parking lot, but we both knew her brother wouldn’t be here to save her, not for another couple of minutes.
“If I wasn’t, you wouldn’t be so hell-bent on avoiding me.”
