Page 11 of The Hacker
She frowned, her strong brows drawing down in the middle until the ends seemed like uptilted wings. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I guess I’m just nervous about this.”
“Why?” He felt nothing but the exhilaration of finding and fixing a problem.
“Because you’re pretending to be someone you’re not. I might slip up and get you in trouble.”
“If you call me Leland by mistake, I can always say that Alice called me that in school so you picked it up from her.” He gave her his best disarming southern smile. “It’s almost the truth.”
“I guess almost truths are better than outright lies. You ready to sweat or do you need to do spy stuff first?”
“My spy stuff is on my phone and collecting information as we speak, so let’s sweat.” He was curious to find out how she conducted her training regime.
“You said to keep it real,” she said, “so let’s stow your bag in the locker room like everyone else’s.”
After he’d stashed his gym bag in a blond-wood locker, he rejoined Dawn in the hallway. “Could I take a look at the pool first?” he requested. “I might stay to swim. That will give my software plenty of time to dig in.”
She nodded, the light catching in the sleek strands of her hair, making his fingers itch to see if it felt as satiny as it looked. She led him back into the lobby and through a room lined with treadmills and ellipticals, about one-quarter of which were in use. No pulse-poundingly loud music blared through the gym, so he could hear the thud of running shoes hitting the rubber tracks.
The far wall was composed of a row of floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the promised pool. It glowed a sparkling turquoise, clueing him in to the source of the gym’s eye-popping color scheme. He had to admit that the pale wood floors and paneling provided a nice balance to the brilliant blue, evoking a white sand beach by the Caribbean Sea.
Only one woman plowed through the water in one of the lanes, her stroke slow but steady. The nearly empty pool beckoned to him. “I’m definitely doing some laps after our session.”
She bared her teeth in a mock-sinister smile. “If your arms aren’t rubber by then.”
“Do your worst.” He liked her edge.
“Okay, let’s warm you up.” She pointed to an empty treadmill. “We’ll talk while you walk.” She narrowed her eyes and scanned him up and down with purely professional interest. He caught himself wishing her gaze held a different kind of appreciation, more like the yoga woman’s.
Her fingers danced over the control panel of the treadmill and it began to move at a pace he considered a saunter. “I mentioned that your initial session is ninety minutes and that the first thirty minutes are free. We’ll use the free time to warm up and discuss your fitness goals. On your next visit, you can warm up yourself before your session begins if you’d like to get the maximum benefit from it.”
Her tone was pleasant but, again, all work and no play. He missed the snappy teasing of her email messages.
“I’ll get my tablet to input your program. And some water for you. Be right back.” She took off toward a glass-fronted refrigerator so he could savor her distinctive stride, which somehow combined propulsion and seduction.
As he strolled, he redirected his thoughts to his phone, now tucked away in the locker, sucking in data from all over the gym. Would it confirm his working theory?
“Here you go.” Dawn slotted a water bottle into the treadmill’s console. “Hydration is important.” She tapped a button on the tablet. “Let’s talk goals. You don’t need to lose weight, so we can cross that goal off.”
“I appreciate it.” His tone was dry.
One corner of her lips twitched. “You’re welcome. Muscle mass looks pretty good too.”
“I’m resisting the urge to flex in confirmation.”
She hummed at that. “I guess I shouldn’t write down ‘figure out why cell data usage is so high at the gym.’”
“Probably not wise.” The treadmill suddenly accelerated as it followed Dawn’s programming.
“How about increasing your flexibility?” she asked.
“I like to think that I’m quite flexible already, but go right ahead.”
She ignored his comment and tapped at the tablet.
The treadmill quickened to running speed and tilted to a high incline. He increased his pace to accommodate it. “Did you add ‘run up Mount Everest’ to my goals?”
She chuckled and hit a button on the control panel, causing the track to slow and flatten. “I was just messing with you.”
So the teasing was still there. A blip of pleasure twanged at his chest.
