“I just don’t like being left hanging. I’m the type of person who likes to know exactly what’s going on.”
Dante snorted at the top of another crunch. “You think I don’t know that already?”
“Ass.”
“Thanks.” He grinned.
“I hope all those crunches are painful as hell,” I sassed.
Despite grunting with effort, he still found the energy to flip me off. “No pain, no gain, Lemon Drop.”
“You’re insane.”
He laughed, laid back and squeezed his knees to his chest. I’d be a total liar if I said I didn’t take note of the way his joggers hugged his ass like a second skin.
An ill-timed message arrived from Lydia.
Lyds: HELLO??
I smirked, amused by her impatience.
Penny: Sorry, got distracted.
Lyds: By?
Making sure to flick my phone on silent, I took a stealthy pic of Dante stretching and sent it to her.
It took a minute for her reply to come through, but when it did, I cracked up so hard tears streamed down my face. Lydia had filmed herself rubbing ice down her neck and into her cleavage, and every time the video started replaying, I laughed harder.
“What’s so funny?” Dante asked, deftly rolling to his feet and setting his hands on his hips.
“Nothing,” I wheezed.
“Doesn’t seem like nothin’.”
I took another look at the screen and rolled with laughter. Coming up for air, I encountered Dante’s scowl.
“Could have asked for a photo instead of sneaking one, jailbait. I would have struck a pose like this.”
My laughter dried the instant he whipped his shirt over his head and tossed it aside. He stood before me with his stomach tensed, and I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Layer upon layer of rock-hard muscle gave way to a deep V that disappeared beneath the waistband of his joggers.
“Yeah, Lydia doesn’t get to see that,” I mumbled, shamelessly running my eyes over his torso.
I’d seen him naked already, but not likethis.Who knew half-dressed in run-of-the-mill joggers would be so damn appealing to my lady parts?
I squirmed, and damn him, hesmirked.
“Finished?”
Achieving nonchalance was totally out of the question. Instead, I grabbed my phone.
“I was finished like ten minutes ago, man meat. You can put your goods away now.”
Ignoring his contentious snort, I set about sassing out Lydia for no valid reason, when Dante’s mutter caught my attention.
My eyes honed in on him and narrowed sharply. “What did you say?”
“Doesn’t matter.”