Page 10 of Sitting Pretty

I lean forward and set my palm flat on the leather seat between his legs so my face is inches from his. “I might become possessive of you.”

He flashes me a small smile and licks his lips. “You can demand all my love and affection. I will happily give them to you.”

“And if we’re dating, and a woman from your past wants a second round of training?”

Shaking his head, he cups my face and swipes his thumb over my cheek. “I’m not taking on any new clients. Besides, I hope to be out of there soon. My friend who works at the OTC said they’re interviewing for new trainers next month, and I’m on the list. I’ve already had my pre-screen eval and everything.”

I smile. “That’s great. Any other secrets you need to tell me on our first date?”

His eyes drop to my lips. “I think you’re great. Beautiful, smart, driven. I like everything I’ve learned about you.”

“Is that a secret?”

“No. I’m sure the guys will see it all over me as soon as we walk through the doors.”

I lean forward, closing the gap between us, my lips hovering over his. “Maybe we should kiss again before we walk through those doors. You know, since you feel the need to behave yourself in public.”

“There are all kinds of dark corners inside Henry’s, so I wasn’t planning on behaving myself the whole night.” He closes the distance, pressing his lips to mine at the same time he moves his hand from my face into my hair. It takes seconds for our kiss to turn hot, and he’s pulling me onto his lap.

I can’t exactly straddle him given the size of him and the seat, but fortunately for us I’m quite bendy, so I swing my leg over the center console, pulling him as close to my body as possible.

He groans. “You’re flexible.”

“Don’t let my size fool you. I’m a yoga queen.” I giggle and trail kisses over his jaw.

“I’m quite agile myself. Maybe I’ll show you sometime.”

“You want to wrestle later?” I flash him another taunting grin. I love that he’s playful. A guy his size, you’d expect him to be stiff—but not Lucas.

“Let’s see where the night goes.”

5

LUCAS

We’re early, so heads swing from the band table as soon as we enter the bar.

“Hustler!” they yell, a couple of them lifting bottles of Corona.

Aila giggles as my grip tightens on our joined hands. I’m impressed with how well she took my admission, but I’m more affected by how she clearly laid out her boundaries. She doesn’t care about my past, but she doesn’t share—and since I have no intentions of sharing her, that’s reasonable. Over time, I’m sure more of my story will come out. Maybe there will be things she doesn’t like, and we’ll have to deal with them as they come up, but I’m an honest guy, so whatever happens, she’ll always get me one hundred percent.

We walk up to the table. “Guys, this is Aila.”

Jamie, Kirian’s new bride, stands up and offers her hand. “You look familiar.”

“Do you subscribe to H&A?” I ask. When my sister was home for the summer, she came out with me many times and met the crew. As a new twenty-one-year-old, I preferred to chaperone her whenever she let me—as an overprotective big brother does.

“Yeah, your sister turned me on to it.” Jamie’s eyes grow wide. “Oh my god, you’re her.”

Aila blushes. “I had no idea I was so popular.”

Marcy and Debbie approach, offering their hands. “We love your channel. So body positive—you talk to your target audience about loving their curves without demeaning women without curves.”

“I see no reason to bash one body type, even if they aren’t my target audience.” Aila shrugs.

“Let’s grab a drink.” Jamie squeals, taking my woman’s hand and pulling her away from me, the four ladies walking to the bar and leaving us behind.

I glance at my empty hand. “What the fuck just happened?”

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