Page 26 of Thief

“Hey, get off me, you moron,” she squealed as her cheek squashed up against the white panel.

“What happened to my ten-minute warning, Pussy Cat?”

“Get off!” she demanded again, furious he’d managed to surprise her.

“I thought I made myself clear,” he continued with a sinister menace rippling through his voice. “Play nice or you’ll be locked in your room with your arms and legs bound up until the end of the week.”

Kat wriggled and writhed.

John pulled back enough to allow her to twist to and face him.

“You wouldn’t,” she spat, lifting her eyes from his bare chest to his face. “You wouldn’t dare.”

He kept his palms on the door and his weight pressed against her hips so she couldn’t move. “Wanna bet?”

“I’d scream the place down. The neighbours would come running.”

“Not if I gagged that lying little mouth of yours.”

“Get off me, will you?”

“Perhaps a blindfold would be fun too.” He bent his head close to hers. “Would you like that? Would you like guessing where I was going to touch you next?”

She scowled, refusing to be intimidated. “At least I wouldn’t have to look at your stupid face.”

“I wouldn’t have to look at yours if I strapped you down on your stomach and hoisted that pretty little arse in the air.”

She wriggled some more. “In your dreams, John. Get off me…now.”

He sighed and the luminosity drained from his eyes. “So where are you off to?”

He pulled back to study her outfit.

She wore a neon pink vest top and a pair of tight black Lycra cycling shorts teamed with pink Nike trainers. Her hair was pulled up high on her head, she had headphones draped around her neck and a bottle of water had rolled to the floor when the door had slammed shut.

“Harrods,” she snapped.

“Be nice,” His breath was laced with toothpaste.

Kat rolled her eyes in exasperation. “To the gym. Where else would I go looking like this?” She was trying her best to ignore the dangerous undercurrent of his tying-her-up threat and the thrilling tingle it gave her. That was the last idea she wanted to plant in his head—especially when he clearly liked the thought of it judging by that flash in his eyes. “There’s a gym in the basement for residents to use.”

“Wait ten minutes and we’ll go together.” He pushed back from the door and finally moved from her personal space. “I need coffee first.”

* * * *

The gym was circumferenced by mirrors so anyone using it could admire themselves from all angles. It had no windows, just three television screens silently playing news channels. There were two of everything—two rowing machines, two running machines and two step machines. In the corner stood a bench press with a variety of weights balanced next to it on a rack.

Kat, in a regular routine, set gradients and speeds on one of the treadmills and began to pounding.

John headed to the weights and adjusted the bench. He lay on his back with his feet placed either side on the floor and, within minutes, was heaving the metal bar up and down rhythmically. His bunched up biceps pushed to the max, a slight shake evident as the tension built.

Kat ran for thirty minutes before switching to the much-hated step machine. She was conscious of John behind her at the weights and shot a sneaky look in the mirror to see if he was watching her, but he didn’t so much as glance at her Lycra-clad body. He was far too busy fiddling with weights and getting himself all pumped up—grunting and huffing as he clanked metal on metal like a caveman.

Finally, after another thirty minutes, Kat came to the end of her tri-weekly routine. John had barely noticed her in the last hour, and she wondered with hindsight if she should have sneaked up to her apartment, locked him out and refused to let him back in. But it was too late for that now, and besides, he’d picked her lock before. Normal rules didn’t seem to apply to John when it came to using doors.

“Hey,” she said, wiping her damp face with a towel. “I’m done here.”

John sat up on the bench. He was wearing shorts and a black T-shirt, both of which showed signs of serious sweating, as did his forehead.

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