I roll my eyes while moving to grab my water bottle, taking a few sips before wiping my mouth with the back of my hand and tightening my ponytail.
A quick glance in the mirror next to me reminds me that I need to redo my highlights. The natural blonde parts are starting to look bland.
Lucas doesn’t move from his spot.
Arms resting on the tops of his thighs that seem all too tempting to ride.
I shake the thought from my head because there’s at least four other people nearby, who are taking advantage of the early morning quietness of the gym. Not that I mind a little exhibition but that would go against my three-month attempt of trying to avoid the jock.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you followed me here,” I say, hands resting on my hips.
His grin grows wider. “Well wouldn’t you like to know.”
I drop myself onto the black and white speckled foam gym floor, moving in position to get ready for sit-ups. Lucas finally stands and for a moment I think he’s going to walk closer to me, but instead he moves to my right, where the weight racks are.
His hands wrap around the fifty-five pound cast iron dumbbell set and my eyes follow the movements.
I need to get a grip.
That or I need his grip on me.
I force myself to go back to our conversation and my own workout, rather than what kind of workout the both of us could do together.
“Oh, please,” I scoff, voice slightly shaky from doing sit-ups and definitely not because of the way Lucas flexes his arms. “You’re not as inconspicuous as you think.”
He chuckles and brings the weights back to the bench he was previously watching me from. “Inconspicuous?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, is that word too big for you?”
“Yeah, actually.” Lucas sits and begins curling his right arm, dumbbell in his hand. “I barely learned how to read yesterday, Stryker.”
I sit back up straight, leaning back on the palms of my hands. The corners of my mouth turn down and I squint in his direction.
He goes about his business like he wasn’t just blatantly staring at me three minutes ago and now he’s not even looking in my direction.
My eyes narrow. “You know, for someone who just loves using my last name, you’d think you’d be more afraid of me actuallystrikingyou.”
Lucas finally looks back at me, his eyes taking a painstakingly long look at me. His gaze travels from my legs, deciding not to stay there for long. No, now he’s apparently decided to lookdirectly at my eyes while grinning, like he knows something I don’t.
“Oh, I’m counting on it.”
He doesn’t give me time to react before he’s turning his attention back to the dumbbells and completely ignoring me.
I cross my arms, shooting daggers in his direction and growing even more annoyed at how broad his shoulders are and how easily my body grows warm at just the sight of him.
This doesn’t usually happen.
Never in my twenty years of life have I ever had a guy ignore me. It’s usually the other way around.
Now it’s my turn to watch him without caring if he notices or not, because what the hell kind of game is this man playing? He practically couldn’t stop watching my every move for months, and then he follows me into the gym and takes me in like I’m the last glass of water in the desert. And now he says shit like that just to turn away from me?
It’s stupid to care—which I don’t. If anything, I’m relieved because now I don’t have to worry about him sneaking into my apartment and watching me sleep.
“Something wrong, Denise?”
Lucas doesn’t even have to look up for me to hear the grin in his voice.
Before I walk over there and demand to know what the hell his problem is and where this newfound audacity came from, I shoot up from my spot on the floor, quickly grabbing my bag and water bottle.