Chapter 25 #2
I arched a brow. The sweats were hanging low on my hips, I had no shirt on, and I was sweaty.
Yet she seemed to like that. “I what?” I prompted, trying to contain the smug smile that was fighting to come out.
The woman was going to have me strutting around like a fucking peacock if she kept stoking my ego.
My brothers would just love that. I wouldn’t admit it out loud, but it wasn’t like I suffered from self-consciousness.
She swallowed. “It’s…nothing.”
“No, really, what?” I asked, placing one hand on the door jamb above her head and leaning in toward her a little.
Now that I knew nothing was wrong, I was more than willing to flirt.
She was great to flirt with. She usually picked up on the game and gave it back easily.
She seemed to be a little off this morning.
Though a little spark of amusement lit in her eyes. “Alright.” She held up her phone—I hadn’t even realized she had it in her hand—and tapped at it.
Grunting and huffing filled the air. Without being able to see the screen, I was starting to wonder if she was showing me a porn video. What the…
I groaned.
“Yeah, that’s pretty close,” she said, her smile growing as she flipped the phone so I could see.
She’d recorded me doing my pull ups. That was me making the sex noises.
Only they were working out noises, but not the obnoxious yelling a lot of fuckers liked to do in the gym.
It was hard to lift my fucking body mass and stay quiet.
Narrowing my eyes, I asked. “And what are you planning to do with that?”
Her smile was coy, with a side of triumphant. The former turned me on. The latter? That was beginning to worry me. “I already sent it to my sisters.”
I swore under my breath. “Great.”
“Sophie has suggested you start up a website and sell these videos.”
I barked out a laugh. “Right.”
“Shay came up with an even better idea. Women could pay you to say their names sporadically as you do your workout, too.” Her smile was huge and smug as she teased me.
“Yeah?” I asked. “And you wouldn’t mind sharing, huh?”
She gave me a look saying she was unimpressed with that idea. “I liked Vivian’s idea best. Why cut out a quarter of your marketplace by only catering to women?”
“Huh?” I asked.
“I’m sure more than just women would want to watch,” she continued. “And Audrey offered to run your socials for you. She’s pretty good at it. She’ll have them drooling after you in no time.”
Lunging at her, I wrapped her up in my arms as she squealed and laughed.
“I’m not interested in making them drool,” I told her, burying my face in her neck as I picked her up and moved into the bedroom with her.
“You’re the only one I’ll let make videos of me.
But only if you promise to watch them one-handed. ” I wiggled my brows at her.
Laughing, she swatted at my chest. “It’s better this way. We don’t need your head getting any bigger than it already is.”
“Something’s getting bigger,” I told her, nipping at her shoulder.
She swatted me again. “I don’t have time for that.”
Raising my head, I stared down at her in disappointment. “Seriously?”
“I’m going to be late if I don’t get going. I stood there watching you for too long.”
It was my turn to wear a smug smile. “Liked what you saw, huh?”
“And heard,” she admitted. “At the risk of over inflating that giant ego of yours, you’re incredibly sexy.”
“Giant-” I placed her down on her feet as she squirmed in my arms. “I don’t have a giant ego. Just appropriately sized.”
She laughed. “Sure you don’t. Are you going to follow me to work today?”
Cocking my head, I watched her as she started getting dressed. “You knew I was doing that?”
She rolled her eyes at me. “I’m not oblivious to the world around me, Bolo. Of course I noticed that.”
“Then yeah, I am.”
“I’m leaving in ten minutes.”
Watching her, I started to reach out toward her, wondering if I could persuade her to be late, but she smacked my hand. “Out.”
Pretending to grumble, I left the bedroom, leaving her to get ready.
“Put some actual clothes on before we go,” she called out from the bedroom. “You’re going to cause an accident if you go like that.”
Chuckling, I went into the other bedroom to change. I’d been leaving clothes in there and showering after my workouts so that I didn’t wake her up early. I also had spent too much time staring at her this morning and ran out of time to finish my workout.
Once I got back from seeing her safely to work, Relay and I would be going to the next place on Ruck’s list. The places on it were getting fewer in number.
The Collective was only going to be able to hide for so long.
I fully intended to take them out before they had a chance to come at us again.
Nothing was going to keep me from protecting my woman and kid.
I’d burn this fucking city to the ground to find those assholes if I had to.
Smoke them out like the rats they were. Whatever it took.