However, she’d kept the outfit. The sports bra was pale yellow and bordered with a wide black hem.
The matching cotton shorts were form-fitting and stopped right at the top of her thighs. She would never go out in public wearing shorts these short, but for home they had been perfect. And were beyond perfect for this moment.
She quickly changed, dug out her mat and blocks from the back of the closet, and hurried into the living room. She’d barely had time to get the mat spread out before she heard him run up onto the front porch.
Angling her body toward the front door, she bent in a downward dog pose, making sure her butt was the first thing he’d see. As the door opened, she glanced upside down behind her. Tommy had frozen right inside the doorway, his gaze glued exactly where she’d known it would go. Pretending she was unaware he was there, she lifted her right leg in the air, bent her knee, and caught the top of her foot in her right hand, opening herself up for him to see.
A strangled male groan was her reward, and she fought back a smile. She held the pose for a second, then released it. Lowering onto all fours, she went into a cat pose and arched her back. And then the grand finale—the dog tilt. She dropped the center of her spine toward the floor at the same time she tilted her tailbone to the ceiling. The movement made her ass jut pertly in the air.
A vehement curse rent the air, and she waited for his hands to grab her hips, his pelvis to grind behind her. What she got was the slamming of the door.
Sitting back on her haunches, she blew the hair out of her eyes.
Well, damn.
Okay. Round one to Tommy.
Warrior trotted over and licked her face. She ruffled the sides of his face but froze when an engine cranked in the background, followed by squealing tires. She grimaced.
And once more he was gone.
Fine.
Desperate times called for desperate measures. If seduction wasn’t going to work, she’d just have to outright lie.
If she could get him to lose control, keep him in a place where he didn’t think, just acted, she’d have him. Once it was over, done was done. It couldn’t be taken back. Then maybe he’d stop being so damn jumpy and become the man who’d held her so mesmerized as he’d rubbed himself against her and devoured her with his mouth.
What would it be like to be around that man all the time?
She shivered. Definitely an intense ride. One she may never want to get off of.
Shaking her head, she pushed those thoughts aside. She’d decided that she had to be with Tommy.
Whatever else happened, she’d face it when she crossed that bridge.
She grabbed her phone off her coffee table and opened a text message.
TRUCE? PLEASE. I MISS YOU.
Twenty minutes passed before he responded, and she’d almost burned a hole in the carpet from her pacing.
MISS YOU, TOO.
Was she doing the right thing by pushing him? She bit her lip, wavering. Yes, she was. This attraction was here between them, and it wasn’t going away no matter how much he tried to run from it or tried to protect her from himself. If their relationship was going to be damaged, it wasn’t going to be over him fighting his desires for her. It would be from the consequences of it.
MOVIE TONIGHT? SPEND SOME TIME TOGETHER? she sent.
Another ten full minutes passed before she received: SURE.
Not the most encouraging response, but his guard was still up.
Tonight, however, she was determined to break down every one of those frustrating barriers.
He didn’t stand a chance.
…
Tommy sat down on one of the benches in the locker room, lowered his elbows to his knees, and cupped his head in his hands. He’d been here at the gym all afternoon lifting weights, sparring, running…anything not to go back home.
Unfortunately, Mike would be locking up soon, which meant unless he wanted to head to a bar or drive around, neither of which appealed to him, he had to face Julie.
Watch a movie. Right.
Unless it entailed a pizza boy showing up at some scantily clad woman’s home, a movie was not what Julie had in mind. No matter how much she was trying to convince him otherwise. The image of her ass up in the air swept through his mind. He shifted on the bench. It had taken everything in him not to grab her hips and yank her backside against his crotch. She’d wanted that, had been egging him on. Hell, she’d actually told him to fuck her. Had given him goddamn permission.
Even if her wiggling ass had been a clear come-and-get-it invitation this morning, she hadn’t been thinking clearly when she’d said it. Probably didn’t even remember the very valid reasons he’d given as to why he couldn’t do it.
She deserved more than being used and then abandoned.
And if he had to be the voice of fucking reason, so be it. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to get the taste or smell of her out of his senses, or the sound of her coming out of his mind since Friday night. His resistance was waning. That spelled trouble.
And trouble was exactly what was waiting for him at home.