It was fucking sexy. The more he spotted her or stayed nearby in case she had questions, the more he watched her skin start to glisten, her face start to flush with heat, her limbs tremble at the end of each set.
And his mind wandered to his bedroom. How she might look the same after an hour of intense lovemaking under the covers. Flushed with heat, slick with sweat, trembling from the energy they were exerting, from the nerves, from the exhaustion after so many orgasms…
“You good, Lambert?”
He blinked and turned to see Caleb, the trainer who had given him the okay to bring Kat in, standing beside him. As they watched Kat slay a set of ten squats at three eighty-five, he nodded. “Just let my mind wander a minute.”
“She’s a machine,” Caleb said, nodding at Kat. Though that was obvious since there were no other women in the room. “I’m impressed.”
He was too, but he merely grunted and watched as she squatted again. The machine acted as a self-spotter, not allowing the weights to go below a certain point. Should the person using the squat machine trip or buckle, the bar with weights would land on the safety and keep from crushing the athlete. It afforded him the opportunity to watch her body at work from a slight distance.
Her thighs strained, legs shaking a little under the weight. Her face was set in stone, eyes straight ahead with each methodical lowering of her body, exhaling on the upswing.
It was… impressive. And hot as hell if he were being honest with himself, silently. Rather than the wafer-thin skinny ladies he had experienced in the past, her frame was built from sinew and muscle. Her thighs were, surprisingly, disproportionately larger than the rest of her body. But any idiot could tell it was from muscle. Her whole body was tight, but her thighs… those were amazing.
Created and toned from countless hours lifting, working and training inside and out, not just salad and the elliptical.
And he felt himself battling yet another erection.
“Didn’t you have a meeting?” Caleb asked after they watched Kat put the safety on the weight bar.
“No, I— Shit.” He checked his watch, grimaced, then watched as she used a towel to wipe her face. “Kat, I have to take off.”
“Sure thing.” She looked around longingly toward the cardio equipment, then walked toward him. “I’ll wait for you in the hallway or something. Or maybe there’s an unused office nearby?”
He hesitated, looking back at the equipment, then Caleb, who gave him a slight nod. “You can stay here and finish working out if you want.”
The longing in her eyes was clear, but she shook her head. “I promised to leave when you did. I’ve got my phone and an 88 percent battery. I’ll survive.”
He snorted. “Just stay. You’ve earned Caleb’s respect, so he’s good with your hanging out, as long as you don’t interfere with any private training.”
“I won’t.” She seemed so earnest, so eager, he couldn’t see denying her anything. She could have asked for a puppy, a million dollars and his Mustang, and he would have caved like a cheap suitcase.
“Then… okay.” He ran a hand over his hair, fighting the urge to stay and see her through the workout. He’d never missed a meeting in his life. He wasn’t going to start now.
But the way she bounced over to the dead lift bar… made him reconsider.
Chapter 5
Kat let the dead lift bar settle gently on the mat before straightening her back and arching just a little to stretch. They were great for the legs… but man, she needed a massage. A good, hard muscle one, not one of those wimpy ones with hot stones and soft music. Maybe she could pay one of the Bobcat trainers to give her a good, hard rubdown after hours, off the books.
She snickered in her head. That sounded entirely unprofessional, though she meant it exactly as it sounded.
“What’s the deal with you and Lambert?”
Kat turned to find a lean man only about an inch taller than her standing nearby, looking mildly curious but equally unconcerned about her presence in the weight room. Men could be picky about women around the weight room, she’d learned. Stupid but true. But most of them had left her alone, watching from a distance but not interfering with her workout. And also not hitting on her or making lewd comments as she bent over to grab a weight or a safety clip.
She appreciated that more than anything.
“Nothing,” she said easily, grabbing the towel the coach named Caleb had offered her earlier. She wiped down her hands and wrists, then headed over to the calf press machine.
The curious bystander followed, resting his shoulder on the wall in front of the machine so she couldn’t miss him. She rolled her eyes and started to look for the right size weights to add. When he did nothing, she sighed. “If you’re going to watch me like a performing zoo animal, could you at least add a twenty-five to that side?”