He was as fit or better than most servicemen, even on active duty. His level of cardio looked to be very good based on the way he was able to maintain a conversation with her through each exercise. And any of those exercises might be simple but they weren’t as easy as he was making them look. She appreciated the dedication it took to keep up a routine alone, with no one around to keep him accountable. Hard to persist in pushing oneself without a workout partner or personal trainer. It took a driven sort of mind-set.
Damn it, he was doing more burpees than she usually did and she wasn’t sure if she was more irritated by the realization or that she was keeping count.
“There are a lot of reasons.” He snorted. “None of them are particularly witty or clever when I think about them. There’s a decent amount of conceit behind it, perhaps. Some past friends have called it narcissism. I prefer to look in the mirror and appreciate what I see. I want to be proud of myself, both in appearance and in performance.”
On the surface, his statement was flippant and she thought it was deliberately intended to allow a person to think of him as shallow. But there were a lot of kinds of performance, and she didn’t think he was only referring to the obvious innuendo.
“You’re very good at the things you set out to do, huh?” She tossed it out there experimentally.
“Of course.” The man was finally starting to sound short of breath.
With the light from her laptop screen supplementing visibility in the room, a fine sheen of sweat shone on his skin. Candlelight would be a fantastic idea at the moment. She loved the way a flickering flame could show off the human form and it’d been a long time since she’d had a partner patient enough to set up small details like that in a room.
Nope. Kyle was not a partner and this was not headed in the direction her thoughts seemed to be going on their own. There would be no fantasizing.
“If something is worth doing,” Kyle huffed, “It is worth doing well. I’m not satisfied if I haven’t done my personal best. In anything.”
Oh, but he was very good at inspiring all the naughty fantasies.
Turning back to her laptop, she attempted to focus on something else, anything else. “Maybe tomorrow morning I’ll go through my routine at the same time. We can draw the curtain between the sleeping and sitting areas.”
She disliked doing it because she preferred to have line of sight on the person she was protecting as much as possible, but so far he’d been careful to honor her instructions on staying away from the windows. He hadn’t once asked to leave the room.
He paused and faced her, his hands on his hips as he stood there with a relaxed posture. “You prefer your workouts without an audience?”
“Correct.” She bit the inside of her cheek. She’d just watched him go through his and hadn’t even thought about whether it’d be rude or not. She shouldn’t have made the assumption that he’d want an audience. Maybe she should’ve at least asked if he minded.
He shrugged. “Okay. I can take my time in the shower if you’d like time to work out now.”
“I’m not sure the hotel’s hot water heaters can handle it.” She gave him a small smile though. He really was surprisingly considerate.
“Ah well.” He lifted his hands, palms up. “I’ve always showered with a lady sharing my room. To conserve water, of course.”
She narrowed her eyes and glared at him. “Pass.”
He grinned at her. “Consider it a standing offer, with global conservation in mind.”
Irritation warred with a tiny spark of interest. She immediately squashed any and all thoughts resembling fantasies of the man. She’d let him lure her in some but he was a player and a womanizer and she was having none of it.
Standing, she stalked toward him. To his credit, his grin didn’t fade and he didn’t give ground, but the look in his eyes turned wary. At least he wasn’t idiotic enough to think her approach was some sort of triumph for him.
Without a word, she reached for the curtain and pulled it across most of the room, leaving a small space for a person to slip through if necessary. Not completely blocking him out, but still a definitive shutdown.
Argh. She was as irritated with herself as with him. He had a knack for getting under her skin. One minute his charm seemed sincere and genuinely engaged her. She found herself drawn to him, liking him even. Which she would not be letting him know anytime soon. Then he’d switch gears, turning vapid and transparent. Shallow.
It was infuriating.
And it shouldn’t be.
Normally, she had no fucks to give about what a man did with his time. If he was a player, well, there was a certain accountability to the women who fell into his bed willingly and she tended to figure it took two to make the decision. As far as she could tell, Kyle was up front about his intentions. No strings attached. He wasn’t the type to lead a girl into thinking there was a committed relationship of any kind. It wasn’t like he was a bad person, just not relationship material. So there wasn’t any of the duplicity there to set off her anger.
No. That wasn’t quite right. He was being dishonest in a way. Not in what he said but in what he wasn’t saying. She got the sense there was more to him. He wasn’t shallow. He wasn’t an asshole. But he was far too good at letting people think he was.