It was a four-hour drive to St. Louis, and I really didn’t want to talk to Shayne unless I didn’t have any other options. I didn’t figure he’d be all that interested in talking anyway. I’d given it up again, and now that he had that out of his system, he’d be on to his next conquest I was sure.
As I boarded the bus, I saw Shayne sitting in the back with his trainers. They stopped talking and watched me walk to my seat. I heard the catcalls as I sat down in the seat directly behind Marcus, who apparently doubled as the bus driver as well as Shayne’s personal security staff. I’ve gotten used to the guys giving me a hard time. I knew it was all in good fun, and I had formed a kind of relaxed, friendly banter with most of them.
It had been far more fascinating that I expected to learn so much about what Shayne did for a living. Being an accomplished MMA fighter was a lot more intricate than I expected.
As I settled into my seat, I booted up my computer and started to open my spreadsheets. It was coming up on month end, and I wanted to have everything ready to send to the corporate office to show that I was getting Shayne on the right path. Despite his protests, I had convinced him to start charging a small towel fee for all the fighters coming in and using his gym. It was a start. A baby step in the right direction.
I heard footsteps coming down the aisle toward me, and then someone landed in the seat next to me. I knew from the cologne that wafted to my nostrils that it was Shayne. Why did he have to smell so damn good? “Morning, Lex.” I glanced at him, and he grinned at me. The man’s shit-eating grin was a mile wide. I didn’t have to be a genius to know what he was thinking about. It was practically written on his face. I flushed as I wondered if he had told any of his crew about what happened. I hoped not. I didn’t need that getting back to his dad.
“Shayne,” I said in a non-committal tone that I hoped told him I had no interest in talking.
“How’d you sleep?”
“Fine,” I lied. I had finally managed to fall asleep sometime after midnight after taking a sleeping pill to calm my nerves. I couldn’t get what happened with Shayne out of my head.
“Me too. Slept like a baby,” he said as he stretched. The movement caused me to glance at his abs, which were on display as his shirt rode up his torso. I hurriedly looked away, but I knew he had caught me peeking at his six-pack. He leaned across the table and shut the top of my laptop.
I started to protest, but he held his hand down firmly on the lid so I couldn’t open it. “Want me to give you a tour of the rest of the bus? I think I have some receipts I forgot to give you in the back.” His eyes had a wicked glint in them.
“I am working, Shayne,” I said as I was finally able to wrangle my laptop out of his grasp. I lowered my voice. “I won’t be going on any tours or practicing any more full contact sports with you.”
He shook his head. “You keep thinking that, Lex.”
“Why do you insist on calling me Lex?” It was a nickname that he had started calling me about a week after I started at the gym, and I hadn’t corrected him. Mostly because I liked hearing him say any variation of my name. It sent tingles down my spine.
“It reminds me of Lex Luther.” He caught my raised eyebrows. “Superman?”
“Yeah, I understand the cultural reference,” I said. “What does that have to do with me?”
He shifted in his seat so that he was only inches away from me, and somewhere along the way I forgot to breathe. It was incredible how he filled a space and owned it.
“In the TV series, Lex Luther and Superman are friends, then they’re enemies. Their friendship runs hot and cold as they’re working out how to get along. Or not get along in the end. Does that sound at all familiar?”
“Geez, I didn’t realize you were so deep,” I said, but now that I understood it, it made perfect sense. And I kinda liked the nickname even more than I did before because it meant something.
“There are a lot of things that you don’t know about me,” he said. He leaned back in his chair and stretched again. “Thank God we’ve got four hours to get to know each other better.”
I shook my head. “I told you. I have work to do.”
“It can’t be that much work keeping track of how much money I spend,” he said with a chuckle.
“Cal assigned another smaller account to me,” I said. “He wants me to get as much exposure to the systems and processes so I’m ready to make the transition in a few months.”
“I will have to talk to Cal about that then,” he said. His hand snaked under the table and settled on my knee. “I don’t like having to compete for your attention.”
I laughed. “Oh, you aren’t the center of attention for once? Poor Ice.” I stopped laughing when his hand crept further up my thigh. I tried to push his hand away, but it was anchored around my leg. “Stop it. Not here,” I said.
His expression brightened. “Then that means it’ll be somewhere.”
“I didn’t mean that,” I sputtered. “We’re done with all of that. Things are strictly professional from this point forward.”