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“Not what you have planned.”
She allowed herself a slight smile. “I remember you saying that before. Did you always repeat yourself? I remember you being a whole lot more articulate. Of course, I was younger then, and one looks at one’s elders with the idealism of youth.”
He nearly choked on his coffee. “Elders?”
“Time has been passing, Jack. You’re, what, nearly forty?”
“I’m thirty-two and you know it.”
“Oh, right. Thirty-two. Time has been a challenge for you, hasn’t it?”
She enjoyed baiting him too much, she thought, knowing she was being totally evil and unable to help herself. The truth was, Jack looked amazing. Fit, sexy—a man in his prime. The good news was that sleeping with him wouldn’t be a hardship.
“You gave up on seducing me?” he asked.
“Not at all. But this is fun, too.”
“I’m not sleeping with you.”
She glanced around the kitchen, then looked back at him. “I’m sorry, did you say something? I wasn’t listening.”
“You’re a pain in the ass.”
“But it’s a darned nice ass, isn’t it?” She turned to show him, patted the curve, then faced front again. “Okay, go get changed. I’ll take you to the nearest gym. You can get a thirty-day membership. Then we’ll work out together.”
“There’s no equipment here?”
She smiled. “I guess Hunter didn’t think of everything after all. It’s a good thing I’m around.”
He stared at her. “You think you’re in charge?”
“Uh-huh.”
He put down his mug, then moved close and stared into her eyes. “Be careful, Meri. You’re playing a game you don’t know how to win. I’m out of your league and we both know it.”
A challenge? Was he crazy? She always won and she would this time. Although there was something about the way he looked at her that made her shiver. Something that told her he was not a man to be toyed with.
But he was just a man, she reminded herself. The sooner she got him into bed, the quicker she could get on with her life.
Jack followed Meri into the large gym overlooking the lake. The facility was light and clean, with only a few people working out. Probably because it was midday, he thought as he took in the new equipment and mentally planned his workout.
Back in Dallas, he worked out in his private gym, built to his specifications. But this would do for now.
“So we can circuit-train together,” she said brightly, standing close and gazing up at him with a teasing smile. “I’m great at spotting.”
She was trying to push his buttons. He was determined not to react, regardless of what she said or did. Meri was playing a game that could be dangerous to her. He might not have taken care of her the way he should have, but he had looked out for her. That wasn’t going to stop just because she was determined to prove a point.
“Want to warm up with some cardio first?” she asked. “We can race. I’ll even give you a head start.”
“I’m not going to need it,” he told her as he headed over to the treadmills, not bothering to see if she followed.
“That’s what you think.”
She stepped onto the machine next to his and set it for a brisk warm-up pace. He did the same, not bothering to look at her speed.
“You didn’t used to exercise,” he said conversationally a few minutes later as he broke into a jog.
Meri punched a few buttons on her treadmill and matched his speed. “I know. I was much more into food than anything else. Not surprising—food was my only friend.”
“We were friends,” he said before he could stop himself. He’d liked Meri—she was Hunter’s little sister. She’d been like family to him.
“Food was the only friend I could depend on,” she said as she cranked up her treadmill again. She was breathing a little harder but barely breaking a sweat. “It didn’t disappear when I needed it most.”
No point in defending himself. She was right—he’d taken off right after Hunter’s funeral. He’d been too devastated by loss and guilt to stick around. A few months later he’d realized he needed to make sure Meri was all right. So he’d hired a P.I. to check in on her every few months. The quarterly reports had given him the basics about her life but nothing specific. Later, when he’d started his own company, he’d gotten his people to keep tabs on her and he’d learned a lot more about her. He’d learned that she’d grown up into a hell of a woman. Obviously she hadn’t needed him around, taking care of things.
“The downside of food as a friend,” she continued, “is that there’s an ugly side effect. Still, I couldn’t seem to stop eating. Then one day I made some new friends and I stopped needing the food so much.” She grinned. “Okay, friends and some serious therapy.”
“You were in therapy?” The reports hadn’t mentioned that.
“For a couple of years. I worked through my issues. I’m too smart and weird to ever be completely normal, but these days I know how to pass.”
“You’re not weird,” he said, knowing better than to challenge her brain. Meri had always been on the high side of brilliant.
“A lot you know,” she said. “But I like who I am now. I accept the good points and the bad.”
There were plenty of good points, he thought, doing his best not to look at her trim body. She had plenty of curves, all in the right places.
They continued to jog next to each other. After another five minutes, Meri increased the speed again and went into a full-out run. Jack’s competitive side kicked in. He increased not only the speed but the incline.
“You think you’re so tough,” she muttered, her breath coming fast and hard now.
“You’ll never win this battle,” he told her. “I have long legs and more muscle mass.”
“That just means more weight to haul around.”
She ran a couple more minutes, then hit the stop button and straddled the tread. After wiping her face and gulping water, she went back onto the treadmill but at a much slower pace. He ran a few more minutes—because he could—then started his cooldown.
“You’re in shape,” he told her as they walked over to the weight room.
“I know.” She smiled. “I’m a wild woman with the free weights. This is where you really get to show off, what with having more upper-body strength. But pound for pound, I’m actually lifting nearly as much as you. Want me to make a graph?”
He grinned. “No, thanks. I can see your excuses without visual aids.”
“Reality is never an excuse,” she told him as she collected several weights, then walked over to a bench. She wiped her hands on the towel she’d brought.
“I can’t be too sweaty,” she said. “If my hands are slick, it gets dangerous. About a year ago, I nearly dropped a weight on my face. Not a good thing.”
“You should be more careful,” he said.
“You think? I paid a lot of money for my new nose. You never said anything. Do you like it?”
He’d known about the surgery. She’d had it when she was twenty. He supposed the smaller nose made her a little prettier, but it wasn’t that big a change.
“It’s fine,” he said.
She laughed. “Be careful. You’ll turn my head with all that praise. My nose was huge and now it’s just regular.”
“You worry too much about being like everybody else. Average is not a goal.”
She looked at him. “I haven’t had enough coffee for you to be philosophizing. Besides, you don’t know anything about normal. You were born rich and you’re still rich.”
“You’re no different.”
“True, but we’re not talking about me. As a guy, you have different standards to live up or down to. If you have money, then you can be a total loser and you’ll still get the girl. But for me it was different. Hence the surgeries.”
“You had more than one?” he asked, frowning slightly. He knew only about her nose.
She sat up and leaned toward him. “Breasts,” she said in a mock whisper. “I had breast implants.”
His gaze involuntarily dropped to her chest. Then he jerked his head to the right and focused on the weight bench next to him.
“Why?” he asked, determined not to think about her body and especially not her breasts, which were suddenly more interesting than he wanted them to be.
“After I lost weight, I discovered I had the chest of a twelve-year-old-boy. I was totally flat. It was depressing. So I got implants. I went for a jumbo B—which seemed about right for my newly skinny self.”
She stood and turned sideways in front of the mirror. “I don’t know. Sometimes I think I should have just gone for it and ordered the centerfold breasts. What do you think?”
He told himself not to look, but it was like trying to hold back the tide. Against his will, his head turned and his gaze settled on her chest. Meri raised her tank top to show off her sports bra.
“Are they okay, Jack?”
A guy walking by did a double take. “They’re great, honey.”
She dropped her shirt and smiled. “Thanks.”
Jack glanced at the guy and instantly wanted to kill him. It would be fast and relatively painless for the bastard. A quick twist of the neck and he would fall lifeless to the ground.
Meri dropped her shirt. “I love being a girl.”
“You’re still playing me. I’m going to ignore you.”
“I’m not sure you can,” she teased. “But you can try. Let’s change the subject. We can talk about you. Men love to talk about themselves.”
He grabbed a couple of weights and sat on a bench. “Or we could focus on our workout.”
“I don’t think so.” She lay on her back and did chest presses. “What have you been up to for the last ten years? I know you went into the military.”
“Army,” he said between reps.
“I heard it was Special Forces.”
“That, too.”
“I also heard you left and started your own company dealing with corporations that want to expand into the dangerous parts of the world.”
Apparently he wasn’t the only one who had done some research.
“It’s impressive,” she said. “You’ve grown that company into quite the business.”
“I’m doing okay.” Five hundred million in billing in the past year. His accountants kept begging him to go public. They told him he could make a fortune. But he already had more than he needed, and going public meant giving up control.
“Are you married?” she asked.
He looked over at her. She’d shifted positions and was now doing bicep curls. Her honey-tanned skin was slick with sweat, her face flushed, her expression intense. She was totally focused on what she was doing.
Would she be like that in bed? Giving a hundred percent, really going for it?
The thought came from nowhere and he quickly pushed it away. Meri could never be more than Hunter’s baby sister. She could dance around naked and beg him to take her—they were never going there.
“Jack? You gonna answer the question?”
Which was? Oh, yeah. “No, I’m not married.”
“You’re not gay, are you? Hunter always wondered.”
He ignored her and the question. If he didn’t react, she would get tired of her game and move on to something else.
She sighed. “Okay, that was funny only to me. So there’s no wife, but is there someone significant?”
“No.”
“Ever been anyone?”
“There have been plenty.”
She looked at him. “You know what I mean. A relationship where you’re exchanging more than bodily fluids. Have you ever been in love?”
“No,” he said flatly. Women tried to get close and he didn’t let them.
“Me, either,” she said with a sigh. “Which is deeply tragic. I want to be in love. I’ve been close. I thought I was in love, but now I’m not so sure. I have trust and commitment issues. It’s from losing my mom when I was young and then losing Hunter. Isn’t it interesting that knowing what the problem is doesn’t mean I can fix it?”
He didn’t know what to say to that. In his world, people didn’t talk about their feelings.
“You lost a brother when you were young,” she said. “That had to have affected you.”
No way he was thinking about that. He stood. “I’m done. I’m going to take a shower.”
She rose and moved close. “Want to take one together?”
