I smiled. “I never make it through an entire class.”
“I always enjoy a challenge.” He winked at me and then started toward the spin room.
I bent down to pick up my bag, to follow behind, when Cilla nudged me again. She lifted one hand and stuck her other one behind it, pointing behind her palm. She was going for subtle but failed. I didn’t turn, using the mirrors lining the walls to follow the direction of her point.
Aniello stood in the doorway, staring at me.
Sucking in a breath, I let it out slowly, so maybe no one would notice. But none of them were looking at me. They were looking at him looking at me. Even though he didn’t blatantly check me out, I knew he was checking me out.
“You do look damn good in that outfit,” Cilla whispered, like she’d read the look, too.
Shit. If she read the look, would everyone else? What was up with him lately? Why was he hanging around so much? Was Cilla still messing around with Joey? Or was there more going on? I hated to sound like one of those cliché characters in one of Cilla’s romance books, but I had no idea what was going on. Especially since I knew the cost of even an attraction between us.
No. This had to be about her.
I kicked her in the ass when he walked off. “Seriously,” I whispered. “Have you seen Joey or been in touch with him since the market?”
She lifted herself off the floor, along with her tote and water bottle. “I haven’t,” she said, but she walked ahead of me, rushing to the room with the rows of bikes.
I snatched her arm to drill into her, but we both stopped in the doorway. Alec was walking out, and the woman from the exercise class was taking his place.
“What. The. Fuck?” Cilla said to me. “Where’s Alec the Greek god going?” She groaned. “I quit. I’m going home to eat more chips. Or make some pasta. I’ll probably eat the chips while I make the pasta. After what I did, that bitch is going to spin-class kill me out of revenge. My tires will be smoking. She might make me go so fast the bike will take off into a mirror.”
She was looking at us with revenge in her eyes. And some of the girls from the other class had claimed some bikes. They were eyeing us too. I wasn’t in the mood for a cat fight, so I followed behind Cilla as we made our way to the elevator.
We were quiet as Aniello passed us, probably coming from the security office after he made his appearance in the gym portion of the building. I pretended like I didn’t see him, staring at the button to the elevator, but the mirrors reflected, and my side-eye couldn’t help stealing a glance or two.
Damn. Whenever he was around, I felt that creeping water coming closer and closer to the live wire—the one that seemed to exist between his body and mine. He was all brooding fineness. Dark suit. Dark hair. Dark eyes.
I wanted into that darkness more than I ever wanted into the light.
It was never going to be, though, so whatever my heart kept trying to convince my mind of needed to stop—like yesterday.
“Smell it?” she said after he walked out of the building.
“Yeah,” I whispered. “Citrus.”
“You’re forgetting the blood,” she said.
“I don’t smell it,” I said. “And I know what blood smells like.”
We stepped into the elevator and Cilla pressed the button to our floor.
“Did I ever tell you what made me want a “normal” relationship?” she asked.
“No.”
“I had this friend in school. I never hung out with her much because we mostly hang out with family, cousins. Blood is thicker than water and all of that. Anyway, so this friend was a trip. Her family seemed like a lot of fun. She’d tell stories about them. She told me that her mom fell head over heels for her dad, but all he would do was date her. Years and years she waited for a ring, but no ring ever came. So, in the meantime, there was this garbage man who used to give her a nice smile when he’d come around and pick up her trash. Her mom told her to go out with him when he asked.”
She paused there.
“That’s it?” I said.
“I was just making sure you were listening.”
We stepped out of the elevator and headed to the condo. She continued talking as we walked.
“So when her dad found out that her mom was going on a date, he went berserk. Two days later, he gave her a ring, asked her to marry him, and the rest, as they say, is history.”
