For a moment, she just watched him, transfixed by the power and fluidity of his movements, as if he’d punched a bag a hundred times before. And maybe he had. Probably not this bag, but keeping active and maintaining his fitness had always been important to him, exactly why joining the Air Force had suited him.
He bounced lightly, and was sidestepping around the bag and half turning, when he caught sight of her. Immediately he stilled, his brows slashing together before he tore off his gloves, then took out his earbuds.
“Hey. How long have you been standing there?”
Her gaze lowered to his chest. Man, oh man, there was muscle upon muscle, and right now those muscles were glistening with sweat.
She swallowed, forcing her attention back to his face. “Not long enough. I could watch you do that for hours.”
One side of his mouth lifted. “You’d get bored.”
“I doubt it.” She stepped into the room. “When did you change this to a workout room?”
“It was the first thing I did after the master bedroom. I needed somewhere to work out.”
“Because you’ve been stressed?”
He inched toward her. “Because it took me too long to get my girl.”
A hint of a smile curved her lips. “Your girl… I like that.”
When he stopped in front of her, she ran her hands down his chest, not caring how sweaty or hot he was, just needing to touch him.
His arms immediately wrapped around her waist. “I can’t believe it took me so long to make a move on you.” His head lowered and he nipped her neck. “How I resisted for so long, I have no idea.”
A shudder rolled down her spine. “But we got here in the end.”
“Thank God.”
She cupped his cheek so that he looked at her. “When you were hitting the bag, you looked tense.” Tense didn’t even begin to describe it. But then, he’d looked tense for a while.
There was a flash of emotion across his face. It came and went so quickly that she couldn’t quite identify what it was. Then he smiled. “After last night, I’m better than okay.”
She frowned. That felt like an easy lie. But she didn’t want an easy lie. She wanted the truth, even if it was hard to hear or ugly.
He slipped a lock of hair behind her ear. “Did you mean it?”
“About loving you? Of course I meant it. I’ve waited a long time to say it, and now that I have, I want to say it over and over again.”
“Hm, and I want to hear it over and over again.” He lifted her quickly, then she was in his arms, her hands on his shoulders as his mouth collided with hers.
“God, I love you,” he said quietly between desperate kisses.
She smiled against his lips. “I should let you get back to your workout.”
“I’m done. What are we doing before work this afternoon?”
“Well, I was thinking about doing a Pilates class, but—”
“I’ll do it with you.”
She pulled back and frowned. “You want to do Pilates?”
“Yeah. Why do you say it like you can’t believe it?”
“Uh, because you’re into boxing and weightlifting and rappelling off skywalks. They’re the opposite of Pilates.”
He lifted a shoulder. “I’m always interested in trying new things.”
