8
Jonah
My arms burned from the push-ups, but they were necessary. I straightened my forearms, held myself in a planking position, and did another set of twenty before flipping over to do sit-ups. Not going to the gym left me restless. Uneasy. Like there was a current inside my body that needed to find release and physical outlets were all I knew.
My skin had a layer of sweat as I worked my abs. I welcomed the familiar burn of my muscles and went harder. My pulse raced, and my head hurt a little from the couple beers the night before, but I powered through. Something clinked in the kitchen, and I froze, torn between wanting to see if she put a goddamn bra on or not. Even when I closed my eyes, the image of her pebbled nipples poking out of her thin shirt was there. Her breasts were the perfect size, lush and curvy, andshit.My mouth dried up, and awareness of how attractive she really was had my blood heading south without my permission.
“Why’d you stop?” she said, making me look over at her. She sat at the kitchen table, her knees up to her chest and a coffee mug in her hands. She wore a large navy sweatshirt, and disappointment hit me hard.
“Hmm?” I sat up and rested my arms on my knees. I couldn’t stop myself from staring at her long bare legs. Her shorts were so short there was no way she wore anything underneath them.
“Your workout. You were going hard, and bam, you stopped. I was enjoying the show,” she said, smirking over the rim of her mug. She said it with so much ease there was no way she was blatantly flirting with me. “Don’t look so affronted. I’m sure people check you out when you’re at the gym, too.”
“You were checking me out?”
God, why did I have to say it? Heat flooded my face, and I closed my eyes, repeating Michael’s words in my head. She was my teammate’s little sister. He warned me against this. There was too much at risk, even if I wanted to kiss that goddamn toothy smile and know how she felt underneath my hands.
“Absolutely.” She laughed, making me open my eyes. She set her feet on the ground, crossing one leg over the other. “Obviouslyyou’re good-looking. That can’t be news to you.” She waved her free hand in the air. “But I was admiring the way your muscles move when you do push-ups. Every line is toned and hard-earned. Makes me want to drag a finger over your back and trace them.”
Her words muddled my brain so bad I couldn’t think. She wanted to touch me. She thought I was attractive. She didn’t care that I played hockey. She laughed a lot and smelled so damn good, and her body…I swallowed hard, the air in the room shifting.
Ryann stared at me for a few beats before she blinked, and the warm, teasing expression left. She set her mug on the table and walked over to me. “Do you have a headache from drinking? How can you work through it?”
“Sweating helps me.” My gaze traveled from her face to her legs and back up again. My throat got tight with how much I wanted to touch her. My fingers twitched, and I froze when she sat next to me, staring at the TV.
Ineverhad lust like this, the need to know how she tasted, how she felt, how she kissed. It was maddening that I couldn’t stop my thoughts. She made a noise of disbelief, and I couldn’t remember what I even said.
“Working out helps with your hangover? I’ve never tried that. I usually watch TV in bed all day and replay everything dumb thing I’ve ever done in my life. I still get filled with shame thinking about stupid shit I did in high school.” She laughed, and any traces of heat I swore I saw in her eyes were gone. “Let me join you.”
It took a second for my brain to catch up.Working out.That’s right. “Join me?”
“Yeah. I literally have nothing else to do, and if it helps with this brain fog I have, I’m in. Show me how you work out.”
This was a terrible idea. The worst. But how could I explain that without crossing the line? There wasn’t a way to do it, so I nodded. “Sure. Right. Yeah.”
She grinned, the soft lines of her face making her eyes seem brighter, more alert. I sighed, every muscle tightening at her proximity, and I hit play. The video instructed us to alternate between push-ups, planks, and sit-ups, and my plan was to go through it three more times.
I had my hands together on the floor shoulder-width apart, and I started counting to thirty in my head. Ryann’s soft groans drew me in, and I watched as she did the reps too, her form messy and her face turning red.
“My god. This shouldn’t be that hard,” she said through gritted teeth. “My arms are burning.”
“Do them on your knees.” My voice came out harsher than I wanted, but her floral lotion drove me crazy with each movement. “It’s a modified form that helps.”
“Okay, yeah.” She wiped her forehead, the baggy sweatshirt hanging off her shoulder, and she finished the set on her knees. “That’s it, right? We’re done. It’s over.”
I laughed.
She snapped her gaze to my face with a smirk, but it disappeared. “Wait, it’s not?”
“Not even close, Ry.” Whoa.Whoa.“Ryann,” I corrected. The nickname came out of left field, and I gulped, looking back at the TV. “Next round is sit-ups.”
“Okay, Jo.”
Her comeback made my heart swell. I chanced looking at her again, and she was smiling at me, the little gap in her teeth front and center. She scrunched her nose, almost daring me to complain about the nickname.
The instructor on the TV rambled encouragements, and I flipped onto my back, breaking the connection we had. I put my arms behind my head. “Fifty crunches, let’s go, Reiner.”
She groaned but did the same thing. I sat all the way up, using every muscle in my core and tightening them to complete the set quickly. Ryann struggled, and her face was red, her hair escaping her bun. Moisture dripped from her temples. “Dammit, I’m hot.”
