****
Once Spencer couldsee straight again, he looked around the extremely crowded room of the woman lying next to him.Misty’s bright duvet cover was wadded under his back.The windowsill was lined with plants.Her nightstand held the water bottle lined with snarky text he recognized from the gym, a few hair ties, and a half-pink, half-white tube of lip balm.There was a comfortable-looking armchair in one corner, and the desk in another was covered in papers, magazines, and something yellow and oddly formed.
“What the hell is that?”
She followed his gaze to the desk.“My lucky duck.The day after I first took a bath with him was my first field day, and I won all my events.I’ve been rubbing his head for luck on important days—big games, exams, waiting on important news—ever since, and he hasn’t let me down.”
He chuckled.“And here I just carried my first medal in my bag for luck.”
For a while, they lay in silence.All those weeks Misty had been training with him, letting a few snippets about herself sneak in as he asked her questions, and now he was immersed in her world and had gotten to know every inch of her.It would have been too unethical for this to happen sooner, and yet he could kick himself for only getting to it now when she’d just found out she was leaving town.
As if she’d read his mind, Misty turned to face him.“So what do we do now?”
“I can’t keep training you after this.I’d get in too much trouble for being with a client.”
“But we didn’t do anything until after our contract was up,” she pointed out.
“True, but you need to stay in shape for the combine.”
“Like I don’t know that.Should I switch to someone else?”
The idea of Misty working out with someone else rubbed Spencer the wrong way.“You should be okay sticking with the workout schedule I gave you.Cardio one day, strength the next, rest in between.You have a good foundation in place and shouldn’t need another trainer.But that’s the last advice I can give you on this.”
She looked like she was taking mental notes.“So I can’t work out with you anymore, but does that mean I can’t see you for other things?”
The thought ofother thingswarmed Spencer’s chest.“When do you leave?”
“I’m off in three weeks.”
He toyed with a lock of her hair as he thought.“Then maybe we ought to make the most of those three weeks...everywhere but the gym to be safe.”
“I like the sound of that.”
She turned to face him, and he kissed her softly.In contrast to the fevered kisses from earlier, when the sexual tension of the past few weeks had exploded all at once, this was about simply enjoying each other and sharing affection.
“And to think I was on my way to the grocery store when I saw you,” he mumbled, running a hand over her hair.
Her lips pressed his before she answered.“Go later.We can always order dinner.”
“True.But I’m not hungry now, at least not for food.”
“So what do you want?”
He bent to kiss her again, but something out of the corner of his eye gave him pause.“Is it just me, or does it look like that thing’s watching us?”
She got up and turned the duck around so it was facing away from the bed.“Better?”
Even as she asked, he barely noticed the duck’s tail.Between her loose hair, recently kissed lips, and bare breasts, she looked like a temptress.“Much.”
She returned to the bed, and the next few minutes fell away in the endless kisses.If this was what the next three weeks had in store for him, Spencer welcomed it with both hands.
