All Fired Up (DreamMakers)

by Arend, Vivian

  Instead, he took off his shoes and looked around as if wondering what to do next. “I’ve never been here before, and I’m feeling a little lost.”

  “Don’t worry, sugar, we’ll be happy to let you tag along with us,” a new voice reassured him. Lynn’s friend stepped in front of him and eyed him appreciatively. She stuck out her hand. “Susanna. Or Suz. I’m easy.”

  He shook her hand and didn’t bother to fight the enormous smile that burst free as she waggled her brows suggestively. “Parker.” He turned to Lynn. “And you are?”

  “Not as easy as her.”

  Suz smacked her friend on the shoulder, her good-natured grin staying firmly in place. “Don’t knock it ’til you try it, baby.”

  Lynn rose off the bench, settling the straps of her gym bag over her shoulder. “I’m Lynn. Sorry about my friend. Her medication wore off about half an hour ago.”

  He accepted her handshake as well. “Thanks for offering to show me the ropes.”

  “No problem. Drop your shoes over there, and we’ll point you to the men’s changing room.” She looked him over, her gaze lingering on his shoulders and biceps before she jerked her head away.

  Parker followed the women down a narrow hall, a tight fit for three people walking side by side. When his arm gently brushed Lynn’s, he could’ve sworn she sucked in a gasp of air.

  Huh. Maybe he wasn’t the only one feeling something here, which only made the fact that he was on a job more awkward.

  A flash of white caught his peripheral vision, and inspiration struck. He stopped in front of the little ledge at the end of the corridor, admiring a bright yellow vase overflowing with white roses.

  “Something wrong?” Lynn asked.

  “No, nothing. I just like these.” He traced one of the delicate petals with his finger. “White roses are my favorite.”

  The two women exchanged a look, and then Lynn said, “Oh.”

  He cocked a brow. “What, you don’t like them?”

  She shrugged. “I’m not a fan of roses in general. I’m more of a cornflower girl.”

  Jackpot.

  Looking like she was fighting a grin, Suz pointed to the left. “Change there, and the hot room is at the end of the hall on the right.”

  “Hot room?” Parker paused with his hand on the locker room door.

  Lynn’s eyes narrowed. “Did you not know it’s a hot yoga class?”

  He’d never heard of such a thing. Still, it couldn’t be any worse than a typical session of calisthenics during Hell Week.

  “No,” he confessed. “But I’m game to try new things.”

  “Oh, sugar. You are in for a treat,” Suz promised.

  His target looked concerned. “Are you sure you want to do this? It’s a little more intense than a typical class.”

  Parker resisted the urge to smooth the frown from her forehead. “I’ll be fine.”

  “You are fine.” Suz gave him a wink. “Just so you’re prepared, dress like you’re heading into a sauna. And take a water bottle.”

  By the time they were fully into the class, however, Parker was ready to reevaluate his definition of torture.

  He’d slipped on his shorts, but following the lead of the couple of guys he’d met while changing, left his shirt off. Towel in hand, he stepped into the studio to find a dozen other participants already standing over mats.

  “Over here.” Lynn and Suz waved him to the space they’d saved.

  “Has yoga started yet?” Dean’s voice slid into his ear. “I know you can’t answer, but try to do it telepathically so I can feel like we’re having a conversation. The café is empty and I’m frickin’ bored. Seriously. Not a single cute girl in sight.” A pause. “When you’re in there you should flex the guns a few times, bro. Maybe you can score a date with the hot yoga instructor. She is hot, right? I just assume all yoga instructors are.”

  Damn. He’d forgotten a one-way receiver meant he couldn’t tell Dean to fuck off and die. He’d have to save the beating for when he next saw the man.

  The instructor at the front of the room began, removing her wrap to display an outfit that was barely legal but made sense considering the heat. And yup, she was definitely attractive, which supported Dean’s inane theory. Her arms lifted skyward, legs spread. Parker moved his mat back slightly so he could observe Lynn easier, as well as the others, ready to copy their motions the best he could.

  The room temperature had to be over a hundred, the humidity high as well. Most of the guys were in shorts, the women in small exercise bras and skimpy shorts. He planned on appreciating the view without getting too distracted.

  Only when the second thing they did was bend over to touch their toes, Parker nearly swallowed his tongue. Lynn’s very fine ass filled his peripheral vision. He should look away, he really should…

  They moved into a “downward dog”, and the pressure in his groin only increased. He glanced to the side, and she caught his gaze, smiling encouragingly as she mouthed the words “watch me”. She stretched extra hard, pushing her head in line with her shoulders, but the position only emphasized her ass and breasts and, holy shit, he was going to self-combust before the hour was over. One motion flowed into another as the heat in the room increased and sweat broke out on his skin.

  Fuck it. The room could have been icy cold, and he would still be sweating. Why the hell hadn’t anyone warned him yoga was dirtier than porn?

  By the time they moved to the floor, Parker’s skin was slick with sweat, beads running down his temples and back. The couple of simple moves in a seated position allowed him to breathe, and a little of his full-on hard-on to fade.

  Until they rolled to their hands and knees. To his side, Lynn was following the instructor’s directions carefully, her back arching and bowing in slow-motion timing. Parker’s cock was ready to explode as he used every last ounce of mental strength to keep from being obvious about his fixation on the thin layer of material covering her pussy and ass.

  Tilt forward, tilt back.

  Tilt forward, tilt back.

  Jesus Christ, this was killing him. If he’d been three feet to his right, both of them naked, this move would slide his cock in and out of her in the perfect rhythm to blow both their minds.

  He closed his eyes and thought of the rottenest, coldest op he’d ever been assigned, desperate to kill his erection dead before he came without a single touch.

  And it was all about Lynn, which was the most frustrating part. Suz was bending and twisting through the yoga moves as well, putting as much on display. But for some reason Suz’s exuberant, sexual come-hither reminded Parker of Dean. No way he wanted to hit anything that reminded him of his buddy, no matter how sexy the woman’s curves were.

  The other women in the class were attractive, but it seemed his libido had locked on to Lynn, which was fucked-up and stupid and all kinds of wrong.

  “Okay, so we might be looking at a vegetarian here.” Dean’s soft remark dragged Parker back to the here and now. He finally focused on something other than the sexual hum in his veins, listening to his buddy’s update. “Just found a scathing editorial about animal cruelty on the New York Times site. Unless a different Lynn Davidson wrote it. Hold on…’kay, wait, I clicked on her bio. It’s some vegan chick from Chicago. Meat-eater’s back on the table.”

  Parker tried not to roll his eyes, though he did appreciate the distraction. Getting turned on by a client was wrong. He had to nip this attraction to Lynn in the bud, now, before he made any more mistakes.

  She had a boyfriend who was about to propose, for fuck’s sake, slimy as Phil seemed to be. The pressure in Parker’s dick eased when he pictured Lynn with the jerk, frustration and anger slipping in to replace the lust. She was wasted on that ass. Phil didn’t even know her favorite color, and he was planning on marrying her? Screw him sideways.

  Parker took a deep breath and let it out slowly, choosing to focus on the yoga instructor as he obstinately ignored the sexy woman at his side.

&
nbsp; He’d deal with any remaining hard-on when he got home. Right now, he’d stick to the mission. All he was hired to do was organize a fucking dream date, nothing more, nothing less. It was up to the people involved to make the rest of the decisions. Their life, their choices.

  But hell if he didn’t want to make some choices that involved putting a smile on Lynn’s face and seeing those gorgeous eyes light up with passion.

  “Sweet mother of pearl, that was the best yoga sesh on the planet,” Suz raved as the two women strode toward Lynn’s car. “Did you see those biceps? And the totally lickable tattoo on his shoulder? And those washboard abs? Holy moly, if I were a pioneer woman I would have washed my clothes on those abs, and I might not even have taken them off first.”

  Suz gave an exaggerated shiver, which brought a grin to Lynn’s lips. Truth was, she couldn’t argue with a single thing her friend had said. And…well, maybe her body was experiencing a few shivers of its own.

  Because damn. Today’s hot yoga class gave new meaning to the words hot yoga. It was a miracle she’d managed to execute each move without falling on her butt, what with her peripheral vision being glued to the sexy newcomer for the entire hour-long workout.

  Lynn had seen plenty of attractive men walk through the doors of the Serenity Studio, but she could honestly say she’d never ogled a single one of them—until today.

  Lord, the man had been delicious. Long, hard body rippling with muscles that looked to be carved out of stone. His scruffy dark-blond hair made her fingers tingle with the urge to stroke it, and those eyes…the most vivid shade of green she’d ever seen, like dark moss growing in a lush rainforest. His position had given her tons of time to admire the tattoo on his rock-solid right biceps. The banner at the top was so real every time he flexed it looked as if he were waving Rangers in the wind. Below was a lion head with bared teeth, ready to take a bite out of her.

  She shivered at the decadent thought of exactly where she’d like to be bitten.

  “And a soldier, to boot.” Suz was still gushing. “You know what a big supporter of the military I am.”

  “You should have gotten his number.” Lynn clicked the car remote to unlock the trunk. “Actually, I’m kind of surprised you didn’t.”

  She leaned in to stow her workout duffel and waited for her friend to follow suit, but Suz stayed rooted in place, still gripping the strap of her bag.

  It took a second to realize the blonde was staring. Gaping, as if Lynn had shaved her head and grown a mustache in the past ten seconds.

  “What?”

  Suz burst out laughing. “Oh, man. You’re so clueless it’s almost kinda cute.”

  Lynn narrowed her eyes. “What are you talking about?”

  “Hon, the reason I didn’t get his number is because he wasn’t interested in me. He was interested in you.”

  Lynn froze. Forced a hasty laugh of her own. “No, he wasn’t. He was being friendly.”

  “Uh-huh, sure, if your definition of friendly involves undressing someone with their eyes while trying to hide a very impressive boner. At the beginning I worried he might be gay—I mean, what straight guy literally stops in his tracks to smell the roses?—but once I saw that hard-on, I knew exactly what team he played for. And who he wanted to play with.” Grinning, Suz tossed her yoga bag in the trunk and headed for the passenger side.

  After a beat, Lynn shut the trunk and hopped into the driver’s seat, doing her best to ignore her friend’s evident amusement.

  “By the way? He was totally waiting for you to ask him out,” Suz said as Lynn started the car. “I think he would have made the first move if you hadn’t been sending out taken vibes.”

  “I wasn’t sending out any vibes,” Lynn protested.

  And certainly not taken ones, she decided not to add. No, because she didn’t feel taken at the moment. She felt betrayed.

  But she wasn’t ready to tell Suz what she’d overheard in Dana’s office earlier. Her best friend had made her opinion of Phil more than clear. Suz wouldn’t stop at launching into another Phil Sucks speech if she knew what Lynn suspected—she’d go to physical violence.

  Girls who grew up in the midst of lots of brothers leaned heavily toward bursts of rage, or so Suz had professed.

  Nope. Lynn had enough doubts about Phil that she was ready to call things off. But Dana Hastings had a reputation for spreading lies around the office. For all Lynn knew, Dana hadn’t even been on the phone with Phil. Maybe she’d been aware all along that Lynn was under the table and had simply been trying to mess with her the way she messed with everybody.

  So until there was proof of actual wrongdoing, Lynn wasn’t about to give Suz any more ammo against Phil, especially since Suz had the tendency to make impulsive decisions based on very few facts. Lynn didn’t operate that way. She needed to think things through before deciding how to handle this Phil situation.

  “Even if he was interested in me,” she said, “I’m not in a position to get involved with anyone. Especially not a hot stranger I randomly met at yoga.”

  Her friend instantly pounced. “Aha! So you do think he’s hot.”

  “Well, duh. The guy was totally, what did you call it? Lickable.” She reversed out of the parking space, glancing over her shoulder to check her blind spot.

  Okay, fine. Glancing over her shoulder to see if Parker was still in the lot.

  But he wasn’t, and she felt like an idiot for even checking.

  With a sigh, she shoved all thoughts of the delectable Parker from her head and concentrated on driving, while Suz chattered her ear off for the five minutes it took to reach her friend’s building. By the time she came to a stop at the curb out front, she was eager to say goodbye to Suz so she could go home and clear her head.

  “Later, hon.” Suz slid closer and smacked a kiss on Lynn’s cheek. “Yoga again tomorrow after work? In case the hottie makes another appearance?”

  She rolled her eyes. “How about we stick to our usual Tuesday-and-Thursday routine and not let our exercise schedule revolve around hotties?”

  “Fine, be that way. What about drinks? We haven’t done Tequila Wednesdays in a while…”

  “Maybe. I might have to stop in at my folks’.”

  “Let me know.” With a little wave, Suz hopped out of the car and skipped toward the main entrance of her low-rise building.

  As Lynn watched her friend’s lively gait, she marveled over the woman’s energy. How Suz wasn’t exhausted after a long day of work followed by sweltering yoga was a complete mystery. She, on the other hand, couldn’t wait to get home, draw a scented bath, and spend the rest of the evening lazing around. But first she had to make a quick stop for groceries. Her stomach had been rumbling since the class had ended, and her fridge was pitifully empty. She desperately needed to do some restocking, otherwise she’d be stuck eating ramen noodles for the third night in a row.

  She was just pulling into a parking space in front of the Fresh Mart when her cell phone vibrated in her purse. She warily fished it out, checking the screen as she put the car in park. With her aging parents’ health concerns, she couldn’t risk missing a call from them, but nope, it was an incoming call from Phil.

  For the life of her, she couldn’t muster enough enthusiasm to answer. Instead, she shoved the phone back in her purse and hopped out of the car.

  Her purse buzzed for a second time as she strode through the automatic doors of the grocery store. She ignored it again.

  It occurred to her that she wasn’t as angry as she should be. Weren’t women supposed to flip out when they discovered their partners were cheating? Wasn’t she supposed to throw things and curse the heavens and plot her boyfriend’s death?

  And if her relationship had actually meant something, why had she spent her evening lusting over another man?

  The image of Parker floated to mind, and now that she was alone without Suz to witness it, her body reacted to the drool-worthy hottie who’d captured her attention. She pictured his broad,
rippled chest, remembering how his muscles had flexed enticingly with his every move, the beads of sweat clinging to his defined pecs.

  Had he really been sporting a hard-on? She hadn’t noticed, but now she couldn’t stop thinking about how sexy that was. Her mind conjured up the memory of the board shorts hugging his trim hips, and when she pictured a hard ridge of arousal straining beneath them, her core instantly clenched.

  “Welcome to Fresh Mart! I hope you enjoy your shopping experience!”

  The bubbly voice jerked her from her dirty thoughts and brought the heat of embarrassment to her cheeks. “Uh, thanks,” she muttered to the teenage employee who’d popped in front of her face like a jack-in-the-box.

  Her phone vibrated for a third time, but she gritted her teeth and pretended not to hear it. Phil could wait.

  And so could his lies and excuses.

  “She went to Adams High in Marin County,” Dean said, his gaze focused on his cell phone screen. “And she designed the school yearbook in her senior year. Means she’s good at art, right? And maybe computers, too.”

  Parker nodded absently. Normally he enjoyed piecing together details to create a usable profile, but tonight he was having a bitch of a time concentrating. His thoughts kept straying to the beautiful woman in the car ahead of them. Christ, he was dying to catch another glimpse of those mesmerizing silver-blue eyes.

  “Holy shit, man,” Dean blurted out. “I’m looking at the faculty bios for Adams High, and I totally slept with the girls’ volleyball coach. Small fucking world, huh?”

  There was a smacking sound, and Parker glanced over at the passenger seat to see his buddy sucking on a piece of licorice.

  The same shade of red as Lynn’s pouty lips.

  God help him.

  “Anyway,” Dean went on, “we’ve made some headway, at least. She likes cornflowers, which bodes well for blue being her favorite color. She’s into art. She obviously cares about her health, since she does yoga. I’m starting to get a sense of her. You?”

  Parker gulped. Oh, he had a sense of her, all right. The kind of sense that hummed in his cock and made him want to pull her over, yank her out of her car, and fuck her until they both couldn’t see straight.