Challenging the Center (Santa Fe Bobcats #6)(16)

She watched him, and he could almost see her mentally calculating how much giving in would hurt. Finally she shrugged. “Fives.”

Settling down at the seat, she looked up, then laughed and stood back up to adjust the height. Bonus points for knowing how high or low the seat should be for optimum safety. Then she settled down below him, waiting for him to help her unrack the bar.

When he did—his arms doing a double take at the light weight when he was used to spotting linemen benching five times as much—she huffed out a breath, adjusting her grip just a little. But he knew it wasn’t a huff of effort… more like annoyance as she slowly and fluidly pushed out a set of ten.

And that was the final kicker for him. She could have shown off, busting out a set in jerky, top-speed fashion just to show she could. It would have been stupid, and unsafe, but she could have. He knew guys whose pride would have demanded it. But despite the obviously too-light weight, she still went through the motions smoothly, leaving no margin for error or injury. His respect for her in the weight room tripled.

After she reracked the bar herself, with minimal guidance from him, she twisted to look up at him. “Can we go up now, please?”

“Yeah, fine.” He helped her put on the twenty-fives, noticing that more than a few guys were elbowing each other to point.

Donny called out, “Watch it, Lambert. That’s too much for a little thing like her.”

“Little,” he heard Kat growl under her breath as she laid back against the bench. “Little, my ass.”

Despite her height, to Donny, who was six four and over three hundred pounds, she was a tiny thing.

“Just be careful,” he said in a low voice, giving her a look. He expected exasperation back, but she simply nodded in understanding, waited for him to unrack the bar, then began her set.

It wasn’t a cakewalk, but she also didn’t struggle except on number ten. But he waited until she’d extended fully before grabbing the bar to rack it.

“Nice,” he said, truly impressed.

“Thanks.” She rolled her neck, then looked around quickly. “It’s hot in here.”

“Male bodies plus energy will do that.”

After a final set of incline presses, she unzipped her hoodie a little, barely showing off the top edge of her sports bra before walking over to the squat machine.

Frankly, he’d been waiting for her to whip the top shirt off entirely, showing off her toned body for the guys, flaunt around acting helpless, brushing up against players and causing trouble. Trouble was, after all, her middle name. Instead, she seemed content to work out alone, minus the spotting, staying out of the way and using the equipment properly.

And that showed him what assumptions could do for ya. She was honestly concerned with getting a workout in.

It was f*cking sexy. The more he spotted her or stayed nearby in case she had questions, the more he watched her skin start to glisten, her face start to flush with heat, her limbs tremble at the end of each set.

And his mind wandered to his bedroom. How she might look the same after an hour of intense lovemaking under the covers. Flushed with heat, slick with sweat, trembling from the energy they were exerting, from the nerves, from the exhaustion after so many orgasms…

“You good, Lambert?”

He blinked and turned to see Caleb, the trainer who had given him the okay to bring Kat in, standing beside him. As they watched Kat slay a set of ten squats at three eighty-five, he nodded. “Just let my mind wander a minute.”

“She’s a machine,” Caleb said, nodding at Kat. Though that was obvious since there were no other women in the room. “I’m impressed.”

He was too, but he merely grunted and watched as she squatted again. The machine acted as a self-spotter, not allowing the weights to go below a certain point. Should the person using the squat machine trip or buckle, the bar with weights would land on the safety and keep from crushing the athlete. It afforded him the opportunity to watch her body at work from a slight distance.

Her thighs strained, legs shaking a little under the weight. Her face was set in stone, eyes straight ahead with each methodical lowering of her body, exhaling on the upswing.

It was… impressive. And hot as hell if he were being honest with himself, silently. Rather than the wafer-thin skinny ladies he had experienced in the past, her frame was built from sinew and muscle. Her thighs were, surprisingly, disproportionately larger than the rest of her body. But any idiot could tell it was from muscle. Her whole body was tight, but her thighs… those were amazing.

Created and toned from countless hours lifting, working and training inside and out, not just salad and the elliptical.

And he felt himself battling yet another erection.

“Didn’t you have a meeting?” Caleb asked after they watched Kat put the safety on the weight bar.

“No, I— Shit.” He checked his watch, grimaced, then watched as she used a towel to wipe her face. “Kat, I have to take off.”

“Sure thing.” She looked around longingly toward the cardio equipment, then walked toward him. “I’ll wait for you in the hallway or something. Or maybe there’s an unused office nearby?”

He hesitated, looking back at the equipment, then Caleb, who gave him a slight nod. “You can stay here and finish working out if you want.”

The longing in her eyes was clear, but she shook her head. “I promised to leave when you did. I’ve got my phone and an 88 percent battery. I’ll survive.”