Under Pressure (Body Armor #1)(48)

He’d have preferred to keep her locked up in the penthouse, curtains drawn. But already she felt claustrophobic. She needed to do something, and watching TV wouldn’t cut it.

So she’d convinced Leese to get in a little exercise. She had no idea what she was doing, the machines all looked intimidating, but hey, she could do some jumping jacks or something.

“Where do you want to start?” Leese asked.

“Umm...” She looked around. “Where do you usually start?”

He crossed his arms and gave her a knowing look. “You’re not exactly a gym rat, are you?”

Judging her? For some reason, she didn’t want to be found lacking. “I’m not a fighter like you, but I get by.” She’d occasionally taken lengthy walks.

On sunny days.

With designated trails.

Without hills.

“I’m ready.” Out of necessity, she wore only socks. She’d found workout clothes—yoga pants and a stretchy sports bra—but again, the shoes were too big and she wasn’t about to put boots on with athletic pants.

When two other men entered the room, Leese stared at them until they turned around and left again.

She almost choked on her amusement. Warning off other guys? Nice. Or maybe it was that he didn’t trust them. That gave her pause. “We’re safe in here, right?”

“Wouldn’t have you here if we weren’t.”

Wow, touchy much? She crossed her arms and jutted out a hip. “Okay then, what was with the mean mugging? You scared off those poor guys.”

His gaze went to her exposed midriff, then away.

“What?” she asked. “Am I showing too much skin?”

He stepped into her space. “Did you want to exercise or not?”

“Fine,” she said with a lot of attitude. Tweaking Leese was currently one of her favorite pastimes, maybe because she didn’t have much else to do. “I’ll start on that.” She pointed at a machine that looked easy enough to figure out where her feet and hands went.

“The elliptical, huh?” He eyed the machine, then her. “If you’re not used to it, set it on low resistance. You don’t want to overdo it.”

Just being in a gym was overdoing it, since she’d never ventured into one before. But she wasn’t about to tell him that. “Don’t worry about me. Go do your own thing.”

“I’ll use the heavy bag. Let me know when you need to switch up.”

Switch up? It’d be a wonder if she lasted on one machine for half an hour, much less take on something else.

Luckily the heavy bag was right across from her, so she could easily keep an eye on Leese. With no idea how to change the resistance to low or otherwise, she used the current setting, found it tedious but not too difficult and was more interested in what Leese would do.

First he took off his shoes, then stripped off his shirt.

She almost fell off the machine.

Mouth going dry, she concentrated on pedaling in an even cadence and watched Leese hit the bag.

Not with his hands, but with his feet.

He did a lot of various kicks, impressing her with each one. Every fluid strike sent a loud crack to echo around the enclosed room. The bag swung, Leese turned and kicked from a different angle.

Fascinating.

An hour later, just as Cat was about to cry uncle, Sahara breezed in. She wore impossibly high-heeled booties, a knee-length skirt and a cashmere sweater. To Cat, she looked like a fashion model.

Hair damp, his muscles all pumped, his body glistening, Leese paused in his workout. He didn’t sound at all winded when he said, “Something up, Sahara?”

“Not at all.” As if she saw gorgeous, ripped, mostly naked men every day, Sahara didn’t even blink.

“Did you hear from your PI?”

Cat’s heartbeat tripped. Had they discovered her secrets?

“He’s on it now,” Sahara said. “We need to give him some time, but I’m sure he’ll have information for us soon.”

And when he did? Cat thought. When he found out who was with Webb at the boathouse, then what?

Then, she assumed, it would all end—for her.

“I’m here,” Sahara said, beaming at them, “because I wanted to talk to you both about a wonderful idea I had.”

Intrigued, Cat stepped off the elliptical and stumbled on rubbery legs. Good grief. Maybe if she hadn’t been so involved ogling Leese, she’d have realized her legs were shot.

She limped forward. “An idea?”

Wary, Leese held silent.

“Valentine’s Day will be here before we know it,” Sahara said.

Cat’s stomach sank. So much time had passed in a blur. She’d missed the festive holidays with family, but she hadn’t exactly been checking days off a calendar.

What would she do if Leese had a sweetheart he wanted to visit over the romantic holiday? She didn’t think he was involved; he struck her as being too honorable to kiss her if he had anyone important in his life.

“Around here,” Sahara said, “public relations are key and I use every opportunity available to throw a party.”

A party? Cat almost groaned. Would Leese be expected to attend?

Yes, of course he would be. And that left her...where? Alone?

Just thinking about it made her feel exposed, vulnerable—