Just My Type(25)

The breath I was holding comes out of me in a whoosh, and I let out a relieved laugh when Blake and Rachel practically throw down with each other trying to get to Ember first so they can hug her, the three of them wrapped up in some kind of three-way, girly hug filled with giggles. When the hug finally breaks apart, after all three of them have exchanged phone numbers and make plans to go to lunch, I just stand there staring at Ember. The woman who continues to surprise me. She moves away from Blake and Rachel when they start talking about their dinner plans, to come over and stand in front of me.

“So, in the interest of science and all, which one of us is hotter?” I ask her.

“We’re not in a coupledom. That’s a stupid question,” she says with an eye roll. “But it’s obviously me. Have you seen my ass?”

“He has your ass saved on his phone!” Blake shouts from a few feet away.

“Wow. I am so going to HR about this.” Ember sighs with a shake of her head, unsuccessfully trying to hide a smile.

“Rachel is definitely the hotter one, by the way!” I shout back to my sister.

Rachel lets out a cheer, throwing her hands up in the air, while Blake gives me the finger.

“We should probably get to work. You know, keep this professional and all,” I remind Ember with a serious expression on my face.

“Yep, absolutely. Professional. I am a professional, here to do a job.” She nods, her eyes staring right at my mouth.

Challenge accepted.





CHAPTER 11





Ember

I Don’t Think That Means What You Think it Does


I am immune to his hot jock charms, I am immune to his jot jock charms…

“Did you really think you could kick my ass if I got out of hand when you met me at Starbucks?” Baker asks, referring to the threat I made to him in the email when I agreed to meet him, his thumb lazily rubbing circles around the inside of my wrist.

I glance up at him through my eyelashes, not wanting to tip my head up even more; otherwise, I’ll be tempted to look at his damn mouth again. When he said we were going to get to work, I thought that would give me a chance to put some much needed distance between us.

Like, him here in Chicago and me in Indonesia.

Baker’s hand is gently wrapped around my wrist, and he holds it up between us as he takes his sweet old time winding a blue hand-wrap around my knuckles, palm, and wrist. We’ve been standing in a far corner of the gym for the last few minutes while he quietly wraps my hands, standing so close I can feel the heat from his body and smell his soapy skin. When I realize he’s done wrapping me up and still hasn’t let go of my hand between us, or stopped that maddening rubbing of his thumb over the inside of my wrist that no one ever told me was a goddamn erogenous zone, I yank my hand out of his hold and finally answer his question.

“I may be small, but I’m scrappy. Don’t test me,” I tell him, making two fists and banging my knuckles together in front of me. “I thought you said we wouldn’t be alone at the gym tonight.”

Looking back over my shoulder, I search for Blake and Rachel and see no sign of them. I have no idea when they disappeared after Baker grabbed my hand and pulled me over to this corner of the gym. I was too busy trying to act like it was totally normal that he laced his fingers through mine and held my hand like we’d done it a million times before. The bitch of it was, it felt like we’d done it a million times before.

“Blake is in the office finishing up some paperwork, and Rachel is doing some updates on the website for me before they pick up their daughter from Rachel’s mom’s house and grab dinner,” Baker explains as he moves to stand behind a heavy bag hanging from the ceiling. “Don’t worry. If you get too handsy and I need to scream, they’re close enough to hear it and come save me.”

He wraps his arms around the bag and leans to the side just so he can shoot that damn smirk in my direction.

I want to be annoyed with him, but I can’t. I enjoy getting under his skin just as much as he seems to enjoy doing it to me. And I really enjoy that he likes it when I’m honest. Even when me being honest means I blurt out everything I’m thinking, like when he introduced me to his sister and her wife. Blake with her wavy, pink hair, high cheekbones, pouty lips, and bright blue eyes the same color as Baker’s, and Rachel with her shiny, poker-straight black hair hanging sleek around her face and shoulders, with a beautiful olive complexion, and stunning hazel eyes.

I was annoyed by their hotness equality, and I let that shit just fly right out of my mouth, without even thinking about how it would sound. Baker looked like he was about two seconds away from either flipping over a table, or puking up everything he’d eaten in the last week, until I explained myself. Seeing how fiercely protective he is over his sister and her wife, and watching him get so pissed off that someone might not approve of who they are, just added another item to the “Reasons Why Baker is so Annoyingly Special” column.

Seeing you in person for the first time, being in the same room with you, listening to you laugh, standing close to you, and watching your face when you put me in my place took my goddamn breath away.

Nope. Not going to think about what he put in his last email. No way in hell.

“All right, let’s see how scrappy you are.”

Baker smacks the side of the hundred-pound, black leather Everlast heavy bag with one hand, pulling me out of my thoughts as I step right up in front of it.