She blinked in the darkness, trying to get a read on his expression. “What? What’s wrong?”
He grabbed her waist and gently hoisted her off of him. “We can’t. I can’t… I’m sorry. This is messed up. I’m…”
“You’re what?”
“Your trainer,” he said after a beat. “I told you that you’d be safe with me tonight, and here I am, mauling you like a goddamned animal.”
She stiffened at that. “Last I checked, what was happening was mutual. I didn’t tell you no.”
“That’s not the point.”
“What is the point, then? I don’t know what to think when you—”
A loud whirring sound filled the gym, interrupting her words, and the overhead lights blinked on in a wave of blinding brightness. Taryn winced at the sudden change, the world going fluorescent white for a moment, but when her vision cleared, Lucas was climbing out of the foam pit, a da
rk scowl on his face.
She awkwardly made her way to the side of the pit, which was like trudging through hip-deep mud, and grabbed the edge. Lucas stepped over and put his hand out to help pull her up. As soon as she was on her feet, he released her hand as if it’d burned him.
“Lucas…”
He grimaced and raked his fingers through his hair before lifting his gaze to her. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” she challenged.
He waved a hand toward the pit. “For all of that. I can’t begin to explain how out of line I was.” He pinched the bridge of his nose, looking to be in actual physical pain. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”
The anguish on his face snapped her out of her own irritation. The guy was clearly beating himself up. Maybe she shouldn’t take it personally. Maybe he had an ironclad code of ethics, and he’d just violated them.
“Hey,” she said, trying to put lightness in her voice. “It’s not a big deal, okay? I’m a grown woman who makes her own choices. I kissed you back. I was saying yes. We both just got caught up in the moment. It happens.”
Though she couldn’t remember it ever happening to her. Not like that. Usually if she decided to sleep with someone, the decision was very well thought out. Debates had been had. Pros and cons had been itemized. She was not a get-swept-away-in-the-moment kind of girl.
Lucas clasped his hands behind his head and let out a long breath. “I can move your training sessions to Rivers or someone else. And obviously give you a refund for tonight and—”
“Don’t,” she said firmly.
He looked up.
“I don’t need my money back. You gave me a full workout before all that, and I like training with you,” she said, going for honesty. “Even with the sadistic streak.”
He smirked, a glimmer of humor breaking through his grim expression.
She stepped closer. “How about we chalk up what just happened to late-night thunderstorm madness? Our adrenaline was running high after that fall, and we let it bleed into…other things. I can move on if you can. We can pretend this never happened.”
His brows lifted. “Yeah, ’cause that’ll be easy.”
She grinned, glad to hear she wasn’t that forgettable. “You know what I mean. I don’t want to quit this new thing just because… I don’t even know how to label it. Because we’re attracted to each other and you don’t want to get involved with anyone?”
He exhaled and shook his head. “That sounds so lame.”
“No,” she assured him. “I mean, it’s your right to have whatever reasons you have. Plus, I told you my life is busy, too. This was probably a bad idea on both sides. I have the biggest presentation of my life on Thursday night, and if all goes as it should, I’m going to be launching a program that will suck up even more of my limited free time. If what we were doing had continued, I’d probably be the one looking like a jerk because I’m going to be buried by the end of this week and won’t be calling anyone for a chat or going out for a date. Just getting in these workouts is going to be enough of a challenge.”
“Right.” Some of the tension left his face. “What kind of program are you launching?”
Her shoulders relaxed, glad to be back on familiar footing. Work she could talk about. That was much easier than discussing the kissing and the touching and the way she’d wanted to be naked with him immediately. “It’s a school-violence prevention program that I want to implement in the local districts.”
His gaze jumped up to meet hers. “School violence?”