Chapter 4
Monday morning when Isa strode into Eli’s warehouse loft, she expected three things: no greeting, the muted sound of shuffling papers or tapping of the keyboard coming from Eli’s office, and a clean dining room table for her to spread out her laptop and planner.
She closed the elevator door behind her, humming the last song she heard on the radio as she drove here, and stopped dead in her tracks. Eli wasn’t in his office. He was on his back on a mat in the workout area, arms behind his head, earbuds in, doing sit-ups.
Shirtless, slightly sweaty, totally distracting sit-ups.
He hadn’t heard her come in, as evidenced by his grunts as he pushed through another curl, eyes closed, strain in the pull of his lips.
Isa…stared.
Stared at the bumps of his abs, the flex of his biceps, the very short black running shorts climbing high over a pair of the most muscular thighs she’d ever seen.
She had opened her mouth to announce herself, honest, but Eli with his eyes closed, dark lashes shadowing his cheeks was mesmerizing. His hair had fallen in damp tendrils over his forehead, his lips peeled back, parting a full, thick beard and revealing stunningly white teeth. Had she ever seen his teeth?
It wasn’t like he made it a habit to grin at her. Him grinning wasn’t easy to imagine.
So lost in that thought, her eyes wandering the length of his body, over his bare chest and down to his legs, it took her a beat too long to realize he’d caught her gawking, her mouth agape. When her gaze reached his face, his eyes were open—deep, dark, seaworthy blue beneath two angry eyebrows.
On a final sit-up, he adjusted his leg and his prosthesis, then rested his forearms on his knees and caught his breath.
“Good morning,” she croaked, then cleared her throat as she tore her eyes away from what might be the most gorgeous male specimen she’d ever laid eyes on. “I, um, didn’t expect you to be”—mostly naked, this sexy, utterly distracting—“out here. Slow day in the office?” She capped the question with a nervous titter of a laugh, an obvious ploy to change the subject.
She hastily set up her laptop and pulled out a folder with a few forms Reese had sent over to her office. Items that needed Eli’s immediate attention. Well, maybe not immediate. She would require him to get dressed before she could remove her dry tongue from the roof of her mouth.
Out of the corner of her eye, she watched him push to standing, rub his taut abs with one palm, and reach for his water bottle. His every movement was fluid, even when he put weight on his prosthesis and walked to the kitchen.
She sneaked a peek over her shoulder to admire his chiseled ass moving in those shorts.
Blinking to reset her brain, she turned back to the business of unpacking her tote, which took all of ten seconds. She logged onto her computer and sat, then stood, deciding maybe a cup of coffee would help.
Of course to get said coffee she’d have to go into the kitchen, where her grouchy, hot-as-hell employer was now guzzling the contents of a sports drink.
So she sat back down and glued her eyes to the laptop’s screen. She checked e-mail and jotted appointments into her planner for Sable Concierge while she waited for Hot Marine in Short Shorts to evacuate the premises.
A few minutes into her work, a mug of coffee appeared at her right wrist, steam curling, creamed to the perfect tan hue. Gaping, she turned to slowly look up at a shirtless Eli, who stood over her and was still frowning.
He’d brought her…coffee?
“I guess you think it’s indecent of me to expose you to my workout routine,” he grumbled. “If I were you, I’d quit.”
Granted, his delivery could use some work. Then again, she thought as he turned and walked to the bathroom, his gorgeously muscled back shifting, the delivery around here was top-notch.
“Getting a shower while you’re here. Also indecent,” he called without turning to face her. He shut the bathroom door behind him. Isa grasped her coffee mug and listened as the water started, imagining Eli stripping off those shorts and sliding under the spray completely naked.
All those long, strong limbs drenched in water and masculine hairy legs and arms and beard…
Goodness.
It was so much of a distraction that she didn’t get any work done in the twenty minutes Eli was in there. Simply sipped her coffee and let her imagination run amuck.
***
Isa had refused to look at him, had barely spoken to him when she’d walked in. He’d opened his eyes and met hers and hadn’t missed that her gaze was pinned to his leg, before snapping back to his face.
He made her uncomfortable if he had to guess. His thoughts went to Crystal, evidently not the only woman who didn’t want to “sign up” for what Eli had going on.
This morning had been an interesting experiment as to what reaction he’d get from the opposite sex if he decided to leap into the dating pool again.