Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 78357 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78357 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
I was almost sad when I realized that he had a pair of knit shorts underneath his pants.
Knit shorts that were really quite short, and fit him like a glove and left very, very little to the imagination.
Just as he got his pants off, that’s when I noticed his socks.
They were red and green striped just like mine were, only a bit longer and up to about mid-calf.
He tossed all of his clothes in the corner, then went a step farther and ripped his shirt off and tossed it into his bag before bending over and pulling a pair of shoes out of his bag.
Black ones that were big, and…
“Any questions?” Madden asked.
There was a short, hesitant silence before one of the ladies said, “Sorry. We all lost you at the sight of Ren ripping his pants off.”
There were a few agreements from the ladies, and a flash of a grin from Ren who was now on the floor putting his shoes on, but thankfully Madden started his explanation over.
By the time he was done with the second explanation, Ren was standing at his end of the long line, completely catty-corner to me.
And I sank a little farther behind, hoping that he wouldn’t see me.
Why?
Because the man was built.
I had no idea, none, that he was that built.
Sure, he looked good in his brown uniform, but I had no clue just what that uniform was hiding.
Now I felt silly for coming.
Because before, though he was sexy as hell and had invited me, I hadn’t felt out of his league.
Now, though, seeing what all he had to work with?
Yeah, now I was more than sure that I was kidding myself.
I wished I could disappear.
Even better, I wished that I could rewind to a few days ago when I didn’t immediately tell him ‘I really suck at working out, and the best I can do workout-wise is run up and down my stairs when I forget my phone that I leave in my office.’
Hells bells.
“Now, I want each of you to line up and stretch out your calves. We’re going to do a little light running,” I heard Madden say. “We’re going to play musical weights.”
Musical chairs.
“When the Christmas music stops, that means you stop, too, and find a weight. Make sure it’s one that you can lift or you’re out,” Madden called.
And then we were off.
There were tons of single weights on the ground. Barbells. Flat plates. And each time the music stopped for the first twelve rounds, I managed to find a weight that I could lift.
Except for the second to last round.
When Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer stopped playing, I found myself in front of a seventy-pound dumbbell that I had zero hopes in picking up.
Right next to a very tall, much larger than I remembered, Soren.
He grinned down at me wickedly.
I’d been so caught up in the game that I hadn’t realized that he’d been very much aware of my presence until right then.
“Can you pick that up?” he asked, waiting for me to say no.
I pursed my lips, then glanced down at the weight.
Yeah, with my line of work, I didn’t need to be chancing picking that up.
But I wanted to try, based solely on the fact that I was really competitive and wanted to win.
“Uhh,” I hesitantly said. “No, I don’t think that I can.”
“I can, Ren!” a girl behind me called.
I looked over my shoulder at the woman who was obviously a Ren fan.
She, like Ren, was in great shape. She was tall, blonde, and had a six-pack set of abs that I could only dream of. Okay, let’s be real here, people. I like eating food way more than I like the idea of having abs.
So my body would never look like hers. Not ever.
“We know you can, honey.” Soren rolled his eyes and turned back to me. “So that means that you’re done?”
I shrugged and looked down at the weight one more time. “Yep.”
Then I stepped over the weight and walked to the sideline where the rest of the disqualified people were standing, watching the show.
When Madden came in and effortlessly picked up the seventy-pound dumbbell, throwing it off to the side as if it weighed nothing, I flinched.
Geez, to just so effortlessly pick something like that up and toss it like it was nothing!
Three more people were left, with the three heaviest weights.
And, when next Soren just moseyed around, seemingly not in a hurry to win, he waited for the girl who’d said she could lift the heavy dumbbell to try the barbell with what looked like more than my body weight and fail.
Then, grinning wickedly, Soren picked it up and proved his worth.
Then effortlessly dropped it, causing it to slam and clang, before pushing it off to the side, leaving him with one last man.