He took my card and license, frowning when he saw my name. His head shot up and the smile wasn’t so fake this time. “Mr. Stevenson, welcome to Fit for Life.” He pointed to his name tag like I couldn’t see it. “My name is Geoff. I just need you to fill out these papers while I run your card.”

I took the stack of papers attached to a clipboard and filled them out, cursing when I realized that half the things on the forms I had no clue how to answer. Emmie knew most of that crap so I didn’t have to worry about it. I grimaced, missing Emmie more and more as the days went on.

Emmie was my rock and now I was three thousand miles away from her. For the first time in my life, I was homesick, which didn’t make sense when you thought about it. I hadn’t even had a real home until last year when we had all settled down in Malibu. But Emmie was my home…

I left most of the pages blank, figuring the gym didn’t need to know every little thing for them to give me a membership anyway. Geoff gave me my card and license back, along with a keychain card that acted as my pass to get into the gym itself.

“If there is anything you need just let me know. If you want to use our personal trainers they will be wearing blue T-shirts. It’s one-fifty for the first session and two hundred after that. Just tell them to bill your account.”

I headed straight for the weights upstairs. I had some decent muscles, but nothing like the Hulk-wannabes that were pumping iron like their life depended on it. Veins stuck out from all angles on their spray tanned bodies. As they increased the number of curls they did, the funnier their facial expressions were.

When I was done lifting weights—okay, when I was done people watching—I headed for the treadmills and other cardio equipment. Turning my baseball cap around, I picked up a towel and headed for an empty treadmill at the back of the room. The cardio room was full of more females than males, and I let my eyes wonder as I walked.

There was a cute brunette on a stair-climber who seemed more interested in the early morning talk show playing on the flatscreen television than what was going on around her. Two blondes on bikes were talking about the hair appointments they both had later in the day. The redhead behind them was listening intently as if she was being nosy. All of them were hot, but none of them kept my attention for more than a second.

Sighing, I hopped onto the treadmill beside an older woman with shaved brown hair and some serious muscles that really freaked me out since she was so small. She glanced over at me, nodded her head politely but otherwise didn’t give me a second thought. Dressed like I was, it was hard to tell who I was. I also knew that in New York things were calmer than LA when it came to crazy fans.

I pulled my phone off my armband, scrolled through my playlists, and hit play. I had a weird list that included everything from country and pop to metal and techno. I hit the quick start button and turned up the speed so that I was going at a steady pace.

Twenty minutes into my run I got a picture text from Lucy. It was a picture of her and the iguana that Drake had gotten into trouble over getting it for her. Of course Jesse was in the background making a funny face at the huge lizard. Since he couldn’t seem to stand the pet, I wondered how he would react if Lucy got her wish and got a snake like she had been asking for. Jesse wasn’t exactly a reptile lover.

I slowed down enough to send her a reply. As I finished and hit send, I noticed that the elliptical in front of me had a new occupant. My eyes were immediately drawn to the tightness of her thighs and ass. My mind shut down for half a second, and I had to act quickly or I would have fallen off the damn treadmill.

I hit stop and just stood there, watching female perfection as she mastered the piece of workout equipment. Her legs looked as if they went on forever. Her calves were bare and I noticed a hint of a honey tan to them. I wondered if she was tan all over or if she would have lines from her bikini. My dick twitched at the idea of finding out.

Realizing that I was starting to drool, I closed my mouth and shifted my gaze higher. Her waist was narrow, almost nonexistent. The top she wore clung to her back, and I could see the outline of her sports bra. I couldn’t see any tan lines on her shoulders, and of course my dick liked that. Her neck was long, graceful, and exposed with her caramel hair pulled into a ponytail.

As she moved on the elliptical, I saw a tiny tattoo at the base of her neck but couldn’t make out what it was. I wanted—needed—a closer look.

Wiping my face with my towel, I jumped off the treadmill and ducked between mine and the scary muscle chick to get to the elliptical next to the hottie. As I stepped onto it she glanced over at me and slowed her pace. She reached for her towel just as I realized who she was.

The two times I had seen her before she had been wearing dark framed glasses, but they hadn’t hidden the unique purple of her eyes. She wasn’t wearing glasses today, but contacts from the looks of it, which only enhanced the color. For the first time in my life I was hypnotized by a pair of sweet eyes.

“Hey!” She greeted me with a smile that made her nose scrunch ever so slightly at the end. “I thought you said that gyms weren’t for you.”

I was really glad I had changed my mind! “I got bored,” I told her honestly, still captivated by her eyes. “Do you come here often?”

Her brow furrowed for a second and I bit the inside of my cheek. Really? Had I really just dropped that lame line? I could do better than that in my sleep. Gods! Oh great, now I was falling into Emmie’s habit of putting a plural on God. What the hell was wrong with me?

“I’m usually here when I don’t have a job lined up.” Harper easily fell back into exercising while continuing to talk to me.

“You’re a photographer, right?” I was sure that was what she had told me the first time I had met her. We had a brief conversation while I waited for Lana in the apartment she shared with their other roommates.

She seemed surprised that I remembered. I was kind of surprised myself. I didn’t normally remember little details about women, the only exceptions being the ones in my family, and even then I didn’t always pay close attention.

“Yeah, I’m doing freelance right now.” Her nose wrinkled. “It pays the bills I guess.”

“Don’t your parents help out?”

The light that had filled those strange eyes of hers dimmed, and I wanted to kick myself. I was really putting my foot in it today. “I don’t really talk to my parents unless I have to,” she murmured and turned her attention back to the numbers on her elliptical.


Harper

My thighs started burning long before I decided that I had enough of the elliptical. I reached for my towel and wiped the sweat from my brow and upper lip before taking a sip from my water bottle.

Beside me, Shane Stevenson, aka Hot Rocker Man, bounced off his own torture machine like he had another two hours of workout in him. For some strange reason he made me smile.

“So where to next?” he asked, taking his Boston Red Sox cap off and messing with his hair before putting it back on.

“I’m done.” An hour was my limit, about enough to work off the desserts I seemed to be addicted to. “I’m hitting the showers.”

His face fell and he actually gave me a little pout. “Ah, come on, Harper. Don’t leave now.”

That pout drew me in and I found myself relenting. “What do you want to do?”

Blue-gray eyes darkened and I saw firsthand the look that Lana had warned me about. Shane was supposed to be some bad ass womanizer that could melt the panties of every female with a working libido. I just couldn’t figure out why he was flirting with me…

“A few things come to mind.” His voice was lower, husky.

If I said it didn’t affect me I would be a liar. It seemed that my libido worked just fine because I was sure that my panties did melt a little, but I knew better than to take him seriously. Guys as hot as Shane didn’t go for girls like me.

I grinned and pushed at his shoulder. “I’m starving. Let’s shower and go get some breakfast.”

“Or we could do that.” He winked and walked with me toward the locker rooms. “I didn’t bring anything with me to change into.”

“Okay, I’ll hurry then. Do you want to go back to your place to change?” I glanced at his shirt drenched in sweat that clung to his hard chest. “Or I could get you something from Linc’s locker?”

“Do you think he would mind?” Shane frowned.

I shrugged. “I’m sure he won’t, but if you want we can run upstairs to the private rooms and ask him. He and Lana should be close to done by now.”

Blue-gray eyes narrowed at my words. “Lana is with Linc this morning?”

“Yeah, didn’t she tell you? She and Linc are doing some kind of dance competition. They practice two to three times a week, if not more. Linc pushes her really hard. He has a thing about winning.”

Actually, I was sure that Lana was starting to dislike dancing on some levels because of Linc’s drive. She wasn’t enjoying it like she had a few months ago.

Or maybe it was because Drake Stevenson was in town. Lana had told me about her relationship with the older Stevenson brother, or lack of one if you looked at it that way, so I knew she had to be hurting and conflicted about his sudden relocation to the East Coast.

“Let’s go ask Linc.” Shane gave me a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes, and I had a sudden crazy thought that maybe Drake wasn’t the only Stevenson brother with a thing for my friend.