No Rep (Madd CrossFit #1) - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,37

life choices up until now.

“What was that?” I asked between breaths.

His eyes twinkled as he said, “I just wanted to make sure you were well and truly awake.”

Well, I sure the fuck was.

And so was my vagina.

He put me down, and I kept the blanket that I’d managed to stay wrapped in, but reluctantly left all the others where they lay discarded after that kiss, and then slowly shuffled my way out of the tent.

He made sure the zipper on the door opening was closed really well behind us.

I smiled at his methodical preparation, all because he didn’t want me to be cold where we were stuck outside.

“It’s snowing,” I surmised as we walked through the busy parking lot toward the gym again.

“It is,” he agreed as he threw his arm around my shoulder. “It started when I was walking back to the tent. I came in and started talking about it before I realized you were asleep.”

I snickered. “My body isn’t used to doing exercise. It’s taking me a long time to get back into the groove.”

“You’ve been exercising for almost seven weeks now,” he countered.

I had.

We had finished up bootcamp, and I was kind of sad that I would no longer have him as my coach once it was over. So sad that I was going to sign up to continue this torture voluntarily.

I changed the subject to keep the sadness from leeching into my voice.

“I’ve never driven in snow, either,” I told him. “I barely drive in the rain.”

“You barely drive at all anymore,” he countered.

He was right.

When Taos wasn’t at the gym, and we were together, he was the one driving.

I loved it so much.

I had zero interest in driving, which was a fucking riot seeing as that was what I now did for a living.

“I had to drive myself home last night,” I countered.

He grinned and pressed his cold nose to the side of my face. “You did. But you were the one who insisted you sleep at home and not in my bed.”

That was true, too.

I wanted to sleep with him at his place, but I also didn’t want to make myself too… clingy.

I wanted him to continue liking me. I didn’t want to burn him out on me.

I’d practically move in with him if he let me.

But again, he was a very private person. I knew that he needed some time away from me. At least, he got these long, silent periods that equaled to me time spent apart was needed.

Not that he’d ever come right out and said it.

Maybe I was making too big of a deal about it?

I didn’t know. But until he could give me a clearer picture of how things were to be, then I’d be quiet, keep my nose out of his business, and enjoy the time he did give me.

For now.

“What’s the rest of the workout?” I asked, shivering slightly as a tiny snowflake fluttered from the sky and landed on my eyelashes.

Without stopping, Taos reached over and plucked the snowflake off my eye and then smiled at me before saying an even worse word than thrusters: burpees.

Ew.

I supposed that the workout started out okay.

I was trudging along, doing my thrusters at a nice, even pace, and making sure to keep doing them and not stop seeing as the longer I took, the more burpees that Taos had to do.

I didn’t realize just how slow I was moving until I heard the teams beside me switch out with their partners.

I winced when I looked over at Taos to see sweat pouring out of him and onto the mat below him as he did yet another burpee.

I groaned and kept moving, trying to block out just how fast the men were able to knock out the thrusters in comparison to me, who was still going.

Finally, I finished, and then dropped the bar from about head level, causing Taos to drop down onto the mat and turn his head to stare at me.

“I’m sorry,” I cried between pants.

He pushed himself up, and I watched as the muscles of his back started to ripple beneath the surface of his skin.

Yum.

It was good to know that, even tired and feeling bad, I could still find the man absurdly attractive.

Finally, we got ourselves switched, and I watched in awe out of the corner of my eye as Taos did his thrusters—caught the men that were still going—and then surpassed them all while I did the slowest burpees on the planet.

Yet again, we