Reluctant Deception - Cambria Smyth Page 0,20

would look after a long bout of delicious lovemaking. He imagined her in his bed, hot and sweaty in his arms, and quickly put a lid on those thoughts as his body responded. Damn, but it was hard to ignore her even though he knew he should, given their adversarial history.

"Single," he finally replied through tightened lips, "and that's the way I like it, too."

"Agreed!" she said almost too quickly. "Did your girlfriend like the food there?"

"She's just the friend of a friend. Asked me to give her a ride home."

Libby eyed him suspiciously. It must have been some ride home she thought, noting the mischievous grin on his face.

"It's not what you're thinking," he warned.

"I'll bet," Libby countered.

"Enough chit chat. Why don't we work out together?" Chris offered, glancing appreciably at her firm, trim figure from head to toe.

"What, are you insane? I couldn't begin to keep up with you!" Libby replied. She'd seen twosomes go through the exercise routine together, each pushing the other to go beyond the limit one usually did alone. It looked difficult, painful, and exhausting.

"Come on," he teased. "We’ll both get a great work out if we help each other." The challenge in his eyes was unmistakable.

"That's what I'm afraid of,” she rejoined. “It'll be so great I won't be able to move tomorrow. Have you forgotten I've got a lot of work to do--for you--less than twenty-four hours from now? You wouldn't want me calling in sick the first day, would you?"

"Trust me, Elizabeth. You'll feel terrific after this."

Libby questioned the logic of working out with him. Could she possibly keep up with someone as fit as him? She doubted it, especially after a late night out. But, could she try to push him past his limits of physical endurance? Definitely. Suddenly, she was up to the challenge.

"You're on." She planned on matching him push for push, even if she couldn't walk the next day because of it.

Working in tandem, they proceeded down the line of machines.

Libby took her cues from Chris. When she reached the point of exhaustion with an exercise, she did three or four more, out of spite. When it was his turn and he started to fail, she forced him to do five or six more. Whenever Libby called him a wimp or an old man, he got mad--mad enough to do even more. Then he invented some great names to call her. The friendly badgering seemed to work every time and after a while they found themselves laughing at the different ways each egged the other on.

"Are you always this hard on your clients?" Chris panted out between clenched teeth, pushing a weighted bar over his head for the twelfth time.

He was sweating profusely and his muscles bulged from exertion. Libby was giving him one heck of a workout he thought with a grimace, getting out of the machine. He started this friendly rivalry thinking she would give up after the first few exercises. Instead, Libby seemed to be thriving on the competition and she was giving out as good--no, better--than she was receiving. He thought he was in great shape and could handle anything, but he hadn't counted on her pushing him to the max.

As they approached the final machine, Chris quickly decided this one would be no holds barred. He would have her begging for mercy if it took his last ounce of strength. He did owe her revenge, after all.

"You're familiar, Miss Reed, with the leg curl machine?" he teased, reverting to the use of her formal name.

Libby nodded, wondering what he was planning as she eyed the flat, padded table with a roller bar at one end. She remembered only too well how difficult it was to lay face down on the table, hook her ankles under the bar, then curl them back to her derriere. But, she would gladly endure the torture for shapely legs and some friendly competition, she reminded herself, before staring at Chris questioningly.

"Well, climb on Elizabeth, and let's see what you can do here!"

Libby selected a weight level, positioned herself on the table, then curled her legs back.

"That's much too light," Chris observed as she easily flexed her legs. "Let's make it heavier."

He increased the weight by ten pounds, causing her to groan with the next repetition. Then he lightened the load and made her do each repetition as slowly as possible.

She grunted with each contraction, but managed to her surprise to complete ten more. When Libby finally got