Breaking His Rules (Feeling the Heat #4) (3 page)

It wasn’t just Jake’s good looks that affected her. After all, she saw her share of hunky guys almost every day. Working in the administration office at the fire department did have its perks. But none of the firemen she’d come into contact with were as gorgeous as Jake, nor did they treat her as anything other than the employee who handled their payroll issues. Most of them usually stared straight through her like she was invisible. Not Jake. When they were in a training session, his attention was wholly focused on her and if another member approached him during the session, Jake would politely tell them he’d speak with them later and send them on their way. And during the few times they’d had coffee it was as if no one else existed except her. After years of being ignored by the majority of men it was a heady feeling.

There were many times that she’d had to remind herself that he treated every client the same way, and she was afraid if she allowed him to be her escort to the wedding it might raise her hopes for something that—for a variety of reasons—just couldn’t happen. He had a policy of not dating his gym members or his clients. He hadn’t told her that himself, she’d overheard a group of women in the locker room discussing it. Evidently, a few of them had tried—and failed—to get him to go out with them. If he wouldn’t break his rule for those beautiful and athletic women, he sure wouldn’t be tempted to break it with her.

The musical ringtone of her phone jerked her out of her thoughts. Next to her, Chester lifted his head and stared at her with a look that said, “Answer the phone, bitch. It’s disturbing my nap.” With a smile, Melissa picked up the phone, read the name on the small screen and just as quickly, her humor evaporated.
Why is Shauna calling me?

“Hello.”

“Melissa, Mother tells me she still doesn’t have your RSVP for the wedding. It’s poor form to wait so long to respond.” Shauna’s voice dripped with annoyance.
Good God.
She was sounding more like Aunt Beverly with each passing day. Not for the first time, Melissa wondered what had happened to the cousin she’d goofed around with at slumber parties when they were nine. She missed
that
Shauna.
This
Shauna she didn’t even recognize.

“It’s been on the kitchen counter for a few days. I forgot to mail it.”

“There’s no time left to wait for snail mail. Just tell me if you’re coming or not. I’ll make sure Mother knows so she can inform the caterer.”

“I’ll be there.”

“Was that so hard?” Shauna asked, in a haughty tone. “Since Paige is staying in Pebble Beach with the rest of the bridal party, you’ll have your own room at the Hyatt Regency. Kurt’s cousin, Wendy—the poor thing—is also attending the wedding alone. Perhaps you can share a room with her? You two have a lot in common.”

“Really? Like what?”

“Well, she’s...she’s big-boned.”

Melissa stifled a snort. That was a new one. “Big-boned? Why don’t you say what you really mean, Shauna? She’s fat, like me.”

“Not exactly like you. You, at least, have dropped a few pounds. She’s quite large.”

“So she’d make a perfect roommate for me?”

“Exactly,” Shauna said, missing the sarcasm. “And like you, she doesn’t have a date.”

Anger simmered in Melissa’s blood. Was Shauna lacking a sensitivity chip or just being deliberately cruel?
Oh wait
. This was Shauna—it was both.

“I have a date,” she shot back without thinking, and was met with total silence.

“You do?” Shauna asked after several seconds.

Oh crap.
What have I done?

“Yes. And I’ll be sharing my room with him, not Kurt’s cousin.”

After another taut silence, Shauna cleared her throat. “I assumed you weren’t dating anyone.”

“You assumed wrong. I’ve been seeing someone for six months,” Melissa said, and shrugged at Chester, whose yellow eyes seemed oddly dubious. Even
he
knew she was lying through her teeth.

“Then I’ll inform Mother you have a plus-one.” Shauna’s cool tone returned. “Please tell Paige I meant what I said about the tattoos. When I spoke to her at the shower she said she was thinking about getting one.”

This was news to Melissa. She smiled. Paige was notorious for messing with Shauna. Why not continue the tradition? “Yeah, I think she’s getting a sleeve.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s when you get a tattoo on your entire arm. It covers your skin like the sleeve of a shirt.”

“Why would anyone do that to themselves?” Shauna asked in a horrified tone.

“Some consider it art.”

“I consider it ugly. I hope she waits until after the wedding.”

“Don’t count on it. You know Paige. When she makes up her mind to do something, she usually does it. You know what? I think she’s at the tattoo place right now. Don’t worry, though. You can always Photoshop her out of the picture.”

“I would
never
do that.” Shauna’s tone was filled with outrage.

“Right. You’d
never
do that.” Melissa rolled her eyes. “I’ll see you in two weeks.”

After she’d disconnected from Shauna, Melissa scrolled through her contacts and hit the call button when she came to Jake’s number. He would think she was a lunatic, but now that she’d lied to her cousin she couldn’t very well turn up without a date. And Jake
did
say to call if she changed her mind.

“Two calls in one night. How did I get so lucky?” The warmth in Jake’s voice caused her pulse to heighten.

“I’ve changed my mind.” She gnawed on her thumbnail and glanced at Chester, who was still staring at her with his shrewd eyes. She wrinkled her nose at him and continued, “Are you still willing to take me to the wedding?”

“Of course. What made you reconsider?”

“Shauna. She just called and made some crack about me not having a date.”

“Then we’ll have to show her you do.”

“There’s just one thing.” She bit her lip and hoped that Jake would be okay with the room situation. “We’ll have to share a room.”

“I see,” he said, after a short silence.

“I’m sure there’re two beds in the room. There usually are. It’s just that Shauna wanted to pair up me and Kurt’s cousin Wendy in the same room because we both didn’t have dates. That’s when I got pissed and told her I
did
have a date and that’s who I’d be sharing a room with.” She paused. “Are you okay with that?”

“That depends. Do you snore?”

“Not that I’m aware of. Do you?”

“Only when I have a cold and can’t breathe through my nose.” He paused. “Too much information?”

Melissa chuckled. “No. So are you really okay with sharing a room? It won’t be weird or anything since I’m your client?”

“You’re also my friend and I want to help. Sharing a room is not a problem. I had roommates in college...it’s not a big deal.”

Of course, it wouldn’t be a big deal to Jake. He didn’t think of her as a woman, she was just his client. But Shauna wouldn’t know that, would she? Melissa couldn’t help but imagine the look on her cousin’s face when she discovered Jake was her date. Maybe Paige would be nearby with her trusty smartphone. The pictures would be priceless.

“Thank you so much for doing this, Jake. I really appreciate it.”

“You won’t be appreciating me much longer. I can guarantee you on Thursday morning your muscles are going to be so sore you’ll wish you’d never met me.”

Melissa smiled. Wish she’d never met him?
That
would never happen.

Chapter Three

Ignoring the tiny beads of sweat clinging to her forehead, Melissa gripped the handle of the kettlebell and with both hands, hoisted it from between her spread feet to her chest. As she exhaled, she focused on Jake’s no-nonsense expression and bit back a groan. J.T. Sawyer had been right all those months ago when she’d signed up for personal training with his brother: if she was looking for torture, then Jake was her man. But despite the intensity of his workouts, he always changed them up to make them interesting, and never once had she been injured. He took great care to ensure proper form.

“This is the last one.” Her benevolent torturer gave her a nod of encouragement. “Lift it over your head and then we’re done for the night.”

Done for the night?
Yeah
,
right.
More like done for the decade after the strenuous workout she’d just endured. As rivulets of moisture trickled down the nape of her neck, she pushed the ten-pound bell up and over her head. Her arms, not used to the new routine, trembled, but she gritted her teeth and forced herself to hold them steady.

“Okay. Lower it.” As she obeyed his command, Jake moved forward and, mercifully, took the kettlebell from her grasp. “Great job, Melissa. Your physical conditioning has improved tremendously since we first started.”

Melissa backed up and sank down on the padded weight bench behind her. “Isn’t that the truth? I could barely walk a mile on the treadmill without getting winded. Now I can run almost three miles without stopping.” She reached for her towel, mopped her brow and watched Jake return the kettlebell to a rack in the nearby corner. She checked out his backside and then quickly averted her eyes and wiped the back of her neck as he turned around and returned to stand in front of her. “I guess that’s why you were voted the top personal trainer in Sacramento last year.” She looked up at him. “You work us hard, but you get results.”

“I get results when I have clients who take changing their lifestyle seriously. Not everyone is as motivated as you are.” He glanced at his watch. “I have another appointment in five minutes. Are you going straight home?”

“No. I thought I’d soak in the hot tub for a bit. Why?”

“I want to talk to you about a couple of things. One of which is the wedding.” He scanned the weight room, then lowered his voice even though there were no other members within earshot. “I’ll be done with my consultation in about an hour. Can we talk then?”

“Sure.” She nodded. Was he was having second thoughts about escorting her to Shauna’s wedding?

“Great. I’ll meet you in my office at eight-thirty.”

Almost an hour later, after a relaxing soak in the large spa tub in the women’s locker room followed by a quick shower, Melissa approached Jake’s office not far from the entrance of the gym and hesitated near the threshold when she heard the sound of his voice. She glanced at her sports watch and confirmed she was early. Not a problem. That gave her time to go to the juice bar for a protein smoothie. Her stomach would appreciate it—she’d worked late and missed dinner before her training session.

“Are you sure you can’t bend that rule a tiny bit?”

Melissa froze and for some strange reason her heart started to pound. After her last bout with eavesdropping one would think she’d have learned her lesson but,
au contraire
, curiosity won out and instead of heading to the juice bar, she inched closer to the half-open door. Call her crazy, but she had a feeling the woman who’d just posed that question to Jake wasn’t talking about the gym’s safety or courtesy rules.

“I’m sorry, Valerie.” Jake’s tone was firm but apologetic. “I’m flattered, but in my position it’s not wise for me to date members. That’s not the kind of reputation I want to foster.”

“Are you sure you can’t be tempted?” Valerie asked in a low, throaty voice that held the promise of sin and seduction. “No one would have to know.”

“I’d know. And eventually someone else would too. I’m sorry but I can’t risk it.” There was a pause, then Jake continued, “I hope you understand.”

Valerie sighed heavily. “You can’t blame a girl for trying.”

The sound of a chair scraping the floor galvanized Melissa into action. She bolted like a world champion sprinter reacting to the starter’s gun and race-walked to the juice bar just in time to see a gorgeous redhead leave Jake’s office
.
Holy hell.
Valerie had a body that matched her sexy voice...and then some. Melissa couldn’t help but stare—like the way she did whenever she drove past a car accident. She didn’t
want
to look but found it virtually impossible not to. Behind the counter, a teenage boy was having the same reaction, only for a completely different reason. As Valerie sauntered past the juice bar in her midriff-baring bra top and tight spandex shorts, and headed for the cardio area, he was almost salivating on the bib apron he wore over his Jake’s Joint white polo shirt.

Annoyed, Melissa cleared her throat. “I’d like a berry protein smoothie.” The kid’s admiring stare didn’t waver. “
Hello?
” She raised her voice. “Customer here.”

“What?” He jerked his head toward her and frowned. She’d interrupted him mid-leer and he wasn’t a bit happy about it. “Did you say something?”

“Yes. I’d like a berry protein smoothie.”
Jeez
, she sounded harsh. It wasn’t the kid’s fault she was irritated. After all, he was acting like any other teenage boy who liked to ogle girls. “Please,” she added, in a softer tone.

As he mixed her smoothie and glanced furtively toward the cardio room, envy twisted like a knife in Melissa’s gut. Never in her life had any man looked at her like that. Like she was the most gorgeous woman he’d ever seen. Just once she’d kill to have someone look at her with such admiration and—yes—lust.

Not this dude, though. He was seventeen at the most. But someone—someone like Jake.
No
.
No.
No
. She couldn’t think like that. Even if, by some bizarre twist of fate, he
was
attracted to her, nothing could ever happen between them. He had his no-fraternization rule, and if there was one thing she’d learned about Jake Sawyer, he was a man of integrity.

After setting her mind on finally getting healthy, she’d done some research online and discovered that Jake was one of the top trainers in Sacramento and advocated a balanced approach to fitness and weight loss. Not that she’d chosen him as her personal trainer for that reason alone. She hadn’t done that until the day she’d met him. That day—the day she’d toured his gym—her gut instinct told her he was a man of compassion. He’d never once looked at her with the disdain or condescension that a couple of other trainers she’d met with had favored her with. One of those so-called fitness experts had snidely informed her that he refused to train anyone her size and advised her to find someone who worked with the morbidly obese. At first the hurtful words had threatened to crush her, but instead of giving up she decided to use them to fuel her motivation. That was the day she’d walked into Jake’s Joint.

There was another reason there could be nothing romantic between her and Jake. One a bit more selfish. She needed Jake—needed him to motivate her and keep her on the healthy trek she’d embarked upon. She couldn’t run the risk of losing him as a trainer, a mentor, and more importantly, as a friend.

Not that she needed to worry about that. The chance of Jake thinking of her as anything more than a client was about as likely as Sacramento getting hit by a blizzard in the middle of July.

* * *

After Valerie left his office, Jake let out a sigh of relief and leaned back in his chair. The redhead had made an appointment with him to discuss personal training but it turned out she wanted more than just his professional services. He should have known. She’d joined the gym two weeks ago and had made it a point to seek him out whenever she came in to work out. Either she hadn’t heard he didn’t date members, or she had and thought she might be able to change his mind.

She hadn’t. Oh, she was attractive all right. Some might even call her stunning. And considering he hadn’t had sex in a while he was a bit surprised that he hadn’t been tempted. But the calculating gleam in her eyes, and the absolute certainty in her attitude that she could wrangle a date with him, had left him cold.

Ten months. That was the last time he’d gotten laid. It had been with a woman he’d met at a chamber of commerce meeting over a year ago and started dating. The sex had been pretty damn good, but outside of the bedroom he and Kirsten didn’t have much in common. Then there was her fear of dogs. She’d freaked out the second she’d stepped foot in his home and saw Max. After that night, she refused to come to his house unless he put Max outside. That was the beginning of the end. He couldn’t be with someone who didn’t like dogs. He could forgive a lot of things in a potential girlfriend, but that wasn’t one of them.

He swiveled his chair around and focused on the large corkboard he’d hung on the wall behind him. On it he’d tacked up several thank-you cards and before and after pictures given to him by his members and some of his personal training clients. The most recent card, from Melissa, had a caption that read “Warning—Personal Trainer from Hell” written on the front. She’d taken it a step further by cutting out his picture from one of his business brochures and pasting it underneath the lettering. Inside, she’d written a short note thanking him for his help and crediting him for her success. Flattering, but untrue. Melissa’s success was all due to her, only she didn’t seem to realize that yet. He’d been in the business long enough to know that the best trainer in the country couldn’t help someone who didn’t want to change their lifestyle. Getting healthy was as much of a mental process as a physical one.

“After tonight, I really do believe you’re the trainer from hell.”

Jake swiveled his chair around to find Melissa standing in the doorway with the strap of her purple gym bag slung over one shoulder and a small-sized smoothie cup in her hand. In contrast to Valerie who’d been wearing a ton of makeup, Melissa’s freshly scrubbed face glowed with health and vitality.

“How’d your consult go?” she asked as she moved into the office.

“Fine.” He motioned to the visitor chair in front of his desk. “Have a seat.”

“So what did you want to talk to me about?” She set her bag on the floor and settled in the chair. “You mentioned the wedding. Have you changed your mind about going?”

“No. But since you told your cousin we’d be sharing a room, am I correct in assuming you’ve led her to believe we’ve been seeing each other a while?”

Melissa tugged at her full bottom lip with her teeth. “I might have mentioned we’ve been dating for six months.”

“Six months?” Jake leaned forward and folded his arms on his desk. “That’s bordering on a serious relationship. I think we need to get our stories straight. Just in case anyone asks. What will you say if your parents ask why they haven’t met me?”

“They know who you are, of course. But I could tell them it’s been casual until recently and we didn’t want to make a big deal about it.”

“That should fly. Does Paige know the truth?”

“Yes. And she’ll go along with it. She has her own issues with Shauna.”

“I guess it’s good we’ve known each other a while. It’s not like we’re total strangers.”

“True.” Melissa nodded. “I think we can get through the weekend without any problems. Everyone will be focused on the bride and groom, not us.”

“You’re probably right, but I think we should get together before the wedding and make sure we’re on the same page in case anyone asks us about our relationship.”

“We can do it after our session next week,” Melissa suggested.

He shook his head. “I’d prefer to do it outside the gym. Are you doing anything on Sunday? The Blaze will be back in San Francisco this weekend and I have two tickets to their game with Atlanta. We should have plenty of time in the car to talk about the wedding.”

Melissa’s eyes lit up. “I’d love to go to the game. I’ve never been to Blaze Field. I’ve only seen it on TV.”

“Great. Then we’ll kill two birds with one stone. You’ll get to attend your first Blaze game
and
we can get our stories straight about our...” He grinned. “...so-called relationship.”

“I think if we don’t make up some convoluted backstory we should be fine.”

“I agree.” He nodded. “Other than the wedding and the reception, are there any other functions we’ll need to attend?”

“Just the rehearsal dinner. Normally, only the bridal party attends, but I think Aunt Beverly included me to keep Paige in line.” She threw him a wry smile. “She tends to get surly around Shauna, and I can usually mellow her out.”

“After what you’ve told me about your cousin, you might have to mellow me out too,” he said, and smiled at the flash of amusement in Melissa’s eyes. “I’ve never been to the Monterey Bay area, but I’ve heard they have a first-class aquarium.”

Melissa sipped her smoothie. “I’ve heard the same thing. We’ll have plenty of free time on Saturday before the dinner. If you want to check it out, I’d love to see it.”

“I’m up for that.” He paused. “I’ve been meaning to ask. Why is the wedding so far from Sacramento?”

She shrugged. “The story is Shauna has always wanted to be married near the ocean.”

“The story? Are you saying you don’t believe that?”

“I’d believe a Bigfoot sighting at Arden Fair Mall before I’d believe that bullshit story.” Jake chuckled as Melissa leaned forward to set her cup on his desk. “Knowing my cousin, it’s all about having the most lavish ceremony money can buy.
And
in one of the most exclusive locales in the state.”

He shook his head. “The more I hear about her the less I like her.”

Melissa tucked her hair behind her ear and grinned. “I think her head may explode when she sees you.” Her smile faltered a bit. “Do you think I’m shallow and superficial for looking forward to that happening?”

“No. I think you’re human, and it sounds like you’ve been a victim of Shauna’s nastiness for quite some time. It’s only natural that you’d want her to get some sort of comeuppance.”