The Beauty Within (23 page)

He arched an eyebrow, not liking the knowing tone in her voice. He

opened the door wider and leaned against it. “You wore that to tease me, didn’t

you?”

She frowned. “Tease you?”

“That shoulder,” Gunnar clarified, his eyes flicking to it before returning to

those chocolate brown eyes of hers. “Show a little skin; make me not work you

so hard.”

She glanced at her shoulder, then rolled her eyes. “Honestly, I didn’t have

any more sweats. I’ve been lazy and haven’t done laundry. Can’t very well work

out in jeans and a turtleneck!”

Gunnar merely shrugged, not wanting to mention how not adverse he was

to her in anything that showed off her delectable bum.

He finally let her inside, and she led them to the home gym. They stretched,

he keeping as much distance from her as possible, and got her set up on the

treadmill for her warm-up run. He watched her, amazed by how much im-

provement she’d made over the past two months, already noticing the defini-

tion in her calves and her relaxed stride as she ran. She’d put on her earphones

and stared at the wall as she mouthed the lyrics, not paying attention to him at

all. Gunnar had begun setting out the weights they would be using, but then

he’d stopped in favor of watching her instead.

He wanted her.

Gunnar sat on the bench with his head in his hands. Things had been going

so well between them; and while they had gone on a date, the last thing he

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wanted to do was mess things up before they began. Sex too soon in a relation-

ship could spell disaster, and he wanted to do this right with her.

“Are you okay?”

He felt her gentle hands slide through his hair and he moaned before jerk-

ing away from her. The hurt that flashed in her eyes tore him apart, and he

sighed, cupping her face gently.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, closing his eyes as his thumbs drifted along her

damp skin.

“What’s wrong?”

“I shouldn’t touch you.”

She stepped back and nodded, the hurt sinking deeper into her eyes. “Then

don’t.”

When she would’ve gone around him, he circled his arm around her waist

and brought her flush against him. He ran his nose against that bare shoulder

of hers before pressing a kiss to it.

“I can’t.”

“Can’t what?”

“Not touch you.”

She leaned into him and he bit back a groan. Too weak to fight the urge, he

pressed a kiss to the crook of her neck and inhaled. She smelled so good and he

became aroused, so he gently pushed her forward.

“Come on,” he said, walking around her to the weights. He grabbed the

five-pound ones and handed them to her. “We have Waffle House to burn,

remember?”

Tyler looked at him oddly, but she took the weights anyway. He was infi-

nitely grateful she didn’t comment on his behavior just now. If there was

anything Gunnar had always prided himself, it was acting professional while

on the job. Even when he’d been in LA, and there was all manner of temptation,

he’d made sure he made his gigs and behaved as his parents had raised him

while he was at work. He’d saved playtime for afterwards, and he would

continue to do so.

No matter how tantalizing the woman before him actually was.

They went through the exercises staring at one another, though Tyler’s

confusion was apparent on her face. Gunnar decided to stand next to her

instead, and he felt her tension ease a little. It helped him focus as well, the

view of her in his peripheral not nearly as distracting as watching her head on.

With the tension dissipating, the rest of the session went by smoothly.

At least until they started the cool down.

Gunnar was mesmerized by the complete look of relaxation on her face

and the perspiration beading her temples. She’d done very well today, keeping

her focus as he should have done as well. After that brief slip he’d made, she’d

reverted completely to workout mode, not letting herself be distracted by

anything—including him. He couldn’t help but be a little bothered by that. Did

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he not affect her the same way she affected him? He couldn’t believe that, not

after the phone call they had had last night. Just thinking about it gave him a

hard-on, but she could switch her emotions on and off as if they were nothing!

Yet, wasn’t he the one who had told her he couldn’t touch her, who had

forced the air of professionalism into this session? Why was he upset and

complaining about getting exactly what he had wanted?

No
, he thought to himself as Tyler stood and wiped her face with a towel.

Not what I want at all.

She was packing up her bag and would head to the showers, then leave. He

didn’t want her to leave. There was so much that needed to be said, so much he

needed to explain…

“Tyler?”

“Yeah?”

She didn’t turn around to look at him, and he thought that wouldn’t do at

all. He took one last sip from his water bottle before setting it on the ground

and standing.

“Tyler.”

Tyler sucked her teeth, unable to find the last clean bra she
knew
she’d

packed before leaving her house. It made no sense to take a shower only to put

on a sweaty, stinky bra again! She could always just go home and
Febreze
her

truck, but that would make her irritated. She’d packed up all this stuff for

nothing…

“
Elskling
.”

That made her pause, and her hands tightened on the handles of her bag.

She closed her eyes and silently counted to three before she turned to him. He

was standing so close, his gray eyes so intense. Self-consciousness rammed into

Tyler, and she put a hand to her messy hair and looked down in shame.

Between the way he’d looked at her when she’d first arrived, to that brief,

thrilling and weird interlude during the session, and now, Tyler felt as if she

couldn’t breathe. He was playing yo-yo with her emotions, and she didn’t

appreciate it one bit. If he couldn’t touch her, why did he look at her the way

he did? take her out on dates? kiss her the way he did? speak to her on the

phone as he had last night?

She let out a shaky breath as she remembered what he’d said to her. He

didn’t think of her as a sister. He was attracted to her, told her about the things

he wanted to do with her. Tyler didn’t know if the confession was so he could

get his thoughts out of his system so he wouldn’t give in to them, but all he’d

served to do was make her yearn, and Tyler hated yearning.

Well, it was going to stop right now. Tyler was getting off this seesaw of

lust. Attraction wasn’t enough, and though she enjoyed spending time with

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Gunnar, she had to remain strong and not succumb. She was going to tell him

things should remain strictly platonic between them. She was going to—

He was kissing her, and none too gently, either. He grasped the back of her

head and brought her lips to fuse with his, his tongue lancing inside her mouth

and against her cheeks as if to get every one of the flavors she possessed. Tyler

moaned and sagged against the wall, tearing her mouth away to gulp in much-

needed air. Gunnar moved his mouth to her neck, kissing and nipping at her as

his hands moved down her body to her behind. With one quick movement, he

hoisted her up the wall and pressed his body against hers to keep her there.

She felt his hardness against her rapidly dampening center and she sighed.

He felt impossibly large and hot, and she locked her legs around his waist to

keep her steady and to bring him closer. Gunnar growled, his hands moving

from her behind to underneath her top; and when his bare palms fit themselves

over her bare breasts and nipples, both of them groaned.

Tyler panted as he began squeezing, closing her eyes to his gaze. He bit her

chin and thrummed her nipples with his thumbs, bucking against her in a

perverted imitation of what could happen if neither one of them gained control

of their senses. She’d never been so brazen, not even with Quincy, so the fact

Gunnar had her pressed against the wall with his crotch against hers and his

hands on her breasts was a little disconcerting.

Disconcertment gave way to shame as Gunnar lifted her top and bared her

chest to him. Hot tears filled her eyes as he gazed upon her naked torso. Her

stomach wasn’t toned or flat and her breasts weren’t high and perky as she

knew he was used to seeing, and she waited for the moment he pulled down

her shirt, set her back onto her feet, and sent her on her merry way.

He did none of those things.

Instead, Gunnar whispered something she couldn’t understand before

skimming his lips along the underside of her breasts. Her nipples tightened

into painful points in anticipation, and when she looked down at him, his eyes

locked with hers as he stuck out his tongue and touched the tip to a distended,

dark-brown peak.

Tyler looked heavenward, her fingers digging into his scalp as he finally

took the entire nipple into his mouth. The warm, wet sensation made her

quake violently, and he suckled her so hard it was as if there were a tether

between her breasts and her crotch. He kneaded her other breast gently until

he turned his attention to it, and the cool air hitting her saturated nipple was

just as arousing as the damp heat of his mouth.

The hand that didn’t hold up her breast for him to suckle slid down her

stomach, its fingers tracing along her belly button before going beneath her

pants and panties to her wet folds. His fingers grazed her nubbin and she

bucked and gasped, her eyes rolling into the back of her head. Gunnar moaned

against her nipple before letting it go with a kiss. He nuzzled the valley

between her breasts briefly, then raised his head to kiss her.

The Beauty Within

She was vaguely aware of him lifting her arms and cloth going over her

head. When she shivered, it was then she realized she was completely topless;

and in a move many minutes too late, Tyler began to cover herself. Gunnar

grunted and shook his head, grasping her wrists so her hands would find the

hem of his tank and pull it off his body.

It was so cliché, but he really did look like a Greek god…or a Norse god in

his case. He was all definition and muscle, and she glided her hands over his

hard, beautiful planes. Gunnar pressed kiss after gentle kiss along her neck and

collarbone before pulling her hands away and linking their fingers together. He

pressed fully against her, her breasts mashed by his hard chest, and both sighed

at the feeling.

It was exquisite.

Gunnar remained close to her as he sank down to his knees, his lips press-

ing tiny kisses along her body during the journey. She felt little zings of

pleasure from wherever his mouth made contact, and she whimpered when she

felt his breath on her navel.

Tyler couldn’t help but watch as he grasped the elastic of her yoga pants

and panties, her breath completely nonexistent when he tugged them down

her legs. He grasped her ankles gently and pulled her feet from her socks and

clothing, then threw them behind them somewhere unheeded.

She was completely naked before him now.

Tyler closed her eyes. Unlike the other instances she’d had where she

didn’t really care if the man liked her body, she
wanted
Gunnar to like hers. It

was still a work in progress, but losing ten pounds didn’t make her ready to

expose her body to anyone, let alone her personal trainer…the very same who

was drifting his hands up her inner thighs with his mouth following the trail.

Tyler bit her lip and clutched his head when she felt his nose graze her

pubic hair. His breath at her core was turning her into a faucet, and the light

touches of his fingertips made her shake badly.

She came at the first stroke of his broad tongue, but Gunnar kept going. He

drank in her climax, keeping her thighs spread and kissing her folds almost

obscenely. Tyler didn’t think she would ever stop, and she felt she would draw

blood if she dug her nails into his scalp even more, despite the fact they were

blunt.

Tyler let out a long groan when her release subsided and jerked when

Gunnar pressed tiny kisses along her swollen nether lips. She was always

sensitive after coming; and after that one, she knew she wouldn’t be able to

handle the air circulating in the room, never mind his ministrations!

She leaned against the wall, her hand covering her face as she tried to get

her bearings. So much for staying strong! All he’d had to do was kiss her and

now she was standing there naked and coming down from one of the most

glorious climaxes she’d had in ages. Suddenly, Gunnar took her hand from her

face and kissed her palm, swirling his tongue in the center of it. Tyler sobbed

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softly at his care, then let out a low moan when he took her hand and placed it