Designing Love

Sweat dripped off Devon, soaking into his loose fitting shorts and muscle shirt. With his head dipped and his taped hands balled into tight fist, his body swayed. Bolted to the ceiling, a punching bag swung lazily before him.

His biceps flexed as he reared back and struck the bag, then again with the other fist. Without pause, he repeatedly punched the sand filled pouch with angry force. Perspiration popped off his muscles, creating a glistening sheen of moisture over his skin.

Her mouth became dry. Just watching him go at the bag like it owed him money turned the heat up inside of her body. Everything flexed and contracted, causing the pearl between her thighs to quiver. Blinking rapidly, she grabbed onto the door handle and sucked in a shaky breath. Maybe she should've rejected his proposal and gone back to the hotel to think things through. Seeing him like this would only make it harder to concentrate.

Time to retreat.

She kept her eyes fixed on his tantalizing frame and stepped back from the door. Then suddenly, his head snapped up and turned in her direction. Gasping like she'd been caught stealing, she spun around and fast walked from the door. Hard rock music shattered the stillness of the corridor. The door had been opened.

Without turning around or thinking, she started to run like the boogey man was chasing her and would've screamed if her breath wasn't caught in her throat.

Only steps from the great room, she quickened her pace and then heard the call of her name. "Josephine!"

She stopped in her tracks.

"Why are you running?" Humor laced his voice. "Jesus woman, you'd think I was an axe murderer or something. Am I that scary?"

Embarrassed, she sluggishly turned and regretted it as soon as she looked at him. Just above his eyes lids, his damp hair stuck to his forehead. He gradually soaked up the sweat from his neck with a small towel as he neared her. His calm azure gaze slid down her body to her feet. Smiling, he took his time bringing his eyes back to hers.

"I uh…" She swallowed hard then backed away from him. "I didn't want to interrupt you so I—"

"So, you thought if you ran, I'd forget that I saw you standing there?" He ran his fingers through his sweat soaked hair. "You move fast, but not that fast."

His laughing eyes almost made her giggle at her own silliness, but at the moment her roused state wouldn't even allow her to crack a smile. She could only stare at him with her mouth slightly agape. Her moistening womanhood compelled her to zone in on his chiseled pecks. The pure masculine scent of him made her nipples stand on edge.

Good Lawd, if this man didn't go shower and change right now, she'd give into the urge to lick the sweat off his sexy ass.

"Did you need something?"

The softness of his voice brought her head up to lock eyes with his. Something enticingly dangerous played within his expression. His lids lowered and the corner of his lips curved. He knew. He knew exactly what he did to her and from the look on his face, he was about to act on it.

Ripping her gaze from his, she took another step back. "Uhm… I was just, looking around and…" Dammit, she'd always been quick with the tongue, now she couldn't even think of what to say to iron out this incredibly awkward situation. "You, you have a lovely home. I hope, uh, I wasn't being intrusive by, uh, taking a look around," she sputtered, blinking up a wind storm, taking another step back.

The seduction in his eyes deepened. He took a step forward and made her attempt to flee more complicated. Just as she thought, the man wasn't going to make this easy.