Lisa
For the second morning in a row, I woke in Jennie's bed. However, this time I was alone between the sheets. It was still dark outside, and I could dimly make out a figure tiptoeing from the room.
I snapped on the bedside light. "Going somewhere?"
Jennie, clutching a pair of trainers to her chest, looked guilty as she attempted to creep out of her own bedroom.
I lifted up on an elbow and shot her a judgmental raise of my eyebrow.
"I work out early," she said, her voice husky even in its defensiveness. She was wearing a pair of running shorts and a tight, cropped tank over a power red sports bra.
"I'll join you," I said, throwing off the covers and getting out of bed. I had a gym bag in my car.
"Oh… Um." Jennie appeared to be hypnotized by my naked body. "You don't have to."
That was Jennie Kim code for "I'm feeling entirely too vulnerable right now, and I want to be alone to rebuild my walls."
I wasn't going to let that happen.
"Come now. I thought you'd be used to it by now," I said smugly, gesturing toward my cock, which had decided it too was awake and ready to salute the morning.
"You really don't have to stay if you don't want to," she said, biting on her bare lower lip. Her hair was disheveled, and there was a distinct bite mark on her shoulder. She looked thoroughly ravaged. And conflicted.
I grabbed my pants from the floor and stepped into them.
"I'm staying," I insisted.
"Fine. Okay. I'll, uh, meet you…" She waved her hand in the general direction of the gym, still watching me.
I pressed a chaste kiss to the top of her head and headed for my SUV.
Minutes later, dressed in my own gear, I found her in the glassed-in gym. The sky was starting to lighten, and I could make out a pod of dolphins playing—or humping, I wasn't sure—just offshore.
I opened the door and stepped inside to the thumping beat of a workout playlist. It was a sleek, utilitarian space. The floors were speckled cork and ran under every imaginable piece of fitness equipment. Tucked under a countertop, there was a small glass-doored fridge stocked with water and electrolyte drinks. Towels were neatly rolled and stacked in cubbies. The patio doors opened directly onto the pool area.
Everything was elegantly and efficiently designed. Just like the rest of Jennie's life.
Her long legs under short shorts ate up the belt on one of the treadmills. She was already sweating, her eyes fixed on the water just steps from the windows. I sat on a weight bench and watched her while I laced my shoes.
"That's not burning any calories, Manoban," she called.
"I'm trying to recall if I've seen a prettier view first thing in the morning," I said.
She snorted and shook her head, sending her ponytail swinging.
I chose the rower next to her treadmill and cinched my feet in place.
With a breath, I pushed off and pulled back, feeling the muscles in my back bunch and release with each stroke. We worked in silence, sweating and breathing to the beat of the music. I liked starting my day with a workout. The gym in my condo building was adequate. But it certainly wasn't as well-equipped as this. There was no panoramic bay view. No Jennie.
No—
"Are those dolphins—"
"Humping," Jennie supplied with a grin. "They're pretty frisky."
"Lucky mammals."
Sweat beaded on my skin as I powered through each stroke.
Jennie's step never faltered beside me.
When she finally stepped off the treadmill and moved to the free weights, I helped myself to a water and loaded up a bar.
"Wraps and clips are in there," she said, nodding toward a set of gray metal lockers along one wall.
I helped myself and worked through a set of clean and jerks, pretending not to notice her gaze glued to my ass in the mirror. She could play it as cool as she wanted, but I knew last night had affected her. Just as it had me.
I stripped off my shirt and tossed it in the direction of the door.
Jennie bobbled the hand weight, and it fell, knocking over her water bottle.
When our gazes met in the mirror, I winked, and she rolled her eyes.
"Okay. Fine. I feel awkward. Happy now?" she said, trading the weights for a mat.
I grinned. "Ecstatic."
"I'm not used to… whatever this is."
"Intimacy?" I prodded.
"Invasion," she corrected.
I dropped my bar and laid another mat next to hers. She started a set of crunches. I followed suit.
"You could send me on my way," I told her, puffing out a breath and I contracted my abs.
"I could," she agreed, switching to V-ups.
I followed her lead. "But you don't want to?"
"I'm not clear on what I want," she corrected.
"Do you want more of last night?" My dick went instantly hard in my shorts, reveling in some of the more vivid details of the night before.
She collapsed back onto the mat. "I don't know if I can survive more of last night," she laughed weakly.
"I'm up for trying," I offered heroically.
She slapped me playfully in the gut, making my cock twitch.
"It was good," she said.
"Very good," I agreed, rolling onto my side.
Those brown eyes studied mine seriously. "I want more," she admitted. "But I can't tell if it's a catastrophic idea or just very, very bad."
"And won't it be fun finding out?" Testing, I leaned over and brushed my lips against hers. Gentle. Teasing. When I pulled back, she sucked her lower lip into her mouth.
"I don't have time for fun," she admitted.
"You forget. I run your calendar. I'm happy to pencil in sex, naps, perhaps some naked happy hours."
Her smile was slow as she trailed her fingers down over my chest to my stomach. "Your shirtlessness makes a compelling argument."
"Let me take my shorts off," I volunteered.
She laughed. A real laugh, and I felt a brightness in my chest.
"You should do that more often," I told her.
"What? Sweat all over the floor?"
"Laugh." I kissed her again, enjoying the salt and softness. She was spectacular.
"Steve," she said, putting her hand on my chest.
"No. Lisa."
"No," she laughed. "Steve. I have to feed Steve. He doesn't like it when I'm late."
--
Steve was eight feet of hissing alligator at the end of a long lagoon dock marked "Steve's House" in the center of the enclave.
"So that's really an alligator with a prosthetic leg," I asked, observing the reptile as it opened its massive jaws.
"It is. One of the residents had his lab print a 3-D stump for him. Poor guy lost it to a boat propeller and kept swimming in circles. He couldn't be released into the wild, so we let him stay," Jennie explained. "Ready, big guy?"
She held a rotisserie chicken over the railing. I pulled my phone out of the pocket of my gym shorts and snapped a picture.
"Has he ever eaten any residents?" I asked.
Steve hissed as if offended, and Jennie tossed him the chicken.
He snapped it up with one prehistoric lunge. I got him mid-jump.
"We have a deal. He gets fed every day as long as he doesn't snack on any Bluewater pets. He's pretty chill."
"I'll have a mai tai, sweetheart!"
I whirled around at the flash of color, and feathers alighted on the dock's railing.
"Hi, Frank," Jennie said wryly.
"Nice tattoo, shithead," the fat parrot said.
"Am I hallucinating right now?" I asked, fascinated.
"I'm afraid not," she told me. "Frank is our free-range jerk. His previous owner was an asshole. As you might have guessed."
"And now he lives here in Bluewater?"
"His previous owner died—bar fight, surprise surprise—and Frank here escaped the animal rescue that came for him. Bit the animal control officer in the ear and took off. He ended up here when the landscaping started going in."
"And you let him stay?"
"What are you lookin' at, dickhead?" Frank asked Steve, bobbing his colorful head.
The alligator hissed his response.
"We haven't figured out how to get rid of him," she confessed.
"Nice tits!" Frank squawked before buzzing Steve and flying off toward the beach.
"You know, I'm never bored around you, love," I told her.
She bumped my shoulder, and together we strolled down the meandering path that led back to her house. The greenery was lush in the early morning sun. Established palms created a natural canopy above us. Oleander, bougainvillea, and other glossy green plants formed a lush, jungle-like underbrush that made everything feel secluded. Despite the multi-million-dollar mansions tucked behind greenery and gates, Bluewater felt like a deserted paradise.
Alone in some tropical paradise. As far as trysts went, this one was going down in my history books. Though I wished Jennie would give me some clue as to how she felt about last night.
Our romantic seclusion was interrupted by a pink jogging-suited senior holding hand weights and puffing hard as she speed-walked toward us. There was a significantly younger, muscled man following her in a golf cart, shouting instructions through a bullhorn.
"Morning, Mrs. Esteban," Jennie said.
"Looks like someone had a good night," the woman said with a knowing smirk. She had a flower bandana tied over her pewter curls. Ten-karat diamond studs bobbed in her ears.
Jennie gave her neighbor a guilty smile. Mrs. Esteban peered over her bifocal sunglasses and gave me a saucy wink.
"Less flirting. More walking," the tanned trainer shouted.
She picked up the pace, and the golf cart whirred past us.
"You live in a very strange neighborhood," I said.
Jennie laughed. We were quiet for a few minutes as we wandered in the direction of her home. My muscles were warm, and my body felt deliciously loose and well-used.
"About last night," she began.
Finally. My patience had run its course, and I'd been thirty seconds away from demanding to have a "let's label this thing" conversation. "Yes?"
Jennie stopped on the path and tentatively wound her arms around my neck. "It was good. Great."
And or but. I couldn't tell which way she was leaning.
"And?" I prodded, hopefully.
"And I think I'm onboard with revisiting it."
I picked her up, lifting her feet off the path. Relief was a bright beacon of light in my chest. "I'll pencil you in," I teased.
"You do that, Manoban," she said with a laugh.
"What are we doing today?"
She bit her lip. "I think I can afford to be a little late to the office this morning."
"Working on a Saturday, love?" I tsked. "I seem to recall insisting that you take your health more seriously."
"Thanks to you, I've had two of the best nights' sleep in recent memory. And I'm willing to allow you to feed me breakfast," she said magnanimously.
I kissed her. Less gently this time. More demanding. Letting her body skim mine, I set her back on her feet.
"Last night," she began. "When you said I dazzled you?"
"Yes?" I kissed her again.
"Well, the feeling's mutual," she confessed.
"Does that mean you'd be open to labeling this… thing?" I asked, skimming her jawline with my thumbs.
"Always negotiating," she sighed.
"This is something special, Jennie."
"Neither one of us has time for special," she reminded me.
"We're idiots if we don't make time," I warned.
"Oh, hey there, Jennie," a voice sing-songed.
"Shit," Jennie hissed.
Chaeyoung and Chu, in pajamas holding what appeared to be mimosas, sat in a tricked-out golf cart. They were grinning maniacally.
"Uh, hey, guys," Jennie said lamely. "Everyone knows Lisa, right?"
"Hi, Lisa," the girls purred.
"Ladies," I said, refusing to allow Jennie to escape my grasp.
"Fancy running into you here, Jennie," Chaeyoung said with a wicked grin. "Chu and I were just talking, and we're calling an emergency DQB tomorrow."
"Be there," Chu insisted.
Jennie winced. "Yeah, that should be fine."
"Great! Toodles!" Chaeyoung said, whipping the wheel of the golf cart and spinning around.
"Your friends certainly know how to make an entrance. What's a DQB?"
"Drag Queen Brunch."