“Do you approve?” she asked, snuggling into his side when he wrapped an arm around her and directed her toward the door.
“Seeing what socks you’re wearing is like getting an extra little surprise every time I get you naked.”
“You don’t have to get me naked to see my socks,” she reminded him as she stepped in front of him so she could take the narrow stairs to the ground.
“But I prefer it that way.”
Logan shivered when he stepped off the bus. He hadn’t put on a shirt. And Toni couldn’t resist running a hand over his gooseflesh and the taut nipples that were now begging for her attention.
“Why is it so damned cold?” Logan rubbed his hands briskly over his upper arms.
“Probably because the sun isn’t even up yet.”
“Yeah, well, most of the gyms will only accommodate us taking over their facility if we do it in their off hours. So we get to work out at oh dark thirty.”
Toni wrote a note on her hand about asking Butch how they coordinated gym time. Sounded like a huge hassle just to exercise.
“Can’t you work out at the hotel or something?” she asked.
“We do. But every three days, Kirk insists on free weights.”
“Of course he does,” Toni muttered under her breath. The man could probably deadlift a tank.
The gym was a surprising flurry of activity. She’d anticipated seeing the band members of Exodus End, but most of the crew—including Butch—and two members of Sinners—lead singer Sed Lionheart and the short guy with spikey blond hair, whose name and instrument escaped Toni at the moment—were already working up a sweat. There were a couple of women she didn’t recognize on the elliptical machines. Toni was pretty sure the one who looked like a supermodel was Sed Lionheart’s wife. Reagan wasn’t with the other women. She was curling a set of large dumbbells and making faces at herself in the mirror that spanned one large wall. Her hunk of a tall, dark, and handsome bodyguard was keeping a close eye on her while he performed squats.
Toni turned on her video camera and waited for some magic to happen. She didn’t have to wait long.
“Behold!” Logan said raising both arms in the air and flicking his wrists to wave his hands down at himself. “Lo.”
“I think you mean lo and behold,” Dare said as he slid a black disk labeled 25kg on the end of a weight bar.
“Prepare to be shocked and amazed,” Logan continued. He spun in a slow circle as he scoped out the room.
Toni couldn’t help but giggle at his attention-seeking theatrics.
“We’re all amazed that you’re here,” Max said as he pulled his chin over a bar. “What time did you get to bed?”
“Three a.m. Five. I don’t know.”
“Did Kirk have to carry you off the bus again?”
“Shut up,” Logan said in Max’s direction. “He’s only done that once.”
“For being late, you can drop and give me twenty,” Kirk shouted as he handed an upside-down Steve a weight to hold against his chest as he did inverted crunches. That would explain Steve’s eight-pack, Toni mused as she snapped several pictures of said eight-pack.
“Twenty?” Logan said. “Is that all?”
“For your cockiness, make it thirty,” Kirk said.
“You’re boring me, Kirk.” Logan rolled his eyes and examined each person in the room. “I challenge you,” he said, pointing at the bleach-blond man from Sinners, “to a push-up duel.”
“Me?” the guy said, looking flabbergasted.
Dare grumbled, “Here we go again,” before he used his teeth to tear the tape he was wrapping around one hand and wrist.
Sed burst out laughing and pounded his bandmate on the back. “Go kick his ass, Jace.”
Jace Seymour. Sinners’ bassist, Toni recalled suddenly. Apparently her body was out of bed while her brain was still asleep. Jace was the smallest guy in the place. Toni wondered why Logan had singled him out.
Logan rotated his arms in wide circles and then stretched them over his head, jogging in place next to a mat as he waited for Jace to join him.
“What’s a push-up duel?” Jace asked as he stepped next to Logan.
“A game I never lose,” Logan said.
“A game that everyone he usually trains with refuses to play,” Dare corrected as he lay back on a weight bench and carefully wrapped his hands around the silver bar above his face.
“That’s because you all know I can’t be beat.”
“I’m pretty sure Jace will make you eat those words.” Sed crossed his arms over his broad chest and beamed at his bandmate with something that bordered on fatherly pride. Toni made sure she caught the look with her camera.
“How does this work?” Jace asked. He didn’t have Logan’s swagger, but the determination in his stance was unmistakable. He didn’t look the least bit intimidated.
“We do sets of thirty push-ups,” Logan said.
“Thirty?” Toni cringed. Her arms and chest were aching just thinking about it. She doubted she could do three.
Jace nodded without batting an eyelash, and flexed his fingers.
“On the second set, you call out a modification for the next thirty. I call out a modification for the third set, you for the fourth, and so on until one of us collapses. Or rather, until you collapse.”
“Got it,” Jace said. He dropped to the mat without hesitation.
“Which one of you dumbasses can count to thirty?” Logan asked.
“I think I can count that high,” Sed volunteered with a crooked grin.
Logan got into position on the mat parallel to Jace. Sed counted out reps while the two men completed push-up after push-up in perfect form. Strangely, the guy most into the competition was Kirk, and he was obviously rooting for the opposing team.
“Hey, Logan,” Kirk said, “don’t you know smaller guys are better at this sort of thing? They don’t have to push up as much weight.”
“That’s why”—Logan lowered his body to the floor—“I picked”—up again—“him.” And down. “No one”—up—“ever really”—down—“challenges me.”
“One of these days, someone is going to knock you down a peg,” Kirk said.
“Not today.”
Neither man had broken into a sweat when Sed reached thirty and Jace called out, “Right leg up.”
“Too easy,” Logan claimed as he lifted his right foot off the floor and continued into the next thirty push-ups.
Toni squatted down in front of Logan so she could get a close-up of his face. A bead of sweat ran down the side of his neck. The muscles of his arms, shoulders, and chest strained with each repetition. Toni had never realized how beautiful a push-up could be. She was pretty sure she was sweating far more than Logan was. She wasn’t sure if this footage would make it into the book, but she was positive she’d review it regularly.
Sed reached thirty again. Toni peeked at Jace, who had sweat dripping onto the mat beneath him, but still wore the same focused and determined look on his face as when he’d accepted Logan’s challenge. Toni decided that Logan had indeed chosen a worthy opponent and might soon find himself knocked down a peg. At least she thought that until Logan called out his modification.
“Clap between reps.”
“Ah, shit,” Jace muttered. But when Sed started back at one, he pushed off the mat with the force necessary to lift his hands high enough off the ground to clap.
Toni gawked at them, vaguely aware that the gym had fallen silent as everyone had stopped their own workouts to watch the competition. As they were all cheering for Jace, Toni shouted, “Come on, Logan! You can do it!”
He tilted his head to offer her a smile and a wink before turning his concentration back to his task.
Both men were laboring hard by the time they reached thirty. Logan nodded in Jace’s direction. “Impressive,” he said. “Most guys kiss the mat by the fifth rep.”
“I always do,” Steve said and laughed.
“So what’s next?” Logan asked.
Jace could scarcely catch his breath enough to say. “One arm.”
“Left or right?” Logan shifted from his left arm to his right arm without wavering.