Mr. Wonderful Lies by Kaitlin Maitland Read Free Book Online Page A

strangled snicker.
    My faux pas earned me a suspicious look from Hungry. She doesn’t like me. I think it has something to do with the friendship between me, Anna, and Jared. Hungry hates Anna with a passion. It’s not surprising, since Anna is so familiar with Jared that what passes for friendly banter between the two of them could be construed as serious flirtation by someone who doesn’t know any better.
    The two barracudas were several feet away from me, noses pressed against the wall of windows surrounding the natatorium. They weren’t even bothering to pretend to be working out. They were dressed in street clothes, heads together and whispering at a frenetic pace.
    Curious, I set my Lucky hobo bag on a bench several down from theirs and put my foot up to adjust the laces on my Doc. Glancing down at the pool area, it didn’t take me long to see what it was they were gawking at.
    Jared. More specifically, Jared getting out of the pool.
    My breath stuck in my throat and my palms grew clammy. He levered himself up from the water and gained his feet in one graceful move. Before he turned his back I got an eyeful of his washboard abs above the low-rise cut of his blue Speedo. Not that his back is any less awe-inspiring than the front view. Stretching across both shoulder blades is an artist’s rendering of a gryphon with wings spread. Because I’ve seen it close up, I know the gryphon has its claws open and ready to grab prey. The gryphon’s tufted tail snakes around Jared’s left side and ends right on the hipbone pretty much where the waistband of his Speedo was at that moment.
    He tossed his head, shaking excess water from his wavy blonde hair. The simple motion made every last one of the muscles in his abdominal area ripple like God’s own artwork. My mouth went dry, and I had to clear my throat to catch my breath. Then something in Hungry’s muttered ramblings caught my attention.
    “I think he’s starting to come around,” she murmured to Desperate. “He was asking me a lot of personal questions earlier. I know I’d talked to him about starting some personal training sessions a few weeks ago, but I don’t think that’s why he was asking.”
    “You are so lucky,” Desperate purred. “I love a guy with just the right amount of body art. And that piercing…” she let the statement hang.
    “Sexy, I know. I wonder why he has it?”
    They don’t usually make me angry. I mean they do, but not like that. I don’t know what it was that ticked me off so thoroughly right then, but whatever it was made me pretty bold.
    It’s funny. Jared’s body art has always worked against him on my list of datable guys. I don’t consider body art a grown-up thing. I know that sounds silly, but I have this mental image of what my future husband will look like and body art just doesn’t fit in. Not that I don’t think it’s sexy. Jared’s tattoo was done by one of the most talented guys in the city, and it’s gorgeous. And even though everyone thinks there’s some sexually charged reason for the nipple piercing, I know they’re wrong.
    Jared and his younger brother both got the piercings at the same time on a dare. Jared did the left and Jackson did the right. Two weeks later Jackson was killed in a head on car collision. So even though Jared didn’t originally intend to keep the piercing, it reminds him of his brother.
    My throat was tight as I pushed my way past Hungry and Desperate and into the pool area. I heard one of them, probably Hungry, call me a bitch, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t sure what I intended to do. It wasn’t like Jared needed me to rescue him from being oogled by a couple of barracudas.
    Taking the steps at a quick pace, my Docs squished their way over the wet floor around to the back of the room where Jared was drying off. The air was thick and heavy. My hair began to curl wildly in the humidity and the chlorine smell was a familiar tickle in my nose.
    He saw me coming, face easing into