The Reality of You by Jean Haus Read Free Book Online

And
on it went, a domino effect of grunts and groans that rang out as I lay on the
floor, facing the ceiling. Regrettably, the floor didn’t cave in and swallow me
up.
    Reese’s bare foot
rested inches from my red face.
    Of course Barbie ran
to him first.
    “Oh no! Oh my!” She
kneeled before him as I struggled into a sitting position. Hand running down
his bicep, she asked, “Are you all right?”
    “I’m fine,” he said,
eyes on me while she helped him up.
    Cringing, I glanced
away and then cringed again, watching the row of people push themselves up. The
combination of Reese’s continuous glare along with all the people behind him
had me mumbling, “I’m sorry. I lost my balance somehow.” The glares didn’t
change much as they rubbed different body parts. Necks. Hips. Backs. “I hope no
one’s hurt,” I squeaked out.
    “Well, at least I’m
awake now,” an older man at the end of the row said, his tone overly sarcastic.
    I frowned and
grumbled, “Sorry,” again.
    Barbie had procured
a pile of towels and handed them out—Reese first of course. “Maybe the
beginner’s class would have been a better choice,” she said without looking at
me.
    I was quite
mortified and truly sorry I had caused these people to get hurt, but Barbie and
her perfectly equal-length legs could go fuc—
    “Let’s go,” Reese
said with an uncompromising nod toward the door.
    Hobbling—due to my
old and new injuries—toward the exit and my tennis shoes, I kept my mouth shut.
    Reese marched in
front of me. Once we got outside to the patio area, he spun around, his entire
body a livid whip. “I thought you were athletic…a basketball player or
something equally active?” His voice was low, his face smooth, yet the sleek,
tense line of his body conveyed his irritation.
    Thoroughly
humiliated by the domino fall and now his disbelief, I somehow said, “Soccer. I
played soccer from the age of four to twenty-one.” I almost added that I would
have been on the Olympic team if it hadn’t been for a car accident, but that
didn’t seem appropriate at the moment. But I was still athletic. I just needed
shoes to balance me out. And more concentration when around Reese.
    His mouth stayed
tight. His eyes narrowed as they swept over me, and if I had been red faced
while lying on the floor, I had to look like a damn beet as those hazel orbs
took in my biceps, the tight line of my stomach, and the hard curves of my thighs. I felt embarrassed that he
didn’t believe me, along with having to endure his lengthy, intense perusal of
my body, which was humiliating.
    He only checked me
out because he thought I was a liar.
    Which had me
slightly upset.
    Okay, maybe very
upset.
    I’d been checking
him out for forever, while he had obviously not noticed me. I might not be a
raging beauty or a willowy, big-boobed Barbie, but my body was rocking tight,
and I’d just stretched it two feet from him for an hour. I didn’t expect him to
be captivated. But he should have at
least noticed a leg, an ab, a something. Clearly, I wasn’t even a blip on his
screen.
    His stare snapped up
when he reached my ankles.He
studied somewhere above my head.“But
no Pilates?” he asked incredulously.
    “Um, no. More
running and weight lifting, muscle- and endurance-building stuff.”
    When his eyes
finally met mine, his gaze was as incredulous as his tone. “Have you ever scuba
dived?” I shook my head. “Golfed?”
    “A few times,” I
said.
    “Horseback riding?”
    “Once.”
    “Kayaking?”
    “Nope.”
    His full lips thinned.
“Apparently, I need to change some of the itinerary.”
    Somehow in the mist
of his disappointing gaze, I kept my expression smooth.
    He sighed. “Why
don’t you go change? Then we’ll reconvene in my suite.”
    My brows lowered at
his tight tone. “I don’t know where your suite is.”
    He turned away from
me, saying over his shoulder, “I’ll send someone to bring you in an hour. Just
get dressed and be ready to