Freaky by Nature (2 page)

“Yeah. Surprise.”

He didn’t bother to disguise his irritated sigh. “Holly , what the

hell are y ou doing?”

Although his tone rem ained controlled, a red-orange haze

surrounded him and she knew she couldn’t av oid his anger. Or his

question.

Her sm ile slipped. “Dancing.”

A m uscle ticked at the edge of his jaw for a split second before

he answered. “Why ?”

Holly gazed into the depths of his cool blue ey es and attem pted

to see past his em otion. She found only sterile, blank walls.

“I work here.”

A slight flicker of som ething close to disbelief flashed across his

face but he rem ained undeterred. “You work here.”

She nodded and twisted her hands in her lap. Nev er would he

discov er why she danced here.

Brett’s ey es narrowed. “What about the gy m ?”

She tilted her head to one side. “What about it?”

“You own
Fitness in the Buff
.”

Her brow wrinkled. “So?”

He glanced at the ceiling as if he sought div ine interv ention.

“You’v e owned the gy m for ten y ears, Holly . You can’t conv ince

m e it doesn’t turn a healthy profit.”

The m an was entirely too intelligent. Not to m ention insanely

distracting without his shirt. She sighed and wrapped a curl

around her finger. “Look, Brett. The reason I dance here is

com plicated and priv ate. There’s no need to concern y ourself.”

He raised an ey ebrow. “It’s m y concern when som e half-baked

asshole tries to m aul y ou.”

She sprung to her feet at the condescending tone in his v oice.

“
Here
. Your obligation to protect m e is here, Brett. Nowhere else

and in no other part of m y life.”

He ran a hand through his m ussed, blonde hair. The action

m ade her want to wake next to him in the early m orning hours

and push it from his face.

“I thought we were friends,” he said softly .

“We are.” Holly m entally crossed her fingers. He was as m uch

of a friend as she would allow him to be. She couldn’t afford to hav e

friends. “Just don’t worry about this. It’s no big deal. Really .

There’s alway s a guy who pushes the lim its. He’s just drunk.”

Brett studied her for a m om ent and she expected him to start

another argum ent. Instead, he reached for the door.

“Just be careful, Holly .”

Despite her explanation, she gav e him a brav e sm ile. “You

won’t giv e m e away , will y ou?”

He tossed her a sexy grin. “No, Madam e, y our secret’s safe with

m e.”

CHAPTER TWO

Holly sipped the foam from her chocolate caram el latte and

y awned as she inserted her key into the front door lock of
Fitness in

the Buff
. She blinked the sleep from her ey es and flung open the

door with her free hand. Thanks to the unexpected confrontation

with Brett last night, she didn’t sleep well and her nerv es still

jangled like Mexican jum ping beans.

She stepped inside and exhaled a long breath as the chim e of

the doorbell echoed off the quiet, dry m orning of the still-sleeping

Arizona city and welcom ed her inside. Fiv e o’clock in the m orning

was the only tim e of day she heard the bell. By the tim e m em bers

arriv ed, the loud m usic and whirring m achinery filled the air

with the sound of exercise.

She punched her security code into the key pad next to the door

as she took a long swallow of the warm bev erage and waited for the

caffeine to jolt her sy stem . She snorted at her im patience. Nothing

in Diablo hurried. Located just across the California/ Arizona state

line, Diablo m ov ed at a som ewhat slower pace and catered to those

who enjoy ed an activ e lifesty le, just not early in the m orning. The

quaint city rem inded Holly of Las Vegas in the early afternoon

hours, after the late-night gam blers slept away the m orning and

awoke to poke around the other tourist attractions.

Holly stepped into the reception area and sm iled contentedly

at the peacefulness of her inner sanctum . After y ears of fighting

her feelings of inadequacy , the ov erwhelm ing confidence of her

accom plishm ents surged through her each tim e she opened the

front door. The fitness center was the one thing she could truly call

a success in her life. She had built it from the ground up, on her

own, without any one’s help.

She checked her watch and then m ade a realization that

caused her pulse to skitter. Brett norm ally signed in at six thirty .

That gav e her a little m ore than an hour to prepare to face him

again. She blew her bangs off her forehead. Why was she bothered?

She wasn’t em barrassed that he caught her at the club. In

fact, in a way , she was glad. Dancing for him was the one way she

could express her interest in him without his knowledge. Or could

she?

Som ehow, he m anaged to worm his way past her walls and

read her. He knew she didn’t dance for m oney and he would

ev entually put two and two together. Sooner or later she would

hav e to confess.

Later
. Holly dropped her tote bag on the counter and headed to

the swim m ing pool to turn on the jets. Business as usual for now.

Her lap swim m ers usually arriv ed by eight.

A slight chill crossed her spine when she entered the hallway

that led to the pool. She hesitated just outside the door. Som ething

wasn’t right, but what? Dam n these feelings. Why couldn’t she

just ignore them ?

Holly took a deep breath and reached for the crash bar of the

heav y steel door. She gasped when her cool fingertips m et the

burning hot m etal. Yet, as hot as the bar felt, she couldn’t bring

herself to let go, alm ost as if her fingers had m elted to the bar.

Her tem ples pounded and she squinted to av oid the glare from

an om inous coal black ring around the door. Ev il assaulted her

sensitiv e nerv e endings. She shook her head v iolently and

desperately built walls around her thoughts. Gathering enough

strength to shov e open the sinister barrier, she stepped inside,

greeted by an Oly m pic-sized pool of bloody red water.

***

The persistent squeal of his phone jerked Brett from another

deep, lust-filled dream . With a whispered curse, he grabbed it on

the fifth ring and laid it on the pillow next to him .

“Steele!”

Ah, hell
. After six y ears of SEAL m issions under Cpt. Max

Sterling’s com m and, Brett recognized the
no-bullshit
tone in the

deep v oice that now barked across the line.

Brett’s shoulder protested as he rolled ov er and m ashed the

phone against his ear. “Yeah?”

“Kick the flav or of the week out of bed. We’v e got to go to

work.”

Brett scrubbed a hand down his face as he sat up and rolled his

right shoulder to unbind the m uscles. “I’m alone. What do y ou

want?”

“Holly ’s got trouble at the gy m .”

Brett stopped his shoulder in m id-roll and ignored the ache.

“Did y ou say Holly ?”

“Holly London,” Sterling scoffed. “Rem em ber?”

A m ischiev ous grin creased Brett’s lips when thoughts of the

m y sterious Madam e X flooded his m em ory . He’d nev er in his life

suspected she and Holly were one in the sam e. Sweet, curv y ,

honey -dipped Holly . The one scorching hot wom an who refused to

fall prey to his charm . Her hazel ey es haunted his dream s, teased

his libido, and lured him into a constant state of arousal.

The grin slid from his lips, concern kicking lust in the ass. He

scrubbed a hand down the side of his jaw while he tried to figure

out why Sterling called. He just left her a few hours ago. Jack had

prom ised to follow her hom e.

Sterling cursed. “Steele, wake the hell up.”

“I’m awake. What kind of trouble?”

“Som ething about the pool.”

Brett felt a wav e of relief, then irritation. “I’m not a pool boy .”

Sterling chuckled. “Me either, but since the back door is wide

open, we probably better take a look.”

Brett felt the skin crawl on the back of his neck. “Is she hurt?”

“No, she just got there. Get dressed. I’m two m inutes away

from y our house.”

Brett hung up the phone, slid out of bed, and glanced at the

bedside clock. Fiv e thirty .
Damn
. Padding barefoot to the shower,

he shook the sleep from his brain and turned his thoughts once

again to Holly .

Things between them had started out prom ising. She seem ed

to welcom e his adv ances, and they dev eloped what he thought to

be som ething m ore than casual friendship. Then things changed

when he retired from the Nav y and m ov ed to Diablo to becom e a

priv ate inv estigator. Apparently , he m isread her signals.

When he and his SEAL team opened SEALs, Inc., Brett joined

her gy m and tried to get closer to Holly but she bolted from his

attention like a scared rabbit and m aintained a cool distance. In

fact, he’d all but written off any relationship with her, friendship

or otherwise.

There was only one problem . The m ore she shunned him , the

m ore he wanted her. And he
wanted
her. All fiv e feet, fiv e inches

of her curv y body , under him , ov er him , it didn’t m atter. He’d

show her he was m ore than worthy of her attention. His cock

jum ped.
Oh man
. He reached to adjust the water tem perature to a

nice
cool
setting.

He rinsed the rest of the soap from his body and turned off the

shower. As cold and detached as she appeared, he felt com pelled to

look past her attitude. In her defense, Holly av oided m ost people.

She and Sterling’s wife, Cam eron, were close but all in all, she kept

to herself. Ev en at the gy m she taught only one or two classes a

couple tim es a week and then disappeared from v iew.

Brett slid a towel ov er his painfully -aroused body as the wheels

in his m ind squeaked. He had alway s felt she hid som ething.

Madame
. He shook his head and sm irked as he dressed.

Sterling pulled in the driv eway as Brett threw his shirt ov er

his bare, dam p chest. Grabbing his weapon and key s, he headed

out the door.

Brett bit his lip as he entered the truck and noticed Cpt.

Sterling’s rum pled appearance. “Late night?”

“Pregnant wom en are so dam n difficult!” Sterling snapped.

He grim aced at Sterling’s im patience. Norm ally the epitom e of

cool, Sterling was easily undone by his wife’s pregnancy .

“Is she sick?”

“No! Just hungry . All the tim e! I m ade at least three trips to

the store last night.”

Brett pursed his lips and opted for non-response. He’d seen

Sterling do ev ery thing from organize top secret objectiv es for the

U.S. gov ernm ent to flick groupies off rock star Jay don Hawke like

fleas. But nev er did he env ision him led around by his balls of steel

by one, pint-sized, blonde-haired, blue-ey ed, busty fem ale.

His lip curled and fond m em ories crowded his brain as they

approached Holly ’s gy m .
Fitness in the Buff
. He worked out there

daily and knew firsthand the place cam e v ery close to liv ing up to

its nam e. Scores of wom en flocked there, all half dressed and

determ ined to sculpt their bodies into works of fine art. And the

shapely wom en attracted m en. Men who, like him self, found it

extrem ely gratify ing to work out and appreciate the v iew at the

sam e tim e.

His brow wrinkled. Holly was a tough nut to crack. Although

outgoing and friendly to her clientele, she was also expertly

reserv ed and alway s took care not to rev eal too m uch of herself. To

him , any way . Controlled and poised.
Polite
. The one adjectiv e that

stopped a m an in his tracks.

Sterling parked in the fire lane and Brett tabled his analy sis.

“Should we go in the front?”

Sterling drew his weapon from his shoulder holster. “You take

the front. I’ll go around back.” Without another word, he faded

into the inky darkness.

Holly m et Brett at the front door, trem bling uncontrollably

and m assaging her tem ples. Despite his intent to rem ain distant,

he laid a com forting hand on her shoulder.

“You okay ?”

She tilted her brow as if uncertain about his touch and tossed

him one of her fam ous
why do you bother?
looks. “I’ll surv iv e.”

He shuffled her out of the doorway and locked the door behind

him . “Are y ou sure no one else is in the building?”

She nodded. “I’m sure. It’s just us. Whoev er did this is long

gone.”

He stepped in front of her. “Let’s go check out the pool.”

Holly felt her pulse quicken as she followed behind Brett and

adm ired his tem pting attractiv e phy sique. From his solid, broad

shoulder m uscles that strained to escape the confines of his form -

fitted, black t-shirt, to his lean hips, firm ass and powerful legs,

Brett Steele scream ed m asculinity . Pure, unadulterated, rock-

hard m ale. Too bad they weren’t alone.
Like you’d really climb that

mountain
.

Snapping herself back into reality , Holly realized how absurd