Page 92 of Shade
Then I spot Shade,runningon a treadmill. No shirt on. Black shorts. Hotness.
Is your heart pounding like mine? Do you shift in your seat and fight the urge to fan yourself? No? Must be just me. Or. . . maybe you’re not getting a clear image of what’s before me.
Let me ask you something. You know who Zac Efron is, right?
Okay, so picture Zac Efron running. Not the “I’ll have her home by ten tonight,” Zac. I’m talking about the, “Evenyour wife calls me daddy,” Zac.
That’s what Shade is like. If he’s running without a shirt on, you fucking look. You stare. You drool.
Willa motions to me when he turns his head toward us. “Scarlet’s here.”
He doesn’t look at me and scowls in the distance. “I’m busy.”
Yeah, it’s rude of him not to acknowledge my presence, but I’m getting used to this Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde shit he tends to pull. I’m more focused on each stride he takes on the treadmill. Every time his feet hit the belt, there’s a new muscle to focus on.
I stand there staring like I’m doing research on what muscle to suck first when Shade grunts out, “Go. Away.”
I look to Willa. She rolls her eyes and begins to walk out. Naturally I follow. “Dick.”
We exit the weight room and she sighs. “Feel free to make yourself at home here. They clearly don’t care who’s in here.”
I motion to the weight room. “Except in there though, right?”
“No, well. . . .” She pauses, contemplating his response. “He’s had a rough couple of days.”
She’s not going to go into detail, and you know, I don’t feel the need to pressure her about it at the moment.
We’re back in the living room when I notice a hole in the wall. “Why is that there?”
“Fucking Tiller. I’ll show you the guest house, and then we can relax and go over everything.”
“Sounds good. I need to change my panties.” I realize once I say that, how it must sound considering I had moments ago been staring at Shade running half naked. “Okay, not for the reasons you would think. This fucking state is hot! And this house isn’t any better. Don’t they have air-conditioning?”
“Yeah, but it’s broken. After Tiller had cut the hole in the wall, it overworked the air-conditioner, and it broke.” We move through the house, out the sliding glass doors in the living room and the twenty or so people now in there, across the outdoor patio with the pool to the guest house. “They were supposed to come out and fix it today, but they never showed.”
I motion toward the house. “Is that why most of them are barely dressed?”
She laughs. I didn’t think that was supposed to be funny. “No. That’s normal from March until October. Get used to it. Do you know how many times I’ve seen these guys naked?”
My eyes light up. I can’t help it. “A lot?”
“Too much.” Willa leads me to the guest house, hands me a set of keys and tells me to meet her outside when I’m ready.
