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Well, that was a valid point, so she quickly cleared her throat and added, “I was about to persuade him to come upstairs to help you choose the players, but he insisted on finishing his laps.”

“Yes,” he said slowly. “I actually wanted to do some other exercise today, but I didn’t have time.”

She choked on her own spit, but Gareth was still looking down at her soaking-wet clothes with such irritation that he didn’t even notice.

“I’m done now,” Jack said, swimming to the edge and resting his hands on it — when he paused and frowned.

Maybe he’d just realized that he wasn’t in a presentable physical condition, but her brother probably wouldn’t even notice. Gareth was still standing there with a frown on his face, glancing from Penny to Jack and back.

“Ah,” he said and then blinked, shaking his head.

God, how long had it been since Gareth had had sex? He couldn’t even recognize two extremely turned-on people? She should consider herself lucky, though.

“I…uh, I’d better change my clothes before I go back,” Penny said, crossing her arms over her chest. She just realized that her shirt was completely see-through, and her nipples were still hard.

“Yeah, that’d be good,” Gareth said. “Come as soon as you’re dressed.”

“Yep, I will,” Jack said, starting to smile.

Now Penny was certain her face was glowing.

“Good. Just hurry up,” Gareth said and the next moment, he left the pool area.

Penny’s shoulders dropped in relief. “That was horrible timing.”

“Yep. I almost gave you orgasm number six,” Jack replied lightly before finally getting out of the pool.

Her gaze slid down his muscular chest, following a few happy drops that rolled over his six-pack before finally resting on the waistband of his black shorts…

Oh God, yes, how she wanted number six! Immediately, new heat gathered in her abdomen, or maybe it was the old heat reigniting. Groaning, she turned her back to Jack. She obviously couldn’t think clearly while looking at him.

They had just kissed like teenagers, but nothing had changed. Her last name was still Clark and an affair with Jack would destroy her career with the Hawks before it had even had a chance to get off the ground.

“You don’t seriously regret what just happened, do you?” Jack asked, his voice unusually tense.

“No, I don’t regret it,” she said, pained. “I just hate myself a little for wanting to do it again!”

She received a quiet chuckle in response before Jack gently grasped her upper arms from behind and blew a kiss against her neck.

“Stop it,” she said, reluctantly pushing his hands off her arms before turning around. “We…we can’t start an affair!”

“Ah, I see.” He nodded slowly and rubbed his chin before glancing down and then back into her eyes. “So, what about a date?”

She blinked and opened her mouth, perplexed. “We…you…what?”

“That’s a definite maybe,” he said smugly.

“I…no. You…” Was he serious? He couldn’t just…just say things like that!

“You probably need time to think about it,” he concluded, looking critically at her bewildered expression. “No problem at all. Take a few days. Or a few weeks. I can wait.”

“You want to go out with me?” she summed up, perplexed.

“Yup. Not that I didn’t like that just now…” He gestured toward the pool. “But I feel like I deserve more. We deserve more.”

She didn’t know what to say. To her, it sounded like he didn’t want an affair — he wanted a relationship! And that was complicated and impossible on so many levels, she couldn’t count them on her fingers.

“You’d better go,” Jack said, pulling her out of her thoughts. “It’ll be too obvious if we both take too long. Your brother won’t convince himself he’s imagining things so easily again.”