Too Nerdy to Handle by Dallen Maggie

Author:Dallen, Maggie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Jamie

Stop drooling. Just…stop it.

My saliva glands didn’t listen. My body was being thoroughly stubborn on this one. Nearly an hour had passed since Alex and I had left the training center, and I was no closer to regaining my composure now than I had been during the impromptu meditation session I’d held in the ladies’ locker room while Alex showered and dressed.

Was drooling over one’s interviewee professional behavior? Likely not. But, then again, I’d never asked to be a professional reporter. Also, find me one heterosexual female who wouldn’t be drooling over the spectacle I’d just witnessed and I’ll give you a million dollars.

Holy six-pack, Batman. Watching him work out had been…riveting. Witnessing that much power and grace, that much sheer talent and willpower. He’d been so utterly focused on the training that I’d been free to stare to my heart’s content.

Okay, fine, maybe it had been more like ogling. Even now, it was hard to stop staring, though he was once again fully clothed and his normal standoffish self. I sat across from him at the lunch place his trainer had told him about—it had the healthiest menu I’d ever seen, not surprisingly.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

I nodded quickly.

“You look flushed.”

“Nope, just…” Turned on. Lustful. Filled with raging hormones… “Impressed.”

One of his brows arched slightly and his lips did that twitching thing. At some point in the not so distant future I would figure out why he was so resistant to smiling around me. Until then, making him smile was rapidly turning into my new mission in life. Again…professionalism? Where are you? Has anyone seen my professionalism?

Whatever. I couldn’t even feel too guilty. This gig was basically extortion on my father’s part. I owed him nothing. Alex, however…well, I’d meant what I’d said about making sure neither he nor his family were hurt by my story.

“So,” I said. “You want to tell me how you got started running?”

Instantly he went from almost-smile to wary. Goodness, someone at some time had sure done a number on him.

I had a funny feeling I knew who. I’d been doing my due diligence, and that meant looking him up on social media. He didn’t have much of an online presence, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t mentioned.

“Not much to tell,” he said, dropping his gaze to the disgustingly healthy looking smoothie the waiter set down in front of him. “I’d always liked running, I was good at it…” He shrugged, and when he looked up at me I feigned a yawn.

There it was. Almost a smile!

“Well, that’s a fantastic story,” I said in a flat voice. “My readers will be fascinated.”

Yes! Score! A flash of a grin, there and gone before I could take a mental picture for posterity.

“What do you want me to say?”

I didn’t try to hide my huff of exasperation. “Did you just take off running one day as a child? By yourself?”

His eye twitched. Not much of a tell, but I hadn’t spent years playing poker with my older brothers for nothing.

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