Free Five Minute Man: A Contemporary Love Story by Abbie Zanders Page B

everywhere else.
    It was a lesson Adam had learned the hard way. He’d made the mistake of taking Eve up on her offer once. It was a decision he’d been regretting ever since. As sinfully packaged as she was, he’d given himself over to temptation in a moment of weakness and he was still paying for it.
    Damn, how could he have forgotten that she taught Zumba here on Wednesday nights? It was a testament to just how out of it he was. If he hadn’t been so distracted with the idea of seeing Holly, he could have slipped out the back like he usually did. Now he was stuck in the doorway, visible to anyone in the corridor, and it would be impossible to make a clean getaway without being obvious.
    And Eve had spotted him. Double damn . “Hi, Adam,” she purred.
    “Hi.” He did his best to not look her directly in the eye. Unlike Holly, Eve was almost as tall as he was. A picture flashed in his mind of Holly tucked into his body, head tilted, big green eyes looking up into his face. Funny how she seemed to fit perfectly against him despite their differences in height.
    Eve stepped closer in a clear violation of his personal space. Adam stepped back, his body language speaking for him with a very loud and clear “not interested, please move on” message. Unfortunately, Eve wasn’t one to pick up on subtle clues.
    “I didn’t know you still played here,” she chastised lightly.
    Shit. Busted. “Sometimes.” He wondered how the guys would feel about maybe switching their games to Tuesdays. It was the one night of the week he knew of when Holly had standing plans with her friend, according to his nephew.
    Eve’s eyes fixated on a bead of sweat that dripped down his neck, blazing with interest as it disappeared beneath his tank. She licked her lips. Adam’s inner caveman cringed.
    “When I called the other night, Brandon said you went to a woman’s house. Should I be worried?”
    She placed her index finger on his bicep and dragged it downward, scraping lightly against his skin. It was a bold move, one he didn’t appreciate. There had been a time when such a deliberate action might have roused his masculine interest, but no longer. Now it seemed he was stirred by petite brunettes who lived alone and were completely unaware of their own desirability. One, in particular, who should be passing by any moment. He needed this little unwelcome reunion over, pronto.
    “No,” he answered without hesitation. Eve didn’t have anything to be worried about, because he was never going to see her again. The fact that he hadn’t returned her calls in the past couple of months should have given her a clue. Unfortunately, as he had already discovered, Eve was the type to overlook those kinds of things.
    Along those lines, he made a mental note to have a word with his nephew the minute he got home. Brandon probably thought that telling Eve that Adam was out with someone else would deter her, but then Brandon didn’t know Eve well enough to know the lengths she was willing to go through to get what she wanted. For some fucked-up reason, she’d decided she wanted him .
    “Who is she? Do I know her?”
    No way in hell he was going to give Eve Holly’s name. The last time Eve saw Adam with someone, the poor woman had received harassing phone calls for a week and refused to go out with him again, saying he was a nice guy but she didn’t want to have to deal with his unstable ex. He wasn’t too disappointed, but it pissed him off just the same. He wouldn’t take that same chance with Holly. What if she decided she didn’t want to deal either?
    No, as much as he wanted to remind Eve that there was nothing between them and never would be, the crowded corridor was neither the time nor the place to set her straight (again). He knew from experience—and the several polite times he’d tried to convince her he wanted nothing more to do with her - that Eve tended not to take rejection well, and the last thing he wanted was a scene. Not