Free Stolen Seduction by Elisabeth Naughton Page B

into his pocket. His finger flicked the lid open and closed as he
    thought about where she could be.
    He really hoped she wasn’t locked in that bedroom suite with Sullivan and hadn’t heard him knocking. The fact she could be and had just ignored him sent that stabbing back to his chest. And that’s
    when his ears registered the sound. A very faint bass pounding from somewhere in the building.
    He strained to listen. It was coming from the other hallway off the main lobby.
    He headed in that direction, listening as the bass grew louder, almost certain he recognized classic
    Bon Jovi.
    He passed a series of conference rooms, an open lounging area with couches still covered in plastic
    wrap and glass walls that looked into what he suspected would soon be a spa. The music grew louder as he turned a long corner, then nearly tripped over his own feet at what he saw next.
    Three oversize glass windows gave full view of the resort’s fitness room. A series of exercise equipment that looked like they had never been used were lined up in front of the windows, facing the
    opposite wall and a row of flat-screen TVs. But behind all that, what was suddenly making his pulse
    pound was the woman dressed in nothing more than a pair of tight-fitting shorts and a black sports
    bra, hands taped up like a prizefighter and curly blonde ponytail flying at her back as she pounded
    the crap out of a punching bag hanging from the ceiling.
    His throat grew thick as he watched. She didn’t stop dancing, barefoot on the blue mats beneath her
    feet, or throwing punches in time to the heavy beat. And as the music pulsed and perspiration
    dripped down her temple, he had a heady vision of her naked and sweaty, pounding him all night
    long to the beat of that drum, not wasting her energy on that damn lucky punching bag.
    The song came to an end, and she paused to catch her breath. Her creamy skin glistened under the
    gym’s fluorescent lights. Her chest rose and fell, accentuating those perky breasts. And as his eyes
    drifted lower, he got a full-on visual of toned abs and a body she kept in tip-top shape.
    He swallowed hard. Remembered what she’d looked like in shorts and a tank back in Florida. He’d
    thanked his lucky stars then he hadn’t seen her in a bikini, but now couldn’t stop visualizing that
    body in something with strings and side ties he could loosen with his teeth.
    As the music shifted from nice days to life on the docks and Hailey lifted her fists again to jab at the
    bag, he pulled the gym’s main door open and stepped inside. Sweet female sweat and just a hint of
    the lilac scent he always associated with her drifted toward his nose.
    She didn’t stop punching. Left hook, left, right again. And his blood warmed the closer he got. It
    wasn’t until he reached the stereo and hit the power button that she stopped abruptly and whipped
    his way.
    Surprise registered in her sapphire eyes first. Then distrust. And finally, disgust.
    Okay, after their run-in earlier, he had that coming. But she’d purposely left him hanging, and he
    wanted answers.
    She didn’t say anything, but her chest rose and fell as she drew deep breaths. A bead of sweat rolled
    down her bruised temple, over her jaw, down the long, slender column of neck, heading straight for
    her breasts. Like an idiot, he watched the droplet, his body temperature growing hotter by the
    minute as it slid downward.
    And that’s when he saw the yellowing bruises. Faint traces of what she’d been through before. On
    her ribs, on her thighs, on the soft skin of her arms. Near a bandage by her shoulder.
    “How’d you get in here?” she asked, breathless.
    He forced his gaze away from her fading injuries, told himself she was fine, healthy, that whatever
    she’d endured, she’d survived. But the urge to coldcock whoever had done this to her was hard to
    overcome. And Kauffman was seriously dead meat.
    “Janitor.”
    “Did you come to arrest me or are you just having