Getting His Way: Sapphire Falls Book Seven (22 page)

He suddenly missed the coaching.

He honestly hadn’t. Not in eighteen months. For one, he’d been the one needing coaching at times with his rehab. For another, this was a new chapter. He knew looking back and wishing for things from the past would keep him from being able to move forward and accepting his new life.

But he wanted to coach Tess.

Just Tess.

He felt like he was missing out. But how exactly did you miss doing something you’d never done? Hell, he hadn’t even known it was an option. He hadn’t known she ran.

And she didn’t just run. She trained. She was looking at marathons. And she’d done it all herself. For two and a half years. She’d been pursuing this, training, getting better, and she’d done it on her own.

That said a lot about her, loudly, to Bryan. There were athletes with coaches behind them and endorsements on the line who struggled at times. Tess had been here, in Sapphire Falls, with a nonexistent running support group, training on the dirt back roads.

Damn. The internal drive and motivation that took was sexy as hell.

It was like Tess had turned a page for him that morning. A page in the book of
her
.

He’d thought he knew this story. He would have bet that he knew it nearly by heart. It was hard to wrap his mind around a competitive Tess, bent on beating everyone around her, pushing her body to the point of pain to be better than someone else. He couldn’t remember her ever being anyone’s rival. She helped other people. She lifted others up and helped
them
shine. She was one of the most content and happy people he knew. Or so he’d thought. Competitive runners needed a bit of…dissatisfaction. It was what motivated them—seeking that gratification. Tess had always seemed very gratified by her life.

But the pages in this book had been flipping rapidly lately. He’d learned she had a sassy, confident side. He’d learned she was a virgin. Who liked dirty talk. Who read erotic romance and got excited about being bossed around in bed. Now he’d learned that she was driven, passionate, internally motivated. Maybe she had found a competitive streak too.

And the differences in her weren’t all internal. He’d noticed some of the physical changes over the past few years. She’d lost some weight, tightened up some. But he hadn’t
noticed
, because it didn’t matter. He’d always liked how she’d looked. He loved her curves. He loved the softness and the fullness and…

Suddenly, he straightened. She had lost some weight, but she was talking about amping up her training now. She might lose more weight if she kept training. That meant fewer curves.

With a frown, he dropped some butter into the pan of eggs. And put more on her toast.

“You’re making me eggs?”

He turned as she came into the kitchen. Her hair was hanging in damp tendrils around her freshly scrubbed face. She was dressed in yoga pants and a tee and looked relaxed and sexy.

Of course, now that he knew she was leaving, he should leave her alone. And he might have. If it wasn’t for that virgin thing.

Maybe it made him a jerk, but he really wanted to be Tessa’s first.

Especially
because she was leaving.

He wanted to
be
something to her that no one else could or would.

The ladies at the Community Center had said he needed to give her something she couldn’t get anywhere else to keep her here in Sapphire Falls.

He’d thought that was good advice.

But no one else knew about Tessa’s running—the intensity of it, or her goals for it. Now that he did know, he couldn’t try to convince her to stay. But he could give her something that she’d take with her forever. Being made love to by the first guy she’d loved.

He wanted to set the standard.

If there were other guys—and he supposed that was inevitable, though he didn’t want to spend one minute thinking about it—then he wanted her to know what it was like to have
amazing
sex with a guy who really loved her.

Hopefully then she’d hold out for that every time, forever.

Bryan realized he was gripping the spoon tightly and frowning at her. And that he hadn’t said a word to her yet. He made himself relax and smile at her. “It’s almost ready.”

“I hope you’re planning on helping with that,” she said, eyeing the skillet as she took a seat on one of the stools at the center island. “I can’t eat that much.” She picked up the glass of orange juice he’d poured and put it next to one of the two place settings he’d put out.

He set a plate in front of her. Tessa studied the eggs like they held the meaning of life.

Bryan sat next to her and dug in.

“So tell me about your nutrition program,” he said after they’d both taken a few bites.

She coughed and squirmed on her chair. Bryan took a long swig of his coffee and waited.

“I’ve been using the RF10 program,” she said, naming a line of supplements that he personally loved.

“That’s awesome,” he said. “Who’s working with you?”

He hadn’t even been aware there was someplace local that sold the program. Of course, anyone could walk in off the street and buy the RF10 stuff from any health store, but the best retailers helped their customers make the right choices based on their goals.

“I just get it online,” she said, squirming again and stuffing her mouth with toast.

He frowned. “How did you know what to start with?”

There wasn’t exactly a wrong way to use the supplements—they were completely natural—but there was definitely a
right
way to use them as a part of a running training program.

“Did a bunch of reading,” she said. She cleared her throat. “There are some really great websites and stuff out there.”

He couldn’t argue with that. He had a blog of his own and hoped that people found it a good resource if they didn’t have a local person or coach. He hadn’t blogged for a long time, but he’d left it set up. “Let me look at what you’re doing. I can make some tweaks.”

“Okay, sure.” She waved her fork in the direction of the cupboard over her coffeepot. “In there.”

An hour later, Bryan had all of her supplements laid out, had made her write out her workout plan, had looked at her workout tracking over the past six months—something else he strongly encouraged his clients to do—and had looked over her stretching program.

He sat back and lifted his second cup of coffee. At some point, she had loaded their dishes into the dishwasher and wiped off the island as he’d pored over her information.

Not only was she serious about her program, she was doing everything right.

“I’m impressed,” he told her. “This is almost exactly the program I would have set up if I’d done it.”

She gave him a little smile and lifted her shoulder. “Told you there are a lot of great resources out there.”

There were. But Bryan knew why this program seemed so perfect.

It was his.

Well, not
his
. He hadn’t personally put it together. But she’d applied his principles.

He knew there were other resources, other coaches, other approaches that would get a serious runner to the ready-to-compete level. In fact, he was
very
aware of those other coaches and programs. He kept up on what others were doing. But that was the thing—there were other
different
approaches.

What Tess was doing was applying
his
principles. Things that set him apart from the others.

“Are you in touch with anyone about your program? Ever emailed anyone? Called them?” he asked casually, feeling anything but.

The truth was, she could have emailed him a question—or questions—over the years and not used her real name, and he never would have known. He enjoyed answering questions here and there and had gotten dozens of messages a week before he’d moved back to Sapphire Falls.

But if she had, why keep it a secret? In fact, why keep any of this a secret?

“Oh, once or twice,” she said flippantly. “Mostly, I just figured things out. It’s not rocket science.”

He almost laughed. No, it wasn’t NASA-level stuff, but there was absolutely some science to running. At least to running well. And she damned well knew that if she was doing the reading that would lead her to information about supplements and protein/ carb balance and the principles of hydration.

“I would have been happy to answer questions for you,” he said. “It’s what I do, after all.”

And he did it very well, thank you very much.

If she
had
messaged him anonymously, he wanted to know why. If she
hadn’t
, well, he wanted to know why.

They could have been sharing this all this time. He hated that he was just learning about this.

“I didn’t want to bother you,” she said, looking into her coffee cup instead of at him.

He scowled at that. Was
that
why she hadn’t told him who she was? Because he was growing more and more certain that she
had
emailed him over the years.

“You have never, ever bothered me, Tess,” he said. He reached over and lifted her chin. “I mean that.”

She sighed. “You have to say that because you want to sleep with me.”

He gripped her chin a little harder. “Yes. I do.”

She took a deep breath. “I don’t think I can have sex with you.”

“Oh, yes, you most certainly can.”

“I’m leaving.”

Yeah. That sucked. And as he thought about it more, he knew that he’d get even more disappointed.

But he’d never try to keep her here.

And no way was he passing up the chance to make love to her.

He’d missed out on being a part of her running dream. Now she was going to go to someone else for that. But Bryan could be a part of her sexual fantasies. He was going to be a part of those dreams for sure.

“You’re not leaving today.”

She pressed her lips together and studied his eyes. “We can’t have amazing sex.”

He reached out and ran a hand up her arm to her neck. He stroked his thumb up and down her throat. “I think you know better.”

She shook her head slightly. “I mean, I don’t want to.”

He frowned. “Tess—”

“We can have sex. But we can’t have
amazing
sex.” She shook her head quickly, actually looking worried. “I’ll never want to leave then.”

He would have had to be dead to not have his ego react to that. But his heart reacted as well. She really wanted Denver. She wanted to run, to see how far she could go—literally and figuratively. And she’d picked the one guy who would get that and who would want it
for
her.

“I’m not going to let you stay,” Bryan said, feeling his heart clench.

He couldn’t believe this. His plan had always been to come back to Sapphire Falls, to stay. With Tess.

Now he was here, and not only did she want to leave, but he was going to push her to do exactly that.

“You won’t try to get me to fall in love with you?” she asked.

“You mean fall in love with me
again
?” He simply couldn’t let that go.

She frowned. “What?”

“You’ve been in love with me most of your life, Tess. Maybe you got over me, but don’t pretend that I couldn’t have had anything I wanted from you for a really long time.”

That was an asshole thing to say, he knew. But it was true. And he needed to hear it. And more, it was going to turn her on.

He’d read
Erotic Research
.

Twice.

She liked bossy and in your face. So to speak.

“Well, I most
definitely
got over
that
,” Tess said, sliding off her stool. “And thanks for reminding me of how stupid I was. No worries about
that
happening again.”

“How long have you been reading my blog?”

She froze in the process of pushing the stool out of the way so she could step around it—and him.

“Wha—what do you mean? You have a blog?”

He huffed out a laugh. “I know you’ve been following my blog, Tess. You’ve said a few things lately that sounded familiar. Now the RF10, the progressive program. It’s all me.” He took her hips in his hands and turned her to face him. “How long?”

She really didn’t want to tell him. He could see it all over her face. So a long time then.

Finally, she looked at his collarbone and said, “Two and a half years.”

“That’s how long you’ve been running.”

She pulled away and paced across the kitchen. “Yep. Come on, Bryan, you’re not actually shocked to know that I started running because of you, are you? You’re the sun in my solar system.
Of course
a huge life change like that would come because of you, right?”

Bryan stared at her. She’d started running because of him? It was one thing to give nutritional advice, to give inspiration and stretches to runners. But she’d
started
because of him?

“I—I didn’t know.”

“Makes sense though, right?” she asked.

“I’m…honored.”