Morning Run
Morning Run
She was surprised when she woke at dawn to find Cruz wasn’t in the bed and evidently hadn’t come back to the room. She grabbed her phone and noted the time was coming on five thirty. Finding herself wondering if maybe he’d slept on the patio, she got out of the bed, padded to the patio, and found no sign of him at all.
He really hadn’t come back. Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth she made her way to the bathroom and quickly took care of her business.
By six–thirty she was wondering where on earth he’d gotten to because she knew this was an expensive resort which usually sold out well in advance. Her phone didn’t have a single message since she’d fallen asleep the night before. She went back to the patio annoyed with herself over how much she was worrying over him when he was a grown ass man who shouldn’t even be there to begin with.
Scanning up and down the beach from the patio there was no sign of him. A few joggers were enjoying the
early morning, and she told herself maybe it was what she needed. A good run to clear her mind.
Presley got dressed in her running gear and then slipped out of the room, making sure to take her ear buds, keycard, and phone with her.
Twenty minutes into her run, her breath shortened and her blood pounding in her ears mixing with the music blasting through the ear buds and she was finally feeling a bit more settled. With the noise in her ears as loud as it was, she gave a nervous jump when another run stepped into time with her.
Clutching her chest and trying not to laugh at her own nerves she looked over to see Cruz easily keeping time with her. She pulled one of her buds out and glanced at him, her chest heaving with the effort of running and
talking.
“Where were you last night?”
“Are you already going to act like my fiancée and keeping tabs on me?” he questioned with a smirk.
“No. I was more worried about you getting tossed in jail for drunk and disorderly in Nice and ruining my
vacation even more.”
“Why would I get drunk, Presley? I mean all I did was try to have a fun night with a beautiful woman who suddenly split into another personality and called it off before the fun even started. Not really worth drinking myself into a stupor over.”
She frowned at him and went to put her earbud back in, no longer wanting to talk to him. He reached out and plucked the bud from her fingers and shoved it into his own ear.
“Hey!” she was annoyed. “That’s kind of gross to put my ear bud in your ear.”
“Oh stop.” He rolled his eyes. “The music isn’t bad. How far are we running?”
“Until you keel over and drop,” she smirked. “I ran track in high school and college to keep me fit for soccer. Long distance. I ran the Vancouver marathon the last five years.”
“Really? I’ve been running the Toronto, Boston, and Montreal ones. It’s the one thing Anderson and I do together. I can keep up. Hey, maybe next year we can do the Vancouver one together.”
She shouldn’t have thought stamina would have been a problem for him. She grumbled to herself as she stepped up her pace. A thought occurred to her, “I bet this is hurting your feet though.”
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“Like a b***h but, the nurse at the clinic gave me some great painkillers. She was genuinely nice to me –
A weird shiver coursed along her skin at the idea of the nurse and Presley pushed it down and stepped up her speed.
“Is it where you slept?”
“At the clinic?” he laughed. “No.”
“With the nurse,” she grunted annoyed at how easily despite the fact both his feet were injured he was
keeping up with her and his breath was not any worse than hers.
“Ladybird, I would not have the wild, fantastical s*x with you yesterday and then go bang someone else the
same night. Besides, I told you, I’m wanting to see where this thing with you and I is heading. I’m not going to
screw it up by messing around with a nurse.”
“It’s not heading anywhere. It’s an act to fix your image.” She huffed as her lungs started to burn with the quicker tempo. “It’s all a stupid game but I’m not going to let you win, Cruz.”
“Oh, baby doll,” he gave a hot laugh, “that’s where you’re wrong.”
She stumbled at the tone his voice took on and shot him a sideways glance.
“Excuse me?”
“You’re jealous thinking I was sleeping with the nurse who patched up my foot yesterday and gave me some good pain killers and yet you think we’re going nowhere? We are going places, you and I, Ladybird. I see a bright future for us.”
“We’re not!”
“How wet were your dreams last night? I can tell you mine caused me to wake up with the biggest hard on I’ve ever had in my life, and I jerked off so hard thinking of those sweet little noises you make when I’m f*****g you good. My come hit the shower head.”
She choked on her spittle at his words.
“It was a such a waste because it should have been painting the inside of you. Later though.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“You’re jealous of a nurse and my fist.”
“You’re also delusional.”
“I’m also right,” he dropped back a few paces as she tried to think of a comeback. “I can’t wait.”
“What are you doing?”
“Checking your ass out. I was thinking in the shower we haven’t done doggy yet and I’d really like to take you from behind. Your ass is fire.”
“Stop.”
“Never!” he gave a laugh as he whistled a catcall behind her. He easily caught up to her and then started singing along to the song playing through her earbuds.
“Great,” she thought. “I can barely catch my breath and he’s singing Shawn Mendes like he was born to.”
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Morning Run
“What’s wrong, Ladybird?”
“Is there anything you can’t do?” she griped.
“Dance. I told you this. Anderson tried to teach me. He said I was a lost cause and to stick with slow dancing in circles. I can sing. I play piano really well. I’m athletic. I can bench three of you with my eyes closed. I can’t dance worth shit.”
“Speaking of Anderson,” she gave him another glance, “did you know he hit on Halima?”
“He said she was looking good.”
“He told her they’d be having brown babies within a year.”
Cruz pulled his lips back and shivered exaggeratedly. “The balls on the man always impress me. How he can
say such s**t and not end up spitting out his gonads is beyond me.”
“She called her brother.”
“The surgeon?”
“The guy from the motorcycle club.”
“Oh shit.” Cruz laughed. “Anderson is about to get his ass handed to him then. I heard he got arrested a couple years back for beating a guy almost to death and the only reason he got off was a technicality.”
“You’re not worried?”
“Are you kidding? Anderson has a black belt in karate and boxes. He can hold his own. If I know him though, he’ll take the beating just to impress Halima.”
“Why?”
“When he’s in, he’s all in.”
“Huh,” she was surprised and kept running.
“What are the chances Halima goes for him?”
She grunted, “why?”
“Because I think it would be cool. You and me, Halima, and Anderson.We could double date. Have babies at the same time. Ours won’t be brown though. I still can’t believe he said it to her. Weird he’d mention her skin
color.”
Her feet came to a stop as his words reached her ears. “Are you out of your mind?”
“Actually, no. You were the one who told the lady in the elevator yesterday how we’re going to start making babies on our wedding night. I’ve been thinking of big–headed babies with bright red hair ever since.”
She was panting heavily as she rested her hands against her hips. “Cruz,” she walked up to him when he also stopped and leaned into him and sniffed him. He smelled like he’d showered before his run.
“I’m not drunk,” he laughed at her movements. “Come on, let’s finish our run and then go grab some breakfast. We can talk about how pretty our babies will be.”
“You’re making me crazy. This is part of the plot, isn’t it? Make Presley as nuts as you can and then when I’ve completely come unglued, you’re going to finish me off.”
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Morning Run
“Sweetheart, the only finishing I want you doing is by orgasm.”
“Oh!” she punched him in the gut, annoyed it didn’t even phase him, and his stomach was rock solid. She started running again and shook her head at the way he called her name and came after her.
“Question for you,” he called as he kept pace with her.
“What?”
“When you woke up this morning, was your first thought to reach for me and to check if I was in the bed with
you?”
She growled under her breath.
“I thought so. I was thinking of you, Ladybird when I woke up.”
“So, you said.”
“Well, just so you know, I took a room for the night. I thought I’d give you a night without me so you would miss me. You did too, didn’t you.”
“How did you get a room? The place was sold out!”
“Anything is possible for the right price, Ladybird. I paid a pretty penny for my room but,” he was jogging backwards now in complete mockery of her, “it was well worth it to know, you got up this morning wondering where I was, who I was with and when I was coming back to you.”
“I hate you.”
“Mm,” he wagged his finger at her. “I’m thinking you don’t. I thought I hated you too, you know, because you accused me of assault, steroid use and cost me fifty million dollars. Turns out, I don’t hate you. I don’t think you hate me either. I think you find me sexy as f**k and you are looking forward to spending more time getting to know me.”
“I think you’re insane.”
“I think we’re two peas in a pod. I might be insane but you,” he pointed at her, “put a man you allegedly hate on your book as the male lead. You like me, Presley. Admit it.”
“Never.”
“It’s a long time. Lucky for us both, I have all the time in the world.” He turned around then and started jogging beside her singing along to the next song while she couldn’t stop thinking of how much she really wished she’d not gone on vacation.
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