~Editor's Pick~
In preparation for tryouts for the first four-woman bobsled event at the World Winter Games, Misty Kaufman enlists the help of a trainer at her best friend’s gym. Spencer Whitford is easy on the eyes but tougher than nails as he puts her through her paces. Will her biggest challenge be making a historic team, or getting a smile out of him?
After an injury ended his kickboxing career, Spencer lives a quiet life as a trainer. His newest client is anything but quiet as she sings along with the gym's playlists and curses his name from the ice bath, but Misty keeps him on his toes when they're together and won't stay off his mind when they're apart.
As the workouts intensify, so does the spark between them. But when Misty's meteoric rise brings back painful memories of Spencer's fall, he must come to grips with his past before it costs them a future together.
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“Now why did I have to bring my bathing suit?”
“For this.” He led her to the large physical therapy room at the back of the gym. Two rooms were reserved for deep tissue massages, a table was set out at the center, and steel tubs were off to the side. One of them was filled with water and ice cubes.
Her eyes bulged at the sight of it. “I hope you’re not suggesting what I think you’re about to.”
“I’m suggesting that if you’re going to do well at this thing, you need to build endurance to the cold as well as your strength. Get changed and get in.”
Misty ducked into a small unisex bathroom. She emerged wearing her blue one-piece and a wary expression. “You’d better be sure about this.”
“I told you, if you can handle this, you can handle anything. The temperature of this is warmer than the outdoor temperature for the bobsled event is likely to be, but you’ll definitely be allowed to wear more clothes than you have on now, and you’ll be able to move around and get your blood moving there as opposed to here.”
She placed one foot in the tub. “Oh, my God!”
“Now the other foot.”
She didn’t speak this time, but let out some weird combination of a gasp and a squawk. Her eyes bulged and her shoulders practically leaped to her ears.
He took a deep breath to keep from laughing at her oversized reactions. “All the way. The longer you draw this out, the worse it’s going to be.”
“You are enjoying this a little too—AUGH!” She’d lowered herself so the water touched her groin, and they could probably hear her from the opposite side of the full-block gym.
“Motherfucker!” If this had been a cartoon, Misty might have shot out of the water and wound up on the ceiling from the shock of the cold. But because this was real life, she was glaring and cursing at him from the tub as her arms shook from the temperature and the exertion of holding herself as much out of the water as possible.
He bit the inside of his lip to keep from laughing. When he trusted himself to speak again, he said, “Sit all the way down.”
“I am sitting,” she argued, but hadn’t lowered herself enough for the water to cover her chest.
He gave her a skeptical look as he stepped around the tub, placing a hand on each side. “Unbend your knees and inch down so your hands are touching mine.”
Once she’d followed his instructions and gotten all the way in, he took both her hands in his. They were soft and already shaking, likely from a combination of cold and shock. “Take a deep breath. Inhale, hold.”
Misty looked mutinous, but she obeyed.
“Exhale, hold. Keep that up for a few breaths.” He didn’t let go of her hands. Of course it was to keep her in place for the session. But now that he was touching her for a sustained period of time, he found himself not wanting to stop.
Her breathing slowed, but he could still feel her hands shaking against his. “I can’t feel my feet!”
“That’s normal. After you’re done, you’ll walk around to get the feeling back in your feet.”
“If they don’t snap off.”
“They won’t. Keep breathing. It’s just for five minutes.”
“Why don’t you stick your junk in ice water for five minutes?” The words came out shakily. “I s-s-swear to God, if I f-freeze my clit off…”
Spencer lost track of what she was saying as it occurred to him that he just might have to take that suggestion if he was going to keep his composure. This wasn’t the first time he’d seen Misty in a bathing suit, but he’d been too preoccupied with building her workout and figuring out how time in the pool could help her on land to fully appreciate the sight.
This time, there was nothing to distract him from the acres of bare skin. The newly forming muscles on her arms and legs. The shape of her breasts below the scoop of her swimsuit’s neckline. The goosebumps forming on her bare skin. The single strip of fabric at the apex of her thighs. The way the ice bath was turning her nipples to pebbles. The sight was getting him just as hard, and he didn’t know how either of them was going to get through the session.
