Shane chuckled and bit into a spring roll. “Spill.”

Kyle nodded.

“It’s Olivia.” He looked to Matt nervously, now understanding why Kyle invited him. It would be best to do this all openly so Matt wouldn’t be upset.

“What about her?” Matt watched him suspiciously.

“I have a thing for her something fierce. It’s not just lust, although I have that in spades. Oh man do I have that.” Marc shook his head. “It’s more. I kissed her at the Founder’s Day Picnic. It was,” he licked his lips, “specfuckingtacular. I’ve never, ever, felt that way kissing a woman. And I haven’t been able to forget it. I want to be with her but she doesn’t take me seriously.”

“What did she say?” Shane asked.

“First she said she was too old for me. Dumbest thing I ever heard. Has the woman never looked in a mirror? She’s amazing. I told her it was only six years. And then she said she wasn’t looking for one night or one week.” He heaved a sigh. “I know. She’s right to distrust me on that score. She says she’s not going out with men who only want something temporary anymore. She says we can only be friends.” He rolled his eyes at that.

“And clearly you don’t want that. But what do you want because, Marc, she’s telling you what she does. She doesn’t want to be temporary. You’re a temporary kind of guy.” Kyle watched his brother carefully. Marc scrubbed his hands over his face. “I know. I know what I am. What I was. And she’s right to turn me down based on what she’s seen. It’s not like I’ve made a secret of it. But you all know.” He looked at Matt and laughed before turning back to Kyle. “Well, you and Shane know what it is when you want to cast that aside for something lasting.”

“You saying you’re in love with Liv?” Matt asked, incredulous. “You, Mister Different-woman-on-his-arm-every-night?”

“I’m not in love with Olivia, no. I don’t know her well enough. Not like that. But I do know I want more than a week or two with her. I want to explore something long term. For real. I’ve gotten to know her as a person, not as my brother’s girlfriend and then ex. I’d like to get to know her as a woman now. But I don’t know how to get her to trust me enough to let me in.”

“And that’s where we come in,” Kyle said, clinking his beer against Shane’s. “Liv needs a good old-fashioned wooing.”

Shane chuckled. “You ready to woo? It’s like training for a marathon, Marc. She doesn’t trust you and that’s based on what she’s seen for years. You’re going to have to forego other women. Can you do that?”

“Yes. I’ve tried to date Liv out of my head but it hasn’t worked. I’m not interested in anyone else. She takes up my mind every minute of the damned day.”

“Olivia is a good woman. Beautiful, giving. Can you take care of that? Work to not hurt her?” Matt asked.

“I can. I swear to you all that I would not be pursuing this if I thought it was just some temporary thing. I don’t want to hurt her. I know she deserves more than that. I want to give her more than that.”

Matt sighed and held up his beer. “Well then, let’s work on the woo, shall we?

Four Chase boys all united? She doesn’t stand a chance.”

* * *

Monday evening, Liv walked into Marc’s Body By Design and smiled when she saw him there. He sat on his haunches next to one of the machines, talking to Shane.

Boy did they both look fine. Shane was huge. Muscled, hard and now sweaty. She did like that Shane’s workout coincided with hers. She loved Cassie to pieces and would never dream of taking on a pain in the ass man like Shane Chase. But he sure was nice to look at.

Then again Marc—with his muscled thighs straining against his shorts and the hard muscles of his back and shoulders visible through the neck of the T-shirt he wore—was a hundred times hotter. He carried his strength easily, gracefully. She had to gulp and hurry past them to drop her stuff off in a locker before she leapt on him and licked his neck. Why oh why did the sight of a bead of sweat rolling down to the hollow of his throat make her itchy to lick him? Wasn’t that sick? That was it. She was sick and perverted. Sweat making her hot, good gracious she needed sex.

When she came out, Shane was leaving. He waved to her, said he was on his way home to shower with Cassie and, leaving her blushing, walked out the door. Chuckling, Marc accompanied her to the mat where she sat and began to stretch.

“How are you tonight?”

“Good. Stressful day. Budget time. The mayor is cranky and taking it out on everyone. I wanted to bop him on the head with my stapler today.”

He took her arms and pulled, letting her stretch her thighs and back. Standing, he reached down, giving her a hand up.

They headed to the free weights where she began her first rep of thirty. “You need me to kick his ass? John always has been kinda punky.”

Liv laughed. “Thank you for that very chivalrous offer, Marc, but I think I scared him back in line. He’s not a bad guy, he’s just a control freak and you can’t control everything at this time of year.”

He reached out to correct her arm. “This way. You’re going to hurt yourself if you do it like that. You sure look pretty tonight.”

She looked at him askance. “Uh, yeah. Straining muscles and T-shirts with exercise shorts always make a girl look pretty. You need a loan or something?”