Flamingo Fugitive (Supernatural Bounty Hunters 5) (7 page)

“Jeez, she could be a model,” said Biff, dreamily, staring at the blonde.  “Don’t you think she could be a model?  Don’t you?  Don’t you think?”  Biff elbowed him a few times, but Stone didn’t reply.  His mouth didn’t appear to be working.  Hell, his brain wasn’t working.  He was too busy staring at the flamingo shifter sitting next to the blonde.

Chapter Twelve

“I’m sorry, ladies, but this fifty percent off coupon has expired,” said the spandex-clad goddess in front of them. 

Francine started to stand up as her flamingo sighed in relief.  “Oh well, never mind.  Let’s…”

“However…”  Gabby smiled disarmingly, and Francine felt her heart sink as her flamingo slipped back into depression.  She was about to suggest they call it quits and go and get a big slice of cake. 
No such luck.

“This coupon was for a six-month membership package only.  If you both sign up for a six-month package
with
a personal trainer, I’d be willing to honor it.”  Gabby gave them a calculating look, and her eyes shone yellow.  Of course, she was a predator – probably a cat.  It was Francine’s natural instinct to roll over and show her belly.

“That sounds wonderful!” gushed Felicia.  “Don’t you think that sounds wonderful, Franny?”

“Well, I…”

“I’ll take memberships for both of us.”  Felicia flourished a platinum credit card and Gabby almost purred in delight.

“You don’t have to…” started Francine.  It wasn’t out of a sense of moral objection about not wanting personal charity.  No, in that area she had no scruples, she would take what she could get.  But it was completely due to the fact that she really did not want to do this.

Felicia waved a graceful hand.  “Nonsense, I insist.  This is going to be so much fun.”

Francine smiled faintly.  They had different ideas of fun.  Francine found working to be fun – she enjoyed learning new lines, rehearsing and getting to grips with a new role.  Sweating like a pig was not fun.  She lamented that Felicia really needed to get out more.  She rolled her eyes and looked away as Felicia and Gabby went through the contracts.  Fancy having a contract to be put through such physical torture like exercising! 
No, she didn’t fancy it - that was the point.

She looked through the glass wall and let out an ‘eep’ as she found two huge men staring at them.  Or rather one was staring at Felicia as if he’d just spotted an enormous piece of birthday cake, and the other was staring at her with an intense and confused look on his face.

Gabby and Felicia looked up.  She could almost hear Gabby’s eye-roll.  “Those are two of our trainers.”

“Ooh,” said Felicia, appreciatively.  Her husband was on the lanky side – as were all flamingo males.  And as much as she loved him she had to enjoy muscles when she could.  And Francine had to admit, they had a lot of them.  “Will they be our trainers?”

“I could see what their schedules are like,” said Gabby, unenthusiastically.

“Please do,” cooed Felicia.  She was devoted to her husband, but she wasn’t actually dead.  She knew that her husband sneaked glances at his big-breasted secretary while she batted her eyelashes at the young man who delivered water to their house.  They looked, but it never went any further than that.

Felicia gave a little finger wave to the men.  Her admirer beamed, but the other still stared at Francine.

“He’s just staring at me,” she hissed through gritted teeth. 

Although, she had to admit she wasn’t quite as alarmed as perhaps she should be.  Her flamingo was almost cooing and ducking her head in submission. 
Silly bird
.  He was big – even larger than his dopey looking friend.  His body was bulky and toned – almost unbelievably so.  To think a few days ago, she had almost been panting after Milo the camel shifter’s bod. 
The camel was a beanpole in comparison to this god before her! 
He wasn’t exactly handsome, he had more of a solid, rugged looking face, but that didn’t detract one iota from his sex appeal.  Hell, there was a sheet of glass between them, and she could sense it.  Oh no, oh hell no, she was not attracted to this type of guy.  She didn’t go for beefcakes, she went for thoughtful, artistic types who… who…
ended up cheating on her
.  Francine bit her lip, and slowly, a lopsided smile dawned on the giant’s face.  It was a smile that said ‘I’m getting into your panties’.  Her bird fluttered in contentment; it was a flutter that said ‘I’m going to let you’. 
Slutty bird
.

Francine looked away quickly.  No, it was never like this for her.  She usually knew guys as friends before they went out together.  She was never usually hit with potent attraction.  She didn’t know what to do with it! 

“Are you okay?” murmured Felicia.

“Fine,” choked Francine, as she felt a flush creeping over her.

Gabby sighed.  “Are you sure you want those two?”

As if on cue the two men muscled through the door.  The smaller one, the one besotted with Felicia, smirked.  “Hey, Gabby, just returning your stapler.”

“You’re not carrying a stapler, and it’s already on my desk,” growled Gabby.

“Well, since we’re here…”

The larger one eased into the office and gave her another panty-wetting grin.  Her flamingo may have fainted at that point.

*

Stone was standing outside the ladies’ locker room.  He was waiting patiently; his rhino was waiting impatiently.  They were both annoyed by Biff, who was pacing up and down.

“You sure you don’t mind me taking the blonde.”

The retort of ‘take her, take her anywhere you want’ hovered on his tongue, but he instead just said no.  He could care less whether the blonde had just won an award for being the most flexible flamingo on the planet, or if she owned a brewery – he wasn’t interested.  His rhino only had eyes for Francine. 

She wasn’t his usual type, but that wasn’t a bad thing.  His rhino didn’t usually have opinions on women, so he was keen to see where this was going.  Plus, the scent, the gloriously sinful and decadent scent that had been torturing him was her.  She smelled like chocolate peanut butter fudge cake. 
Seriously, she did
.  How could anyone not notice?  How could anyone function with a divine scent like that wafting through the gym?  He shook his head. 

When Gabby had reluctantly introduced them, Biff had gone straight for Felicia.  That was more than fine with him.  Stone had guardedly studied Francine before carefully taking her hand in his and saying hello. 
It was glorious
.  Handshakes shouldn’t be glorious, but this one was.  She looked at him with clear blue eyes, a faint smile on her cherry lips, and she said hello in a breathy, little voice and he was gone.

Biff had raised an eyebrow in surprise, and Gabby had glared at him in disgust, but he couldn’t help it.  His arousal skyrocketed and every inch of his being wanted to throw the flamingo over his shoulder and run all the way back to his apartment to show her that it was true what they said about rhinos.  It would certainly make her forget about the males of her own species – that was for damn sure.

She was smaller than he expected, smaller than the average flamingo.  He guessed about five-foot-six, maybe seven, it was hard to tell in her skyscraper heels.  Still, she was tiny compared to him and would feel just right plastered up against his chest.  Her skin was quite pale, and with pouty red lips, thick, long eyelashes and sleek, black hair, she almost looked like a doll. 
So perfect.
  He was almost too afraid to touch her in case he broke her.  Thankfully, he noticed with more than a little glee that she had a body built for lovin’.  The tight jeans she wore didn’t so much hug her ass as give it a sensual caress.  He was actually a little jealous of them.  And jeez, her breasts looked like they were trying to escape her clingy shirt.

His rhino rumbled happily, thrilled at the thought of getting his hands on the voluptuous flamingo.  He didn’t know where this sudden and overwhelming attraction came from, but he knew he had to have this female.

The two flamingos erupted out of the locker room in a fit of giggles and chatter.  And because fate was obviously torturing him, she was wearing a very tight pair of shorts and a vest.  His rhino drooled.  It wasn’t going to be easy to pretend he was professional.

*

Francine frowned, inwardly as she watched her lithe friend on the running machine.  Her limbs moved as easily and gracefully as the ebb and flow of the tide.  Men around her were sighing.

“I don’t work out much,” she said to Stone.  She was trying to hide her shyness.  For some reason, he was bringing her out in a rash of bashfulness.

He smiled warmly.  “We’ll start slowly.”

She watched as two very buff women lifted weights.  They had so much testosterone that both of them had moustaches.  “I’m not sure I want to look like that.”  She waggled her eyebrows in the direction of the Tom Selleck appreciation club.

Stone frowned.  “No we don’t want that,” he said with feeling, giving her body the once over.  He smiled again, and her flamingo swooned.  “We won’t do anything drastic.  It can’t hurt to be fit in case…”  His face darkened as if thinking of something very unappealing.

“In case of what?”

His jaw ticked.  “In case you get mugged, or some bastard attacks you – we should work on some self-defense moves.”  He brightened at that thought.

Yeah, she could have done with a few moves when that horny bastard St. Fontaine came at her.  Her flamingo squawked as she tried to put that unfortunate incident behind her.  Until she got to court... 
Ugh, that was a downer
.  At least when she got there, she could explain this whole mess to the judge and then forget all about it.  Obviously, he or she would see that it was all a big misunderstanding.  She wasn’t trying to kill him, just trying to make him keep all his appendages to himself.

Stone smiled benignly.  “Let’s start with some stretches, follow what I do.” 

She did.  Not very expertly.  She had danced in some of the musicals she’d starred in, but she hadn’t done much and in those instances she just did as the choreographer told her.  Stone grinned at her, but not in a laughing way, it was kinder than that.  It was patient and lovely.  The man radiated muscular good naturedness. 

And he had very warm, plate-size hands.  She found that out when he moved her, gently repositioning her and flexing her into a different position.  Her stomach did flip-flops and her bird quivered every time he touched her.

This didn’t happen to her
.  She didn’t usually feel attraction that left her breathless and her heart beating like an out of control drum.  She’d pretended she had in the past, both on and off stage.  Off stage when she didn’t want to hurt a previous boyfriend’s feelings.  These new feelings were both exhilarating and a tad frightening.

And she generally didn’t feel attracted to men like him either.  Men who spent more time working out than she spent doing her hair – and she spent a lot of time on her hair. 

But he was nice, and not in the way you would say to a man who you were trying to let down gently and couldn’t imagine as anything other than a friend.  And he wasn’t just a gruff and obnoxious meathead as she would have expected from a man his size.

“Hi, Stone.”

Francine glared, and her flamingo clucked as a tight female body in an even tighter outfit sauntered by, giving Stone come hither looks.  He grunted and palmed one of Francine’s hips with one of his massive hands.  She almost yelped, but whether, in objection or excitement, she wasn’t sure.

“That’s it,” he murmured, throatily in her ear.  Her back brushed against his chest.  Heat from his huge body seeped into hers.  “Just ease your body round like this.”

“Ummm hmmm,” she whimpered.

She knew visiting the gym would be torture. 
She had no idea it would be this kind of torture.

*

Stone smiled like a lovesick puppy.  Maybe he was ill.  Maybe he needed to get his head checked.  He didn’t have this kind of reaction to women.  He didn’t usually want to sweep them into his arms and howl at every other male that this female was his and his alone.

Her cheeks were pink, she was huffing and puffing like a freight train, and sweat was rolling down her face and she looked gorgeous.  How other men weren’t flocking to her, he didn’t know.  Couldn’t they scent her?  Couldn’t they detect that invisible pull to her body like he did?  No? 
Well, good
.  Although, he almost had a murderous rhino on his hands after she bent over, and a few of the gym members stopped what they were doing to get a good look at her heart shaped ass.  His beast wanted to charge them and tear them to pieces.  But Stone managed to keep him in check.  Mainly by promising to bogart her ass from all other men.  He liked to think of it as his ass, and he couldn’t wait to get those pants off it and see it in the flesh.

“Are we finished?” panted Francine

“Hmmm?  Yeah, you did great today.”

She smiled prettily.  “Thanks.”

“Do you wanna grab a drink or something?”  He flashed his sexiest smile and flexed his muscles ever so slightly.  His rhino leaned forward expectantly.

Francine hesitated ever so slightly.  She opened her pretty mouth, the word yes hovering on her lips.  Her eyes flashed yellow before she abruptly looked at her feet.  “I don’t think so, thanks anyway.”

She scurried away, and Stone gaped after her.  His rhino hammered at him to run after her, but Stone was in shock. 
She said no!