Twisted Dreams Read Online Free Page B

hold your breath? I knew I should have changed my outfit. The sweats must have made her think I’d be ideal for this assignment.
    On the outside, I flashed a smile and said, “Great! I love swimming.”
    Where the hell had that come from?
    “Cool. He’ll be down at the gym. Do you know where that is?”
    I nodded. I’d been shown around on the tour, though the gym certainly wasn’t a place I’d ever imagined myself attending.
    “You got a pen and paper handy?”
    I nodded to my purse. “I always carry a notepad and pen. You never know when something inspiring might hit.”
    Dana grinned at me, her gray eyes lightening a shade. “You sound like my type of girl. I think we’re going to get on just great, Elizabeth Bandores.”

 
    Chapter
     
    4
     
     
    T he sounds of the gym came muffled through the door. Feet hitting the treadmill, grunts of someone trying to lift weights, MTV on in the background. Someone brushed by me as I lurked outside. A towel was slung over the guy’s shoulder as he barged through the door. The gym’s noise blasted out to me before the door settled shut again.
    I hopped from foot to foot, trying to build up the courage to go in.
    Come on, I told myself. This is nothing. What if I ended up as an actual reporter and had to go to war-torn lands to get the latest story? How could I do things like that if I didn’t even have the guts to walk into the college gym?
    The thing was, all the people working out would be older than me—second and third years. The kids my own age were only just arriving and were far too preoccupied with settling in to bother heading for a workout.
    I took a deep breath and pressed my lips together. I really needed to stop hanging around outside doors.
    Letting my breath out in a whoosh, I pushed my way into the gym. Heat and the faint tang of body odor clung to the air. Everyone seemed busy with their own thing. The occupants barely glanced at me as I stood, still feeling awkward, my eyes scouring the machines. I didn’t even know what the star of the swim team looked like. It wasn’t as though he would be wearing a name tag.
    A skinny guy in a football top about four sizes too big stopped at the water fountain to my right. He bent his head to take a drink, and the shirt ruffled up around his neck like an Elizabethan collar. He was certainly the least intimidating of the bunch.
    “Excuse me?” I said. He jerked upward with a cough and a splutter. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”
    His eyes took me in, the briefest flick up and down my body, resting only briefly on my chest.
    “That’s okay,” he said, his hand over his mouth to stifle another cough. “You lost?”
    “No, I’m looking for Flynn Matthews. I’m a new staff writer with the Sage Gazette.”
    “Oh, right.” His narrow shoulders dropped. “He’s over here. Come with me.”
    My heart sank as we crossed the gym to where a guy sat on a bench, lifting weights. The moment I saw him, I recognized him from earlier in the day when he’d nudged me and asked me if I was dreaming.
    “Flynn,” my escort said, lifting his voice to be heard above the rest of the ruckus. “You’ve got a visitor.”
    The blond lifted his head and caught sight of me, a slow grin spreading across his face. “And there was me thinking you’d finally picked up a girl, Shawn.”
    A flush crept up around Shawn’s throat, and I experienced a pang of sympathy for him. However uncomfortable I felt at times, it couldn’t be easy being his build in a world full of jocks and gym-bunnies.
    Flynn’s eyes were an aqua green and incredibly sharp. I felt myself shrink under his gaze. But he kept it on my face, and I gave him credit for that. I’d been blessed with curves, and most guys checked them out before they’d even bothered looking at my face.
    “You’ve woken up then, huh?”
    I gave him a tight smile. “I was never asleep. I just like to think, that’s all.”
    “Think or dream?”
    “As long as either