BEAST Read Online Free Page B

of the workers were crowding into the building carrying their cups of piping hot Starbucks and wheeling their briefcases behind them, no mom’s with strollers to drop their children off at the daycare before they dashed off to work.
     
    There were just two guards who looked at her in surprise whether it was because they were unused to seeing the stylish woman without makeup and dressed in sweats, or because it was too early to begin scanning people in. She dug out her badge and they allowed her to bypass the metal detectors.  She went to the elevators; the only set that would lead to the subbasement and nervously hit the down button.
     
    There were lights on, thank god. She walked rapidly to the female lockers trying to remember the route; walk down the first corridor, left, left and it should be there. Viola! There it was. The lights were off in the room and she cut them on. It was clean and bright and didn’t feel like a basement so she breathed easier and put her bag into one of the lockers after retrieving a hand towel and a bottled water.
     
    She left the lights on as she left the locker room and headed purposefully for the gym. She wouldn’t look at her workout as a chore but the first step into recreating herself. Ashleigh began to hear the faint sounds of music. As she got closer she thought she heard Jimi Hendrix; All Along the Watchtower. So she wasn’t alone. She was kind of relieved but also a bit disappointed. She didn’t think anyone would be working out this early.
     
    She pushed open the metal doors to the gym room and All Along the Watchtower was playing at a moderate level; not quite loud but it could have been softer. There was only one other person in the room and he was running the treadmill. Ashleigh allowed her eyes to linger on the man. Damn he was big. He wore black nylon workout pants and a black hoodie, both damp with his sweat. The pants molded nicely along the man’s butt. He had a great butt, like two boulders. His fists were pumping as he ran and she could tell that he was a white guy but other than that couldn’t tell what he looked like.
     
    He was a giant! She could see the muscles rippling along his back as he ran, even through the hoodie. Nice.
     
    She moved to the mat in front of the mirrors happy that they weren’t close to the treadmills and began to stretch thinking; Ugh… it’s too early for this. Her tummy rumbled and she grimaced and tried to touch her toes. Her tummy got in the way so she opted for touching her knees. After about two minutes of that Ashleigh moved to the bike. Might as well start there. She hoped the man wasn’t watching her but he hadn’t even glanced in her direction. Good. He was just pounding away on the treadmill.
     
    She rode the bike for ten minutes but then her legs began to ache and her chest burned. She decided to work on her upper body and moved to the curl machine set at the second to the lowest weight. She was sweating and thinking about which machine to hit next when the music stopped. She looked up in time to see the man leaving the room with a CD in his hands. His hood shielded his face and he didn’t even glance in her direction. She watched him leave and when the door shut after him she went over to the radio and turned it to Tom Joyner in the morning.
     
    ~***~
     
    Christopher hit the shower and tried not to scowl. The lady had come in making everything smell pink like flowers. Gyms were supposed to smell like sweat and hard labor. He’d seen girls like that before. They came in dressed in designer workout clothes and were all gung-ho the first day, maybe even the first week. But then they disappeared.
     
    He’d seen her come in, using the mirrors so that he wouldn’t have to turn around. She was curvy. Her stretchy sweat pants pulled across her more-than ample-bottom and he noted the way her rear-end moved when she walked. When she bent to stretch Christopher had stopped peeking, her butt was pointed right at the