“Your form could use some work,” he stated.
I frowned. “I don’t give a shit about my form. If it does damage, that’s all I care about.”
“Ithought his form looked great,” a girl cut in. Velcro ripped as she yanked her gloves off. “It’ssexywatching you work out, Charlie.”
I gaped, but I didn’t get a chance to say anything before Chancey spoke. “Stop it, Scarlet. You’re making Charlie uncomfortable.”
“Or giving him a hard on,” another girl laughed as she walked by.
“Fuck off, Mistress,” Scarlet snapped.
The other girl huffed, then walked away to another area of the gym.
Scarlet turned back to us. “I think the Bandit can speak for himself.”
I didn’t know what to say, honestly. Scarlet was a fighter in the club who was at the top of the female rankings. She was a succubus, and one of the strongest people I knew. I wouldn’t want to get in the ring with her, that was for sure. Even so, we’d barely talked. I hardly knew her, aside from when we trained together every now and then.
It was weird that Scarlet was flirting with me, and it wasn’t because I’d nearly won the Darke Games. The tiny high I rode after that was long over. The eye candy in this prison changed at the drop of a dime. Even Ez’s fifteen minutes of fame had passed pretty quickly, after a new bus of students had arrived. All the girls seemed to talk about these days was a guy from Malovia, who was supposed to be some sort of duke or something. I hadn’t really caught the gossip, and I didn’t care.
Still. She acted like she was interested.
“Are you… flirting with me, Scarlet?” I asked.
She blew a breath. “I just called you sexy. Of course I’m flirting with you. I’ve watched you in the ring, Bandit. You really get my motor running, if you know what I mean.”
Damn, this girl came on strong. Then again, shewasa succubus. That was kind of their thing.
She came closer to me, so close that I could feel the heat coming off her body. She gently took my hands and placed them on her waist. She wore only a sports bra, so my hands landed on bare skin. I could feel that she was thin, which I found attractive. Part of me enjoyed the close contact— like I could easily crawl into bed with her for a meaningless night, if only to take my mind off things. I wanted to forget.
It was an odd survival mechanism I’d adopted. I didn’t want to feel this way anymore. I didn’twantthis to be my safety net.
But that’s what it had become, back when I lived on the streets. Some days, it was the only way to get food and a warm bed. Even though I had that here, the idea of being close to a woman made me feel secure in a way I couldn’t understand— in a way I didn’t want to feel.
Because all I wanted now was Ava. Hell, I was running my hands over Scarlet’s skin, and all I could think about was my ex. Just touching Scarlet felt like a betrayal.
“You like what you feel?” she asked. This girl was desperate for the D.
“I’m—” I cut off. I almost saidtaken, before I realized that I wasn’t. It’d been months since Ava and I broke up, and it still didn’t feel real. There was nothing wrong with accepting Scarlet’s advances. I could sleep with her a hundred times, and no one would think anything of it.
Except for me. It felt dirty, because I didn’t want Scarlet.
I wanted Ava.
“You’re what?” she asked curiously. “Busy tomorrow night?”
“Not really,” I said, before I realized what she was asking.
“Perfect. So you’ll pick me up at seven?”
“Uh… I’ve got factory duty,” I said lamely.
“Then seven a.m. it is,” she replied proudly. “You can take me out for breakfast.”
“Wait. What?”
“See you then,” she said, before bouncing off toward another training area.
I had no idea what had just happened. I turned to Chancey. “Did I just get a date?”
