Page 24 of To Love the Stars too Fondly

She shrugged, but her good humor remained. “Come on up.”

Alex slipped easily through the guardrails. I tried to match her grace but instead had to awkwardly duck and shimmy, not expecting them to be soft.

“Rule number one,” Alex began, and she bounced a bit on her toes, taking a square stance. “This isn’t traditional boxing. This is kickboxing. It’s different. You want to stand broad and strong.”

I matched her stance as best as I could, including her little hop, triumphant when her gaze fell to my bouncing chest. “Rule number one, teacher?”

Mischief twisted her smile. “The real rule number one is to never get into a fight. They’re way faster than the movies show, and you never know if someone has a gun. So, I guess rule number two would be, if you do get in a fight, break their nose and run the hell away.”

“And how would I do that, oh wise teacher?”

Alex chuckled as she approached. “I’m gonna show you.”

With her gloveless hands, she directed my body, showing me how to pivot my foot and extend my arm. “Keep your shoulder up,” she added, but I could hardly pay attention as she showed me, distracted by the flex of her bicep. “Then it protects your cheek if you get punched back. That’s your jab.”

“Not gonna lie, I was expecting more kicking in kickboxing.”

“We’ll get to that. But first, your cross.”

She walked me through the basics, my brain working overtime to keep up. It didn’t help that she all too frequently directed my arms, her touch lightning upon my skin. She smelled of rich cologne. Not the cheap shit permeating college locker rooms, but something with depth, with spice, straddling the line of masculine and feminine, just as Alex herself did. Her sweaty hair somehow fell perfectly to frame her engrossing eyes, and so lost I was, it hit me all at once that I was having a really fun time.

“Okay,” Alex said as she grabbed her gloves. “We’re going to practice your punches. Tap my gloves with yours. We’ll do a jab, cross, hook, and another cross.”

I’d hardly broken a sweat; Alex wasn’t actually working me that hard, a tinge of amusement infiltrating every word. “Is this the part where I get to punch you?” I teased.

“If you can catch me off-guard, go for it.”

I followed as she directed, occasionally throwing a weaker jab at her face—which she deftly redirected like a windmill. It was sweaty work after all, a sheen breaking against my skin as I focused both on following her hands and plotting how to best get that punch in.

Jab, cross, hook, cross, and repeat, repeat, repeat.

When Chiara entered the room from an office, Alex spared her a half-second glance—

—giving me just enough time to make contact with her shoulder.

“Woo!” Hyped on adrenaline, I cheered, punching my arms in the air. “That’s a proper hit if I’ve ever seen one.”

She validated it by rubbing along the joint. “Maybe I shouldn’t have taught you the hook yet, damn.”

“Ms. Winthrop, I think we had a deal. Shall we proceed to the locker room?”

She chuckled as she removed her gloves. “We shall.”

My adrenaline burned in my blood, but something far more potent burned deeper.

In the locker room, a jolt of excitement coursed through me when I heard the door click as Alex shut it. She leaned against it, arms crossed expectantly.

Oh, she was in peak fuckboy mode. Something about it made me shiver, heat welling in my core. Already, she undressed me with her gaze. I hooked my fingers under the band of my sports bra. “And this is different from last night?”

“It hurts me that you think you aren’t hot enough to break my vow of celibacy.” She beckoned me forward with her finger, a puppet master to my strings. “Do you want me to fuck you?”

My mind filled with filthy images, my need to be pressed naked against her glistening body driving out all sane thoughts. “I want you all over me and inside.” I pulled up the band of my sports bra, my breasts dropping into view.

Alex none-too-subtlety licked her lips. “Those are good tits.”

I shook my breasts just so, gratified when Alex’s pupils engulfed her pretty irises. “Oh, I know.” I hummed as I pulled my sports bra all the way off, adding a little bounce to my step as I sauntered to her side. “I assume you’ve seen a lot of tits?”

“Is that a trick question?”