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“Slowing up in your old age?” I cocked a brow so he couldn’t see how touched I was that he’d gone back to get his coat for me. And that he was letting me hang on to his property in the first place. I’d been nothing but obnoxious to him, going so far as demanding he sign up for me to kick his ass, and he still kept coming back for more.
If his profession hadn’t already led me to believe he was a masochist, his interest—or whatever the hell it was—in me would’ve proved it.
“It took a minute for me to cut through my solid wall of admirers. The women in there ogle me like a piece of sirloin.”
He gave me an affronted look that made me melt in spite of my steely resolve. Steely resolve didn’t have much hope of withstanding Tray Knox and his sea-blue eyes, that was for damn sure.
“I have a personality, you know,” he went on. “Just staring at my dick all the time hurts my wittle feelings.”
I couldn’t help the giggle that escaped. He’d been extending his arm to me, coat gripped firmly in his fingers, but the sound made his arm fall to his side. “What?” I asked defensively.
He pulled the bag off my shoulder, then helped me into the coat. I was so surprised by the gentlemanly gesture that I didn’t try to hold him off.
“I thought I heard you laugh inside the gym, but I was never sure. You do know how.”
“Of course I know how. I laughed last night too, remember?” My nerves buzzed from his nearness, from sheer awareness of his big frame looming behind me. Then he put his cheek close to mine and my thoughts scrambled like overcooked eggs.
“You have no scent but clean,” he murmured into my hair. “You never smell like fancy soaps or perfumes. Just soap and skin. Do you have any idea how sexy that is?”
I hated that I shivered, and not from the cold that led him to zip up my jacket like I was ten. He was seducing me so slowly and casually that I couldn’t kick him back. He wasn’t really doing anything. Just being friendly. Just being pleasant.
“I have to get to work.”
He let me take back my bag, and silently, we walked up the sidewalk. Except his silence unnerved me. He was probably trying to find an all new way to worm into my psyche.
By being nice to me, for fuck’s sake. I could take anything else. Had taken it, repeatedly.
I didn’t need anyone. Didn’t want anyone. Especially Tray or Fox or whatever he was calling himself today.
At the door to Vinnie’s, I turned, ready to give him another brushoff. I didn’t like being a bitch—contrary to popular opinion, I had a kinder, gentler side—but sometimes it was necessary. I wasn’t going to lead anyone on. Especially the guy I was going to fight.
“Look, Fox—”
He grabbed the door and held it open, lifting a brow in his signature move. “Going in, Spyder?”
The snarl left my throat before I knew it was coming. “You are so going to get a knee in the nuts if you call me that anywhere outside the octagon.”
“Promises, promises.” He grinned and waved me on. His workout bag didn’t budge from its location slung over his massive arm. He wasn’t bulky enough to be unattractive, but no one could say he wasn’t built like a damn semi-truck. “After you.”
“Thanks.” I walked inside and turned to pull the door shut behind me. In his face, if need be.
But he was already striding through, his gaze detouring from me to the bar. “Think Carmine’s here now?”
“What do you need with Carmine?”
He gestured behind him. “The sign in the window? You need another bartender, right? And he’s the boss, isn’t he?”
Oh hell no.
Words failed me, vanishing down my throat into my hollow stomach like someone had applied suction with a giant bendy straw. “We don’t need you.” Disturbing visions of Fox’s forearms flexing as he mixed drinks flew through my mind. “We’re good.”
But he’d already strode to the bar and leaned over it, showing off cascades of rippling muscles through his tight shirt. “Hey, Shelly.” He flashed the blonde bartender a wide smile, reminding me of the day I’d met him.
Only two days ago. How could it only be Wednesday?
How much more could he screw with my head?
Carmine emerged from the back room and grunted at Fox to follow him. Fox shot me a grin over his shoulder, the teasing glint in his eyes promising tha
