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Not just because I wanted her to feel like she could trust me, but also because it made me think that perhaps one day I could come clean about my own choices. She might not hate me for them. Maybe she’d find it in her heart to understand, if not forgive me.
I didn’t need her forgiveness for the way I lived my life, but I wanted it. She’d been my parental figure for so long that I still craved her approval, even as I found ways to defy her.
God, I was still such a kid in so many ways. But I was learning.
“Thanks for not wigging out about it. I know it’s tough to swallow.” She wrinkled her nose. “Ugh. Worst pun ever, considering.”
It took me a minute—guess I was still too wrapped up in my own pointless melodrama—but once I got it, I laughed and hooked her arm with mine. “So bad.”
Arm-in-arm, we wandered around the space, talking, making plans. Teasing each other as we always did. We eventually wandered upstairs to the dance studio’s former juice bar, and I cringed a little at the dirty floors. It looked like an Orange Julius had seeped into the tiles and crusted over back behind the counter.
“Elbow grease,” Mia proclaimed. “Just needs a little elbow grease.”
“Make that a lot.”
I could see the possibilities, though, ones that kept us chatting throughout the ride to The Cage. Mia wanted to talk to Fox, who was supposed to be meeting with a client, and I hoped to run into Gio for a liplock or two, assuming he was there. He had a fight tonight, so I figured he’d be getting in some last minute training, but he did something at the Boys & Girls Club a few days a week. Yet another thing he played close to the vest.
Okay, so he played all the things close to the vest, except sex. There, he was plenty open. And giving. And umm, holy shit, could that guy eat me out.
“Is it hot in here or just me?” I waved a hand in front of my face.
Mia narrowed her eyes at me. “It’s October, and the A/C is blasting. You aren’t getting sick, are you?”
No, just horny, and that required a different sort of injection.
“No. It’s just warm. Unusual weather for October.”
“It’s fifty-six degrees out.”
“Still warm.”
Mia gave me the side-eye, but let it drop.
We arrived at The Cage fifteen minutes later, and Mia made a beeline for one of the dojos in the hopes of finding Fox. On the way, we passed Evie Pierce, the woman who’d broken my sister’s arm in a fight last month. I scowled at Evie, though she paid me no mind. She was too busy doing mat work and arguing out of the side of her mouth with the man in a suit crouched beside her. Not her trainer, I was almost sure. But boy, he sure seemed to be schooling her. And she wasn’t having a bit of it.
“Sutton Pierce,” Mia explained, noticing the object of my attention. “He owns Mark’s Gym. Surely Kizzy has mentioned him to you. He’s her hell boss.”
“Ohhhh, hell boss.” I nodded. “Yes, I’ve heard of him. Umm, he’s hot.”
She glanced at him and pursed her lips. “You think? To me, he looks like a dick.”
“A stuffy dick.” I took in his tailored pants and dark gray suit jacket. It wasn’t exactly the usual attire for a MMA gym. “But still hot. I’d do him.”
As soon as I said the words, I glanced around. I hadn’t meant anything by what I’d said. Sutton was too old for me, and besides, the English tea biscuit sort so wasn’t my type. It was just my usual kind of gossipy girl talk. But it was different when your secret lover dude might be spying on you from behind a piece of equipment.
Luckily, Gio wasn’t anywhere in sight.
Mia rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t do him. He’s a prick. He’s the reason I had to leave Mark’s, because he didn’t want illegal fighting to be affiliated with his gym. I don’t understand how Kizzy tolerates him.”
“She’s stubborn as hell? And hopes to make his life a living nightmare?”
“Yeah.” Mia shook her head, clearly winding up. “And then it turns out his sister fought overseas. Yet he has such a problem with cage fighting. Prick,” she said again.
“Hot prick,” I agreed.
“Do I even want to know?”
Mia tipped back her head as Fox laid his hands on her shoulders. “No, probably not.”
