AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He scoffs. “Hard pass, Nova, but maybe another day. I have class now, anyway.” He turns and heads our way, and parting the ropes, he easily climbs through and stops in front of me with a silly smirk. “Help me undo my gloves, Kitty Cat?”
Normally, a name as cringeworthy as Kitty Cat would have my knee planted somewhere in his groin, but the way Jimmy says it makes me smile.
I reach forward and begin peeling the sweaty Velcro back, but suddenly he’s gone, and Bobby’s standing in his place. “You can take your own fucking gloves off, ass. Get lost.”
Jimmy leaves with a laugh and drags Jack along with him, and I turn back and come face to face with a sweaty and testosterone pumped Bobby.
Oh boy.
My nerves were forgotten for a moment while I watched the guys spar, but now that he’s panting in my face and his wet hair hangs in his eyes, my heart thumps triple time. Sweaty Bobby is a million times sexier than club Bobby. That’s for damn sure.
When I chicken out and break eye contact first, he uses one of his gloved hands to lift my chin. “Hey.” He smiles a charming white toothed smile, and somehow, oddly, the light tinge of blood on his lip only makes it prettier. “I’m glad you made it. I worried you’d vanish on me again.”
My hands itch to reach up and touch his lip. “Are you okay? That looked like it hurt.”
“No, Jimmy doesn’t hit hard.” He grins. “Didn’t hurt at all.” Whether it hurt or not, I can already see the swelling on his jaw. His slightly scruffy, chiseled jaw that I kind of want to lick… “Are you excited for your first day?”
I clear my throat awkwardly. “Ah, no, not really.” I frown at the floor. “Kinda wetting my pants, actually.”
He laughs and turns us toward the exit. “Alright pee-pants, let’s get started. Jack’s with Jimmy, so that leaves me and you for today.” He steers me by the arm through a large set of double doors to a room covered in blue mats, and before I step onto the blue, he stops me gently. “Shoes off.”
I look down between us, and for some insane reason, the sight of his bare feet sends me a hundred shades of embarrassed red. I’m such an idiot, but he doesn’t tease. I quickly flick each shoe off and toss them against the wall, then I turn back and look up in question.
“Okay, so today, I wanna evaluate you. See what you can do, see your flexibility, that way I can place you in the appropriate class.”
“So, it’s just me and you?” My heart pounds painfully in my chest, and nervous bile rises up in my throat. This can’t be real. This can’t be happening.
He smiles teasingly. “Yup. Just me and you. You’ll need to warm up first. Go over to the wall and select a rope, then come back here and we’ll get you started.”
My face is calm and composed, but my brain is screamingNo! Not skipping!“Are you skipping, too?”
He smirks and licks that errant smudge of blood away. “I’m already warm, babe. I can just watch.”
Of course he can.
Petulantly, I stomp to the far wall and select a rope. I hate him already. I liked him enough to hope that I’d dream about him at night, but pretty face and big muscles be damned, I hate Bobby Kincaid now, and wouldn’t even be sad if he was hit by a bus tonight.
“Did you say something?”
I turn back and growl under my breath, “No.” I hope he teaches me how to hit soon. I feel like it could come in handy.
He laughs and tosses his boxing gloves to the floor. “Your pants are on fire, Kit, but whatever, we need to start. I want you to do three rounds of three minutes. In each rest period, you’ll do ten sit-ups and ten pushups.”
I balk. “You want sit-ups and pushupsinthe rest period? When do I actually get to rest?”
“Better move fast then, huh?” He looks at the clock on the wall. “You ready?”
I glare at him, but I position myself with the rope before I decide to strangle him with it. It’s tempting. It’s so tempting, my knuckles turn white around the handles of the rope.
“Go.”
I jump, once, twice, three times, and the burn of humiliation consumes me. I hate it. I hate this. My whole body bounces and jiggles in all the wrong ways.
He looks over and frowns when I stop. “What’s the matter?”
“I don’t feel comfortable doing this while you watch. Can you skip, too? Or you’re welcome to leave the room.”
His grin turns up a few notches. “Nope, I’ll stay. I’msupercomfortable watching.”
