AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Fifteen
Lexi
Ilearned quite a bit today. Not all of it from the lessons that Alex and Trevor were teaching, but some of it was. What I truly learned was that I missed my martial arts training. When I had been active in my training, I’d envisioned myself becoming a Master when I hit my fourth degree. I loved the focus, the energy that it brought out in me, and it had made me feel so confident.
Of course, all of that changed when Will died. I’d quit martial arts when I’d moved here. Even before I’d moved, I’d lost most of my motivation and had attended classes out of routine. Staying on a routine had helped me make it through the days, weeks, and months until I couldn’t take the routine anymore.
Before my brother and Will had died, I hadn’t been much of a routine person. I liked to live by the seat of my pants. I wanted to have fun. I hung out with my friends, dinner, and dancing at least once, if not twice a week, that would turn into early morning breakfasts. I worked out, played hard, laughed often, and loved. I had loved.
In the last five years, I’d become a mere shell of myself. I worked, and while I did go out on Tuesday nights with Clare, I was home usually by ten. Hell, before Will died, I wouldn’t have even left my house before ten, and I’d still make it to work the next day on time.
Of course, I did learn a few other things from the training today, but as I had listened and performed the maneuvers, I’d been rehashing my old life. Poor Matt was getting the brunt of my frustration as I drew conclusions about myself. One of those conclusions was that I was ready to live my life again. I wanted to get back out there and experience more. I wanted more friends, more fun, and I was pretty sure that I wanted to get back into martial arts.
I hadn’t missed the look of respect in Alex’s eyes as I’d tossed him around, or the one of pride. That had reminded me so much of Will.
Will hadn’t trained with me, but his sister, Loretta, did. I’d known him growing up as my brother’s best friend. He’d teased me endlessly, and it wasn’t until I saw him years later that he saw me as more than the pesky little sister. Loretta had been my partner during my first-degree black belt test, and after the test, Will had congratulated me and then asked me out in the same breath. After that, anytime he watched me train, I saw the pride in his eyes. He loved watching me, whether it was sparring, breaking boards, or doing forms.
In fact, he enjoyed watching me so much that he often wanted me to send him videos of my training while he was overseas. He told me that the guys in his unit loved watching me too, which was both a little odd and rather exciting, also.
“So, you’ve had quite a bit of fighting experience,” Ralph said after we were on the road.
“Not fighting, training. Martial arts isn’t about fighting; it’s about defusing a situation and protecting oneself. You are better to deescalate a situation and walk away, than to fight.”
He shrugged. “It’s still impressive that you can do that. I can’t imagine my ex-wife ever doing anything like that. She’d prefer to sweat in a sauna, not while doing exercise.”
I laughed softly. “I did enjoy it.” I glanced out the window as I spoke and noticed a martial arts studio. It was a different style than what I had previously trained for, but as we drove, I noticed a few other places too. How had I lived here for five years and never saw all the martial arts locations? Amazing how your mind can shut something down so quickly.
“Can I interest you in dinner tonight?”
“Um,” I glanced toward him, “I actually need to head back to the office and get some work done. Can you drop me off there? I didn’t expect to be out of the office and want to check messages and emails.”
“Not a bad idea,” he commented and raised a brow toward me. “I could have dinner brought in for us.”
I wanted to say no, but if the two of us were going to be working in the office this evening, then we might as well share dinner. Maybe during our meal, I could explain to Ralph that things weren’t going to work out between us. “Okay, that sounds good.”
With that decided, we talked about the training and about the engineers that would be heading overseas soon. When we arrived at the office, there were still quite a few people there, and I disappeared into my office to do some catch-up.
It was two hours later when there was a knock on the door, and I looked up to see Ralph. “You ready to eat? Dinner is in the conference room.”
My stomach volunteered the answer, and it was so loud he heard it from across the room. We both laughed, and I pushed back from my desk, stepping around it. It felt weird to be in the office wearing workout clothes, and I noticed his gaze slip down my body. I really needed to have that conversation with him.
The office was quiet now, most of the lights off, and I suddenly felt a little uncomfortable to be here with him alone. The bright lights of the conference room quickly removed those odd feelings, but only for a moment as I paused beside my seat and felt Ralph step up behind me, his hand going to my hips and sliding around to my stomach.
My entire body tensed, and I grabbed his hands. “What are you doing?”
His mouth nuzzled my ear as he pulled me back against his body. “I’ve been dying to touch you like this all day. You’re a gorgeous woman, Alexandra.”
“Ralph—” I started to speak, but he cut that off when he surprised me by spinning me around in his arms and kissing me hard. I pushed back against his chest. “Stop!” I hissed.
He stared down at me. “Do you really want me to stop, Alexandra?”
“Yes, I do want you to stop. Please let me go, Ralph. This is not going to happen, so take your hands off me right now.”
He sighed as he dropped his hands. “This is about him, isn’t it?”
“Him?” I knew who he was talking about but was trying to play dumb.
He spiked a brow. “You and Alex. Everyone saw the two of you today. I know you were just demonstrating, but there seemed to be more going on between you two.” He paused and then spoke softly. “He can’t give you the security in life that I can, Alexandra.”
