AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I chuckle, not letting myself be intimidated. Phoenix may know how to fight, but he doesn’t unnerve me. There are other ways to destroy people.
“Very interesting indeed,” I say, throwing his own words back in his face.
“Fuck you,” he bites out.
I outright laugh now. I think in another life, he and I could be good mates.
I drop my arms and extend a hand out to him.
“You have nothing to worry about,” I tell him. Nera is buried deep enough into my thoughts that my only priority is finding a way to dig her out.
His eyes drop to my hand and back, his gaze contemplative. His hand folds into mine and we shake on it, an understanding passing between us.
You don’t mess with what’s mine, I won’t mess with what’s yours.
Even though from what I’ve seen, Phoenix and Sixtine despise each other.
Even though I can’t let myself have Nera.
He nods and leaves wordlessly, leaving me alone with thoughts about how to get Nera out of my brain before she makes a permanent home for herself there.
???
I brace myself and blow out a ragged breath.
“Ten…eleven…twelve,” I call out loud, setting the dumbbell back on the weight rack.
My biceps are screaming from the effort but I only allow myself fifteen seconds of rest before I pick up the next weight up and go in for my next set.
“One…two…three,” I churn out.
I’ve always been more of a runner. Whenever I need to get any emotion or nervous energy out, I run. I’ve always been able to focus solely on putting one foot in front of the other until I’m lulled into being completely disconnected from my thoughts.
But running is no longer enough. In fact, it stopped being enough two weeks ago when I first went to the factory and boxed, and it’s only gotten less effective since.
Focusing on putting one foot in front of the other no longer works. I need abject pain to pull my thoughts away from the dark-haired, dark-eyed temptress that haunts my dreams. It’s only when I punch the bag that I had hung in my apartment until my hands and wrists are swollen, or lift weights until my muscles feel like they’re going to snap in two that I get a brief moment of respite from the torment of seeing her every day and having to pretend she’s just another face in the crowd.
True to my words from when I walked out of the classroom after the hottest fuck of my life, I haven’t approached her since.
The problem is, neither has she.
She’s been everywhere I look and never looking at me.
It’s what I wanted and I’m enjoying it about as much as being stabbed with a hot poker.
Hence the need to exercise the anger and bitterness out so I don’t do something stupid like break into her apartment and kidnap her. At the rate at which I’m going, I’ll be proficient to expert level in four to five new sports by the time the year is over.
The door to the professor’s-only gym opens and the woman herself walks in like I’ve summoned her.
She freezes in the doorframe, her dark eyes looking at me.
Finally.
A breath rattles loudly up my throat and falls from my lips before I can catch it.
I cover it with a scowl.
Two weeks of hard work ruined in one infuriating, exciting moment.
