by Emilia Finn
“Okay. What else?”
“Then I’m also paid to train one-on-one. That’s paid from the client, directly to me. Any client at any time can approach any one of us and ask if we’re available for one-on-one. Me, my brother, my cousins, or even my dad or uncles. Any Kincaid or Hart who is an employee of that gym – which is basically all of us – is able to teach. It just comes down to who has time in their schedule. Naturally, some of us are busier than others, so those schedules are trickier to get into.”
“Let me guess, you’re the busiest, because you’re the best?”
He scoffs. “No, smartass. Actually, Smalls is the busiest. She’s the oldest of our group, except for her man Ben. She’s a badass, she’s a champion, and best of all, her personal trainer all her life was my Uncle Aiden. And he’s undisputedly the best. So when someone hires Smalls, they get Aiden’s experience too. It’s a twofer. The next busiest is Bean. She’s a fucking beast in the octagon, she’s the smartest of us all, and she trained a heart transplant recipient from death to champion.”
“Wait…” I pause after tying the laces on one shoe, and turn to him. “Seriously?”
“Yep. Mac died in our gym, he got a new heart, and then years later, after being trained exclusively by Bean, he became champion.”
“That’s two girls,” I murmur. “Your two busiest trainers are girls.”
“That’s because girls are fuckin’ awesome. Especially those girls. Next best trainer after them is Jamie, who is Bean’s brother. And then we work our way down the line. I fall somewhere in the middle. I’m no Smalls, but I’m also not Ben.”
“Ben?”
“Smalls’ man. He was a world title holder on the regular circuit back before Stacked Deck became a thing. He’s a good fucking fighter. One of the best in the whole gym.”
“But?”
Luke chuckles. “But he lacks patience for anyone who isn’t Smalls. He can train her, he can train with her, and back in the day, he tutored her through high school with the patience of a saint. But put him in the cage with anyone else, and he has zero tolerance for imperfection. When someone asks to take a second to breathe, he loses his shit and rants about wasting time.” Luke grins. “Most folks steer clear of the Sasquatch for that reason.”
“Sounds… scary.”
He laughs. “He’s a sweetheart to all the girls outside the cage. If you meet him, he’ll be kind to you, he’ll hold doors, and not look at your tits, even if you’re wearing a push-up bra.”
“Chivalrous of him.”
“I’d look,” Luke admits what the whole world already knows. “In a heartbeat. But not Saint Ben. No way.”
“So that’s your day to day life? Training others, then you put in some time for yourself?”
“Yup. And in my spare time, I have to fix the pier at the lake.” He glances across the room to a clock on the set of drawers. “And I’m running out of time. I’m already a few weeks into my sentence, and I haven’t even finished pulling the screws up.”
“Better get a wriggle on, then, huh?” I pull my second shoe on, tie the laces, and push to my feet as soon as they’re done. I snag my shirt from the end of the bed, putting a stop to Luke’s unpaid peep show, then I pass close by and lean over him to press a kiss to his lips. “I seriously have to go. But you could probably text me later if you want. I’ll text first, so you have my number.”
“Wait for me and I’ll walk you out.”
He tosses the sheet aside and exposes his bottom half without a care in the world. My eyes immediately move to his crotch, my teeth latch onto my bottom lip, and deep in my stomach, that fiery ball of lust simmers and sparks.
“Made you look, huh?” He grabs me again and pulls me down to the bed. His tongue lashes out, his hands hold me captive, and though it feels weird that I’m fully dressed and he’s completely naked, I still melt into his embrace and let his mouth seduce mine. “Wanna get dinner with me tonight?”
“Sure.” I lick my bottom lip and breathe through a brand new bout of need. “Can we eat early-ish? I feel pretty good right now, but by this afternoon, my lack of sleep is gonna kick my ass.”
“Seven good for you? Back here by eight. We fuck until three. Then you can sleep for four uninterrupted hours before you have to wake up and suck my dick.”
“So much chivalry up in this apartment.” I push away from his chest and smother my laugh, lest I encourage his filthy behavior. “Seven is fine. Text me the details, and I can meet you there.”
“Or, how about I pick you up like a fuckin’ gentleman, bring you flowers, wear something nice, and pretend I’m not playing a game of ‘guess what kind of panties she’s wearing’ in my head?”
“Perfect.” I climb off the bed once more and make my way to the door. With my hand on the handle, I look back and smile for the guy who surprises me at every turn. He wants to pick me up, like a gentleman. He wants dinner, and not just a booty call. “What’s your favorite color?”
“Um…” He thinks on it for a moment, only to smile and answer with, “Green.”
“Ugh.” I grunt. “I don’t have green panties. But what if I told you I’ll wear a lacy red thong?”
He flashes a bright smile and sits on the edge of the bed. “Then I would declare my favorite color red.”
“Deal.”
I open the door and head into the hall on my own while Luke scrambles around his room in search of clothes. I’m too fast for him, too determined to get home and into the shower.
I move quietly, since I don’t want to wake Rob or Emma, but when I reach the kitchen and find Rob sitting at the table, bent over a bowl of Coco Pops while he reads the box, I look around and frown. “Emma still asleep?”
He stops chewing for a moment, scowls, and sets the box aside. “Huh?”
“First of all, it’s weird as hell to me that you and Luke are identical. I feel like that needs to be said straight up.”
“Because you just spent the night with him?”
“Yeah. I was just making out with a guy that looks like you, and it’s messing with my head. You’re like… identical.”
He chuckles. “That’s what they tell us.”
“Second, if Emma’s not here eating, then where is she?”
“At… home?” he says it slowly, like I’m stupid and unable to process simple sentences. “Where else would she be?”
“Is this not her home?”
He shakes his head. Slowly. Carefully. “No.”
“So she just sleeps over sometimes?”
“Also no…” His brows come closer together. “Do you often sleep at your best friend’s house?”
“Best friend? I don’t have a best friend, but also—”
“Leave it.” Luke swoops into the room and hooks an arm around my hips. “Say goodbye to the ugly twin, Allyson.”
“We’re identical, asshole!”
Laughing, I let Luke lead me through the door and into the hall outside the apartment.
“Holy shit,” Luke murmurs the moment the door is closed. “Oh my god.”
“What?” I frown and glance around. “What’s the problem?”
“Rob and Emma,” he hisses. “I didn’t see it till, like… yesterday. Not till you turned up and started looking at them weird.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Rob and Emma!” he says again on a huff of impatience. “You gotta understand, Em’s been around since forever. Literally. She’s a little older than Rob and I, so when I say she’s been here forever, I mean it. She was running with us as soon as we could run, she was fighting with us, causing chaos. Wherever we were, Em was there too. So it was just the way it was, right? Even now, they’re grown adults who date other people and have sex sometimes, she’s just been the girl-next-door, so when she and Rob are connected at the hip, it’s just normal to us. But then you come in, and you naturally make assumptions, and suddenly, shit is clicking in my brain.”
“That they’re in love?”
/> “Right! Are they already having sex?” Luke’s eyes widen. “Does Rob even know he wants her? Is he stupid, or just super private about it?”
“Luke, I think–”
“They’re best friends, Ally. It’s just the way it’s always been. But now maybe they’re fucking, and Emma’s always ready to throw down with bitches who want to hook up with Rob. Which means…” he frowns. “Damn. I’m in so much trouble.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m always tossing girls at him! Jesus, Ally. I owe Em a giant fucking ‘Sorry’.”
“For being his wingman?”
“Exactly! Why hasn’t she kicked my face in yet? She must hate me.”
I shrug, because honestly, from what I see in Emma’s eyes when she looks at Rob, I don’t know why she hasn’t hurt the guy’s twin brother. “She was here last night,” I say. “I got up for a drink around midnight, and they were cuddled up on the couch.”
“Cuddled?” he asks slowly. “Or sitting near each other?”
“They were…” I try to think back. “Well, not cuddled. But she put her feet in his lap.”
“Which is a totally acceptable thing to do with your best friend.” Then he flashes a wide grin. “Wanna be my best friend?”
“What?”
“You just said you don’t have one. Now you do.” He smacks a kiss to my lips and steals a small chunk of my heart. “But Rob and Emma… they’ve been besties since they learned how to spell B-F-F. No one looks at them twice, because it’s always been this way. But now you’re putting these ideas in my head, and suddenly, I’ve decided I’m gonna enjoy the Emma and Rob show. She’ll be the end of him,” he chuckles. “It’ll be so much fun to watch.”
“Okay, well…” I pull away from Luke’s hold and take a step back. “You enjoy that telenovela life. Let me know when they decide to kiss.”
“I sure will, best friend. You’ll be the first person I tell.”
“Uh… okay.” I try not to let my heart flutter from the ‘best friend’ references. “I’ll… um… dinner?”
“Yep! I’ll be at your door at seven… best friend.”
“You can stop calling me your best friend now.”
“Never! It’s brand new, and I ain’t done playing with it yet. Have a fun day, best friend.”
“Luke…”
“You can call me ‘best friend’, too, ya know? The phrase can be male or female.”
“I’m just gonna go.”
“Okay, best friend. Have an awesome day.”
“Goodbye, Luke.”
“Goodbye, best friend! See you tonight.”
It’s already closing in on eight a.m., so I have less than an hour to get showered, changed, across town to the bakery for my iced coffee – Darcy would assume I died if I stop my routine now – then I have to get to Sonia’s office and pray the llama drama is over, and my job remains.
Nevermind the pesky fact that, yesterday, I swore I had never slept with Luke.
Now… that fact isn’t all that factual.
I race back toward my hotel, but I make sure to enjoy the warmth of the sun as I go. Fall is already here, and soon, winter will take over and steal this kind of pleasure, so I study the fallen leaves, the closing flowers, I search for bees, though I know they won’t be about. They’ll be somewhere else in the world, pollinating flowers and lapping up the spring warmth, and while they’re doing that, we’ll be here, grumbling about the incoming snowy winter.
So for today, just before I walk inside my hotel and lose the sun for as long as it takes to shower and change, I look up to the sky and smile at the warmth that tickles my cheeks.
You’d think, by this time in my life, I’d know that walking with my eyes closed is a bad idea.
I crash into something solid, squeak out my surprise, and prepare to fall to the ground when my feet tangle. But then strong hands wrap around my biceps, and hold me up. My eyes snap to a pair of green with golden flecks, to short, sandy-brown hair, to a man’s jaw whose stubble is trimmed short and neat.
“Oh my gosh!” I stumble and try to right myself. My feet imitate a cartoon octopus slipping on a banana peel. My hair flips into my eyes, and my hands clutch at the man’s arms before I fall to my face and completely humiliate myself.
But I guess I already did that.
“I’m so sorry!” I fix my footing, slam a hand to my thundering chest, and when I’m no longer at risk of falling down, I take another look at this man who looks to be mid-thirties, perhaps forty. He’s not old, and he’s not ugly. “I’m so clumsy, and I’m so sorry.”
The man chuckles good-naturedly. He smiles in a way that arrows straight for my heart, and when he speaks, his voice is low and dark, rumbling and sure. “It’s fine. Are you okay, Miss…?”
He waits for my name, and though I’m not usually one to hand it over so easily, for some reason, I thrust a hand forward now. “Ally. Allyson, sir. Did I hurt you?”
“Me?” He takes my hand and shakes with a slow, firm pump. “You didn’t hurt me.” Releasing my hand when it would be impolite to hold on any longer, the guy pokes a thumb over his shoulder toward the hotel. “You staying here?”
“Um… yeah.” I exhale a soft laugh. “Yeah, it’s pretty nice in there. You too?”
“Well, not yet. I just got to town, but I was heading in to get myself a room.”
“Oh, well, welcome to town. I can vouch for the hotel; it’s nice enough. It’s no five-star in the city, but it has its charms.” And why am I blurting out words? Unimportant words. “This town is nice too,” I rush on. “I don’t think I’ve eaten anything bad since I got here, so whatever you tend to eat, it’s unlikely you’ll be disappointed.”
“Well, that’s comforting. Do you int—”
“Ally?” A deep, booming voice makes me jump with surprise.
I spin, and find Luke jogging across the street in sweatpants and a Rollin On Gym tank, and though he’s smiling, he watches my companion with something a little short of friendly.
“Hey.” He jogs right up to me, wraps an arm around my hip, and I guess he’s into being the most obnoxious person in a group, because he slams his lips to mine and makes the kissy noises a little girl might make when marrying her Barbie and Ken dolls.
Luke releases me after a moment with a loud, seal-breaking gasp, and then he sets me back on my feet and looks to the guy watching us. “Bro… You good?”
“Luke!” I smack his chest and turn back to the guy who watches us with a lifted brow. “Geez. I’m so sorry. First I almost knock you over, then you’re treated to… well… that.”
“It’s okay.” He looks to Luke and offers a hand. “I didn’t intend to step on toes. I’m Jason. I’m new to town—”
“And need a tour from the first cute girl you happen across?” Luke scoffs under his breath. “Yeah, I’ve used that one before.”
I narrow my eyes and glare at the guy who still holds me like I’m a possession and not a human. “Wow.”
“Um… no.” Jason drops his hands into his pockets and rocks back on his heels. “But you and her?”
“Love of my life,” Luke drops out there for all three of us to stare at. “Staying in town long?”
Jason grins and brings a hand up to rub at his stubble. “Undecided. I just got here, and have to head over to a job site soon for work. Once I do that, the length of my stay will be clearer. Could be a few days, could be a couple months. It really depends on factors that are outside my control.”
“Well, that’s cool. Ally?” Luke drops a noisy kiss on my cheek and nudges me a step to the left. “I’ll walk you up to your room.”
“Luke, you’re being—”
“Goodbye, Jason.” He waves to the guy and leads me into the hotel lobby. “Fuckface.”
The second we’re inside and the doors separate us from Jason, I escape Luke’s hold and smack his chest. “What the hell is your problem?”
“What? He was looking at you. It’s my job to make sure he kno
ws you’re busy with someone else. Someone better – evolutionarily speaking.”
“Really? Who?” I look around the slow-moving lobby and lift my shoulders. “I see no one here who has evolved beyond the club-swinging barbarians from a cave.”
“Burn.” Luke rolls his eyes and leads me toward the staircase on the other side of this large, communal space. “If you think you kinda wanna go back out there and flirt with that guy, then we’re gonna have problems. But if you don’t feel like you wanna slide up on his business, then we’re square. You’ve lost nothing by my intervention.”
“You were rude to that guy, and I now smell like pee. And why the hell are you here? I feel like if this was a slasher film, we’d all be shouting at the screen right now, saying you’re the stalker-slash-killer.”
“I went for a run to work off a little of last night’s energy. I run every single day, it’s just part of my routine. And sure, I came this way because I kinda like looking at you. So fuckin’ sue me.”
“So… stalking?”
“Appreciating,” he grumbles as we step onto my floor. “Every guy and every girl in the history of the world who like each other behave in such a way that they want to see the other a little more. I was running, so instead of turning left like I normally would, I turned right and came this way. If I happened to see you, then awesome. If I didn’t, then that’s cool, because I still got my run in. What’s the damn problem?”
“You mean apart from the fact you were seriously rude to Jason?”
“Jason.” Luke adopts a feminine voice and mocks the guy’s name. “Oh, Jason, you’re just so handsome and sweet.”
“You are seriously disturbed.” I insert my key into the lock and push my room door open. “And I’m going to have a shower. Despite your little show of insecurity, I still have your mess in my underwear, so I’m gonna need to go wash that off.” I stop just inside my room, and when Luke tries to waltz on in, I slap a hand to his chest and smile. “Without you. You can go back to running. Perhaps try to work some of that testosterone out of your system.”
