by Megan Hart
‘Only if you let it be. What did he mean when he said “We’ll do this another time”?’
I pressed the ice pack against my head. ‘Don’t know, because I am never going to see him again.’
‘But if you do?’
‘I’ll ignore him.’
She stuck her feet up on the arm of the sofa. ‘He’s even hotter than he used to be and that’s saying something.’
‘I don’t need to hear that.’
‘And you look great in that dress. He didn’t take his eyes off you. The two of you have insane chemistry.’
‘I don’t need to hear that either.’ Every time I thought about my embarrassing behaviour, I wanted to slide under the sofa—except you never quite knew what you were going to find under our sofa. ‘I feel hot all over.’
My sister stood up. ‘I’ll get you that fire blanket.’
4
DESPITE MY THROBBING head, I showed up to work early. I wasn’t going to let an unexpected encounter with Hunter derail my life. He was my past, not my future. We had new management. We were now officially owned by the Black Belt Corporation. There was no way I’d risk giving them any reason to get rid of me. Hopefully, they’d see my bruised head and take it as a sign I was dedicated to my job.
My first class was waiting. As well as karate, I taught self-defence and I’d had the same group of women for the past year. We talked about threat awareness—I felt as if I ought to sit in on my own class after what had happened the night before—and I went through the areas of the body most susceptible to attack, in my case my heart, and demonstrated basic self-defence techniques. Sometimes I thought these women turned up only for the companionship, but I enjoyed the class and I liked to think if they ever needed to defend themselves, they might remember what I’d taught them.
Today as I got them into position for the warm-up, all they could talk about was some hot guy they’d seen on the way into the gym. This wasn’t unusual, because the place was teeming with hot guys. As day jobs went, it was a good one, which was another reason I was wary about the change of management.
‘Have you seen him, Rosie?’
‘Who?’ I tried to get them to focus but it was hopeless. The whole hour passed like that, with them exchanging giggles and asides. At the end of the class I sent them all off for a cold shower.
I had an hour before I taught my under-sixteen karate class, and as the new manager still hadn’t asked to see me, I decided to use the time to train. After the night before, I needed to let off steam.
I started with cardio. All martial arts place a heavy focus on body conditioning. It’s not enough to practice competitive fighting techniques. You have to be fit. Sometimes I run in the morning before work. More often I just find time in my day to use one of the gym or fitness suites. I skip a lot. And although it makes people like Brian shudder, the truth is the Muay Thai is a very effective workout.
Huge glass walls looked over the river in our main gym, so at least you had a decent view while you were punishing your body.
The place was half-empty and I warmed up and then focused on bag work. Because we used hands, feet, knees and elbows to attack, the bags were longer and heavier than normal punch bags. Muay Thai was called the art of eight limbs for a reason. Kicking, kneeing and elbowing a kick bag increased your stamina and power. After the fiasco of the night before, I worked on driving the leg in repeat kicks. If I hadn’t messed up, I wouldn’t have needed to be rescued. I was going to make sure it didn’t happen again. But as I smacked my shin into the bag, I didn’t pretend it was one of those four guys; I pretended it was Hunter. I was almost enjoying myself until I heard his voice behind me.
‘You’re straightening your leg and losing power.’
For a moment I thought I’d imagined it because I was pretending to kick him.
No such luck.
Hunter was standing there, black T-shirt and track pants skimming a body hard with muscle. There was just a hint of the dangerous about him and a self-confidence that had always drawn me as much as his looks. Sexy didn’t begin to describe him. My gaze locked on to his, blue on to black. I was out of breath from smacking my shin into the heavy bag and staring at him didn’t do anything to calm my heart rate. ‘What are you doing here? Are you stalking me?’
‘How are you feeling?’ He was looking at my head. ‘Any aftereffects? Dizziness? Nausea?’
I had both those things but neither had anything to do with the blow to the head. Being in the same room as him turned my brain and my knees to pulp. ‘I’m fine.’
He lifted his hand and pushed my hair aside so that he could take a better look. The warmth of his fingers brushed my skin and I felt as if I’d been electrocuted.
‘What are you doing here?’
‘I should be the one asking you that question. You should have taken the day off.’
‘We’ve had a change of management. The last thing I need is to lose my job on top of everything else.’
‘You wouldn’t lose your job.’
‘How do you know?’
His gaze slid back to mine. ‘Because I’m the management.’
For a moment I thought I’d misheard and then I stared into those dark velvet eyes and knew I hadn’t. ‘Fit and Physical has been taken over by the Black Belt Corporation.’
‘That’s right. I own the Black Belt Corporation.’
‘You?’ It hadn’t occurred to me it could be him. I felt stupid. I hadn’t taken any notice of the word Black in the company name. But now I thought about it, it was obvious. Hunter had trained in this place. Spent every day here growing up. He’d loved it as much as I did.
And he was back.
Now I really did feel sick.
‘You own Fit and Physical?’ My palms were sweaty. I wiped them over my workout pants. I noticed he was wearing the same black T-shirt all the staff wore and wondered why I hadn’t seen that the moment he walked in.
‘I was going to tell you last night but I thought you’d had enough of a shock for one evening.’
James, one of the other instructors, walked into the room. ‘Mr. Black—er, Hunter, could I just—?’
‘Not now.’ Hunter didn’t even turn his head. He kept his gaze fixed on me and my skin burned as if I’d lain naked in the heat of the midday sun. My mouth was as dry as if I’d hiked through the desert. Once again I wished I’d saved this man for a time when I was better able to cope with him. I’d wasted what could have been the hottest, most exciting relationship of my life on my messed-up teenage self. I wished I could wind the clock back. I’d ignore the angst and enjoy the man.
James took one look at Hunter’s face and then mine and backed out of the room, no doubt to spread the word that Rosie Miller was about to get her marching orders from the new boss.
I stooped and picked up my water. ‘Right. Well, I’d better leave.’
‘Why would you leave?’
Because I was about to leap on him, strip him naked and enjoy the sex without any of the angst that went with relationships. ‘I think it’s best.’
‘Are you really going to walk out on a job you enjoy because we were once lovers?’
We both knew he hadn’t been just my lover—he’d been my everything. Hunter had filled all those empty gaps in my life and when he’d walked away, I hadn’t been sure I’d hold together. It had been like playing emotional Jenga. Once that all-important piece had been removed, the whole structure had collapsed. It made me cringe to think about it.
Fortunately, I’d rebuilt myself and I was pretty robust now. I wasn’t going to blow over in a strong wind and I wasn’t going to let the threads of my life unravel over a man.
There was no way I would walk out on a job I loved just because working alongside Hunter reminded me of the most humiliating time of my life.
‘I wasn’t suggesting I leave the job,’ I lied, ‘simply the room. Unless you’d like me to leave the job?’
I dumped the problem right back in his lap.
Maybe he couldn’t cope with working with me. Maybe he was afraid I’d revert to being that clingy, embarrassing creature he’d once known. I couldn’t really blame him.
‘You’re exceptionally talented and I want talented people around me. That’s the way to build a successful business. And we’re going to grow this place into a successful business.’
The compliment robbed me of breath. So did his use of the word we.
I swallowed, wondering what it was about this man that turned me to a lump of quivering jelly. My skin tingled and my nerve endings hummed. I looked into his eyes and forgot where I was.
I was seconds away from doing something really stupid like kissing him when the door opened and another instructor put her head round. This time it was Caroline and the moment I saw the way she looked at Hunter, I realized he was the guy my self-defence class had been talking about.
Grateful for the interruption, I nodded and walked past him out of the room, trying to come to terms with the fact that my dream job had turned to torture. I was going to have to see him every day. Work with him. And not kiss him. I’d had my chance with him and I’d messed it up.
I taught the rest of my classes on automatic.
All I wanted to do was go home early, but I had a late one-to-one with a lovely guy who had lost four stone and was determined to lose another two. He never missed a session, so I wasn’t going to be the one who let him down.
As usual, I was the last one in the building.
I walked into the female staff changing room and stripped off.
I stood under the water, letting it wash over me. All I could think of was Hunter. I adjusted the temperature to cold, wondering how I was going to work alongside him without revealing how I felt. I was going to have to take a lot of cold showers.
I pulled on yoga pants and a T-shirt, left my hair loose and walked out of the changing room slap into Hunter.
He put his hands on my shoulders to steady me and I felt the strength in those fingers and the heat of his body. Awareness shot through me. It was as if my body was programmed just to respond to him, which was frustrating on so many levels when you considered I was working hard to convince myself that this was going to be fine. That my self-control was up to this challenge.
‘What are you doing here?’ I blurted the words out and he raised an eyebrow.
‘I own the place.’
‘Thanks for reminding me. For a moment it had slipped my mind.’
His hands were still on my shoulders. ‘We should talk, Ninja.’
‘Not a good time. I’ve got to dash. I’m meeting Hayley.’
Instead of releasing me, he tightened his grip on my shoulders. ‘Are you going to spend the whole time avoiding me?’
‘I’m not avoiding you. But I have a life.’ A pretty boring, mundane life that was depressingly low on hot men, but that was my own fault. ‘Have a good evening, Hunter.’ I tried to move away from him but we were still toe to toe.
‘I have plans for this place. Exciting plans. Want to hear them?’
I had plans, too. They involved getting out of here as fast as possible. ‘Er…maybe later.’
His eyes were hooded. ‘You’re finding this difficult.’
‘Not at all, but I’m already late.’ I peeled myself away from him and tried to walk away but I had shaky legs and tripped over my own feet, or maybe it was his feet. Either way, I landed against the solid wall of his chest.
Oh, holy crap.
I heard him curse softly. Felt his hands grip my arms. Felt heat, strength and pumping male power. He smelled delicious and I closed my eyes for a moment, breathing him in. I looked up and my eyes had a close-up view of his jaw with its five o’clock shadow. The contrast between us had always fascinated me. His dark to my light. I was strong, but my arms were lean and sinewy; his were bulky and powerful and his biceps felt as if someone had pushed rocks under his skin. Being this close to him made me dizzy. I was so aware of him. The chemistry was electric, as if my body refused to pay attention to the messages from my brain. There was a tightening low in my stomach, a growing heat that spread from my core to my limbs.
And then we were kissing.
Not tentatively. Not gently. It was rough and raw. Hot and desperate. We kissed as if this were our last moment on Earth and we were going to suck it dry. His kiss was as skilled and every bit as exciting as I remembered. I felt the press of hard muscle through the fabric of his track pants, felt his hands cup my face as he focused all his attention on my mouth. It took one second for me to know for sure my teenage self hadn’t exaggerated how this had felt. Two seconds to remember how it had been with this man. I was virtually crawling all over him in an attempt to get closer, but he held me firm and steady, his expert mouth drugging my brain, sending my head spinning in dizzy circles because Hunter didn’t just take when he kissed—he gave.
I felt the thick ridge of his erection pressed against me, the hardness of his thighs, the solid strength of male muscle as he tightened his arms around me, kicked open the door to the changing room I’d just exited and propelled me back inside.
The door crashed back against the wall and I jumped. ‘You’ll be in trouble for destruction of property.’
‘My property.’ He growled the words against my mouth and I was wondering whether he was talking about me or the building when he flattened me against the wall and suddenly I couldn’t think of anything but the way his mouth felt on mine.
My fingers were jammed in his hair. His hands were on my bottom, holding me hard against him. His mouth ravaged mine, hot and demanding. We were out of control. I knew it. He knew it. Neither of us did anything to stop it. Certainly not me. His hands slid inside my yoga pants. Heat flashed across my skin. I shifted restlessly against him, desperate for him to use those skilled fingers of his where I needed it most. He didn’t. Instead he slowly drove me mad, stroking me with expert fingers, touching me with erotic precision until my hands dug hard into his scalp and I was begging against his mouth. I’d never been so desperate for anything. And then his fingers were sliding over me and inside me until finally I lost it. Pleasure exploded, hot pulsing pleasure, and I would have cried out but his mouth was on mine, smothering sound while his fingers felt every intimate moment of my release.
Somewhere in the distance a door slammed.
I heard him swear under his breath and the next moment he was hauling my yoga pants back up my shaking thighs and smoothing my tangled hair back from my face.
I didn’t say anything. I didn’t do anything. I just looked at him. And he looked at me.
He spoke first. ‘I’m sorry.’ His voice was thickened and his broad shoulders were rigid with tension. He was probably wondering what the hell he’d just done. I wondered if he was panicking in case I turned into that needy, clingy teenage version of myself. In fairness, that was the only version he’d ever known.
‘Well—’ my voice sounded husky ‘—that saves me buying batteries on my way home.’ I managed what I hoped was a seductive smile. ‘Thank you.’
Without giving him time to respond, I scooped up the bag I’d dropped and walked jauntily out of the changing rooms—which turned out to be a major challenge on shaking legs.
Only when I was safely out of the building and on the street did I allow myself to react.
I leaned against the wall for support and closed my eyes.
* * *
‘You kissed him?’ Hayley handed me a large glass of wine. ‘You were going to ignore him and somehow ended up kissing him? How did that happen?’
‘Turns out I have no willpower. And it was a bit more than kissing.’
My sister was sprawled on the floor surrounded by papers. She’d been working all day and a light glowed on her laptop.
It was Saturday night and for the first time in ages we weren’t going out.
We’d ordered pizza and eaten it out of the box, slice by glorious slice, wearing our PJs, because if you couldn’t be bothered to use plates, you certainly c
ouldn’t be bothered to get dressed.
‘So how was it?’ Hayley sipped her wine. ‘Pretty boring and disappointing, right?’ My silence must have answered her question, because she leaned across and filled my wineglass to the brim. ‘You know your problem, don’t you?’
‘You don’t need to list my problems. Brian already did that. It’s a good job we broke up or my birthday gift from him would have been cake decorating classes.’
‘Forget Brian. He didn’t like the real you and every woman deserves a man who loves her the way she is.’ She looked at me and I knew she was thinking about Mum. Dad had known exactly what he wanted in a woman. Mum wasn’t it, but he’d married her anyway and tried to mould her into the person he wanted her to be. By the time he decided to upgrade, Mum was so misshapen she’d lost her real self under the fake version.
‘We don’t always get what we deserve,’ I reminded Hayley darkly, and her cheeks dimpled into a wicked smile.
‘I’m getting what I deserve. Several times a night.’
‘Thanks. I really needed to hear that.’
But I was pleased for her because she didn’t find this dating thing easy either.
Hayley was an engineer and men always found her job threatening. Apart from Nico. He was the first man she’d met who understood what she did. He found it cool that she knew her atoms from her assholes. In fact, they’d finally got it together at the wedding of the biggest asshole of them all—her ex.
‘Sounds as if you just got what you deserved, too. You just need more of it. I’m planning your birthday, by the way.’
I felt a rush of warmth and love for my sister.
Hayley always organized my birthday parties. Not at the beginning, of course. To begin with we’d left it up to Mum and Dad because we’d been naive enough to think parties were their domain. That all changed on my ninth birthday. Some kids had entertainers—we had our parents. Dad hurled one of my presents at Mum (it was Cheerleader Barbie) and gave her a black eye. I think my friends thought they were watching a juggling act until Mum picked up the knife she’d put ready to cut my cake. After that it got a bit real.
