Training, Daddy (Inner Harbor 2)

“I don’t want to hurt you.” Backing up to get away, I’m still sore from week one and week two brought on a few bruises I don’t tell him about. He’s got this terrible guilt complex that’s cute, but not going to toughen me up if he eases up on me. Jax has me lifting weights that feel like boulders, flipping tires, and doing lunges. My ass hasn’t felt this sore since childbirth. My legs certainly hadn’t been spread like that since. He stalks me some more around the mat and I shut those thoughts down.

“As if.” He instigates me to move.

“You’re asking for it.” I go at him and miss.

“Keep your hands up, protect your face. Come on again.” He urges.

I lunge and he keeps talking.

“I used to think of you as Wonder Woman you know.” He feints left and I go right.

“Is that so?” He dodges again and I follow suit.

“Yup. Think I’ve changed my mind though.”

“Really?”

“You’re a little warrior. A Valkyrie.”

“That’s funny Jax.”

“It’s true.” He swipes low and I move back.

“Come on Diana, use your moves.” He eggs me on.

“I’m trying.”

“No you’re not. Come at me. Give me all you got.”

Defensively I circle the mat. “Yes I am. Y-you’re just so big.”

“Big?” He looks put out if that’s possible and stops stalking me on the mat to stand still.

I follow him stopping to elaborate in case he misunderstood me opening my arms up wide to gesture.

“Yeah, you, you hulking man of muscle.” My brain doesn’t seem able to string a coherent grouping of words together and he stands there smiling.

“Hulk, huh?” If a guy smirking could get me hot and horny, let’s say Jax has the market on those skills and the last six weeks have been ridiculous.

“Promise me we can get Chinese food after?” I hunker down into position.

“Tired?” He asks.

“Hungry.” I dramatically breathe out rubbing my stomach which feels flatter than it has in years. I really hope he doesn’t make me toss ropes after this. My shoulders scream rejecting the idea.

“Hulk smash.” He beats his chest like a gorilla and I glare at him.

I grumble feeling like I’m trapped in a cage with a wild animal and my body buzzes waiting for him to catch me. “Hulk better feed me.”

“Cute. But that’s not going to save you.” Jax moves in on me in a rush and grabs me before I have a chance to fight back. I guess he didn’t need that clarification because I’m no sooner flipping through the air watching the ceiling and floor circle past my head. I land with a pant of air escaping my chest on the mat, except not a single part of me hit it with the force it should have because hulking man Jax braced me with his enormous hands. My skull is cradled in his palm and he’s got a hand on my hip holding me steady. He feels dangerously close, his chest grazing mine breathing as hard as I am. I swallow to catch my breath but my throat is dry so I settle on licking my chapped lips instead.

“Isn’t that why I have you?” I clear my throat again. “To save me?”

He stops and seems to think this over while his body hovers over me in a delicious heat I have no right thinking about. I hadn’t been out on a date since Piper’s flub. I found myself wanting to ask Jax what he was doing later, but I have to pick up Maisy in an hour from Piper’s house. The reality of being a single parent leaves me wary laying on the mat wishing he would make a move on me that didn’t involve self-defense. The best I was going to get was some Chinese take-out that had become our post work-out ritual.

Jax smiles before murmuring in my ear, “You’ll always have me to save you.”

I squeeze my eyes shut savoring the heat trapped between us and the energy buzzing off the mat. I could stay like this forever and that doesn’t scare me as much as it should.