He sniffed. “I know where I’m not wanted.”
I nearly made a crack about not being wanted in his own bed either, but somehow managed to restrain myself.
Man, if Mia really did intend to make me wait, I’d be snarling by tomorrow afternoon, forget Friday. I wasn’t good with the whole self-denial thing.
As soon as Slater had headed out, I walked over to lock the door. It was late enough that no one should need to use this particular training room. Besides, two others were available. And also, I didn’t really give a shit.
Mia was going to come clean, and then she was going to come.
She didn’t pay attention to me at first. A man with a lesser ego might get prickly at how completely she became ensnared in whatever she was doing, shutting out her awareness of me on a dime. I could never quite manage the same. But I found her skills and sense of focus incredibly sexy. I was one of the few people on the planet who could influence her in any way.
And I could—and would—make her beg.
Circling the heavy bag she continued to attack, I watched her bend and kick and punch. The wraps around her hands were starting to come undone from her repeated strikes. She was on the verge of sweating right through her white tank top, and there was no missing her red bra beneath. She didn’t think about stuff like that. There was no artifice with her. Nothing but a determined, driven, strong as fuck woman.
“You going to stand there looking at me all night or are we going to fight?” Her breathing barely wavered around the question. She was in insanely good shape.
Those thighs flexing into her kicks were about to be wrapped around mine. And not because we were going to grapple in any way but naked.
“I could look at you forever. I intend to.” I grabbed the bag and she gave it a frustrated punch before spinning away to brace her hands on her knees. Her shoulders were shaking, and not just from exertion. Something was riding her back hard, and I needed to know what.
I came up behind her and set my hands on her hips, deliberately keeping my erection from brushing the perfectly round swells of her ass. We’d try this straight first, no matter how much my dick protested.
“Tell me,” I said.
She remained bent over but every part of her braced. The muscles beneath my fingers jumped and twitched before going utterly still. “I’m good for more. Let’s spar again.”
“Mia.”
“I need more mat work. I’m getting better at that leg spin and takedown move you showed me, but my ankle still keeps twisting outward instead of in. If we could just do it a few more times, I’d get it.” She was trembling now, and an answering quaver resounded deep inside of me.
If something had unnerved her this badly, there was reason.
“I’ll get it,” she said again into the silence, and the way her voice broke at the end made me shut my eyes. “Just a few more tries. Please.”
I wrapped my arms around her midsection and pulled her back into my arms, pressing my mouth to her cheek. “Whatever it is, we’ll face it together.”
“No. I can’t.” She broke out of my hold and whirled to face me, hands on hips. The fever brightness in her eyes heralded madness or tears, or a mix of the two. “Fight me, you bastard.”
This was what I could do for her. I could make her sweat out the pain that had her in knots, even if I didn’t know its cause. I could exhaust her until she finally sagged in my arms and let me love her, even if it only happened when she had nothing left to give.
Being with her meant loving her the way she needed, not the way I did. I was lucky that sometimes we met in middle.
Tonight we’d be going all the way to the end of the line.
I didn’t give her warning before I charged at her, knocking her off her feet and rolling to the mat beneath us. She let out a startled noise but corrected in mid-air, and we landed with her on top of me. Hands already fisted, she pummeled me, attacking whatever parts she could reach. She didn’t go easy on me because we were in love. No, she tried to break me to see if I could take it.
Like she took it every goddamn day.
Some part of me wanted to let her burn herself out this way. It would be quicker, but less satisfying for her—and me. I rolled her again, pinning her easily, and caught her leg, twisting it up over my shoulder and raising
her hips and back off the mat. Panting hard, I lowered my face to hers, wanting to kiss her, to bite and mark her the way she’d branded me from the inside out, but she averted her head and kicked out, wrapping her free leg around the back of my thighs and reversing our positions. I wasn’t even sure how she’d managed it. But I was on my back again, and she was hauling my arms above my head, her eyes glowing with that unholy gleam that signaled she was sure she had me down and out.
Not so fast.
I swept her bent leg out from under her and she went down with a crash that would’ve made me pause if she hadn’t sprung right back up like a damn inflatable dummy. She attacked me with a series of jabs, forcing me back on my knees until I bent low and caught her around the waist, driving her onto her back. I caught her arms and locked them behind her head, pressing my erection into her pelvis, rocking it until she stopped squirming and went still, shock contorting her features.
“Cheater,” she panted, already arching upward to rub her hardened nipples against my chest. “You better fuck me hard enough that I can’t walk, or you’re dead.”