Arro waited for me while I’d changed back into my street clothes. I usually showered at the center, but I didn’t want to keep Arro waiting too long. She’d taken to the lessons with determination, despite the discomfort my proximity caused her. Discomfort because she might currently mistrust me, but her body definitely did not. When I first pinned her, I saw the flare of arousal in her eyes and the flush on her skin. Her shallow, sharp breaths gave her awareness away.
Resolved to ignore the enticing sight of her beneath me, I compartmentalized the realization of a long-held fantasy and tried to think of her as any other student. It wasn’t easy, but I got through it. Mostly because I was serious when I told Arro that I needed her to learn this stuff now so I could live without the constant fear of something happening to her.
Teaching her self-defense wouldn’t ease those fears entirely, but it would make me feel better. Moreover, I knew it would make her feel more in control. I saw the hard satisfaction in her expression when she grappled and got out from under me.
On a personal note, I had hope that yesterday might’ve knocked down some walls between us. I needed her to remember how much I loved her, and I believed maybe she finally did.
When I returned to the reception area, Arro was sitting on the floor scrolling through her phone.
Annie leaned against the opposite wall, also waiting. Unlike most of the other students who’d all left still wearing the gi, their traditional uniform, Annie had taken off the jacket. Her cropped tank top left little to the imagination.
Approaching Arro, I tensed as Annie walked over to us with a deliberate swing in her hips.
“I just wanted to say thanks again for another great class.” Annie stopped before me, ignoring Arro.
The woman wasn’t my type. Too immature. Too self-involved. And she treated the other women in the class as a threat, as competition. She always paired off with one of the few men and continually offered to partner with me. It hadn’t really bothered me … until this moment.
“You’re welcome,” I said, sounding stiff even to my own ears.
“So … are you free right now, maybe? Thought we could get a drink?”
“No.” It was blunt. Far blunter than I’d normally be, but Arro was right next to me, and I didn’t want her getting the wrong impression.
Annie’s eyes rounded in surprise. “No?”
“I’ll see you next week,” I said, not wanting to engage in this conversation any longer.
She screwed up her face, morphing her pretty features into something ugly, glanced at Arro, huffed, and then stormed out of the reception area. We heard the bang of the front entrance doors slamming behind her.
Sighing heavily, I looked at Arro, her expression worryingly blank. “Come on,” I murmured, leading her toward reception. There was one class later than mine, so the receptionist was still on duty. He took the keys to the court, and I thanked him.
I’d been planning to ignore the moment with Annie, but as we walked toward the exit, Arro said, “I wouldn’t bet on her coming back next week.”
“I’m not.” Studying her, finding her expression blank and completely irritated by that, I assured her, “Nothing happened between us. She flirts, I ignore it.”
At Arro’s snort of disbelief, I caught her arm, drawing her to a stop by the door. “I mean it. I don’t sleep with my students.”
She gently removed her arm from my hold. “I know for a fact that’s not true.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Anger brewed in my gut. We had our differences, but I hated being accused of lying under normal circumstances, never mind by Arro.
Her blue gaze washed over my face, her disappointment so evident, it made me want to punch my fist through the wall. “I came here at the beginning of last year. You’d brought a picnic to my work, and I thought it was such a romantic gesture, it had to be a signal to me that you were ready for more.”
I blanched at the bitterness in her words and the reminder that I’d been a selfish, confusing bastard to her.
“Anyway, I decided to surprise you after your class one night and waited out in the car park. You left with a brunette around my age, and by the way you kissed her up against her car, it was obvious you two were fucking.” Arro laughed softly, hollowly, the sound almost as bad as the knowledge she’d witnessed me with someone else. “Guy had been asking me out for weeks … and that was the moment I gave up on you and said yes to him.”
She blew out a long breath. “But then, of course, you sent out a bunch of mixed signals months later, and I found myself back at square one … wondering how many of your young students you’d been shagging while pretending I was too young for you.” She gave me a strained smile, like she didn’t care.
We both knew she cared.
And I hated myself all over again for hurting her. “That woman, Pippa, she wasn’t a student. She taught a spin class for a while here at the center. I don’t sleep with my students.” And because, for Arro, I could swallow my pride, I confessed, “I haven’t been with another woman since Pippa.”
She looked visibly surprised.
“It was empty. I’ve grown tired of empty sex.”
The words hummed between us.